Iraq

(WaPo) The GAO is working to complete its own report on "benchmarks" that will make it far harder for the Bush administration to "nuance" Petraeus' September 15 report. The GAO report is due September 1, so the politics in that two week gap may render Petraeus' report somewhat moot.

(USNews) The ground commander in Diyala, Col. David Sutherland, says, "I can count them [foreign fighters] as a total I have engaged, dead or alive, in the 10 months I've been here on one hand."

(Same article) "People here are so disgusted and disillusioned by al Qaeda--no one here wants an Islamic state in Iraq," he says.

(Slate) Fred Kaplan does a pretty good job taking apart the Petraeus/Crocker plan for Iraq that was released in the NYTimes a few days ago.

(WaPo) More on the possible (likely?) Sunni abandonment of Maliki's government. (The deadline's a week away. This would end any pretense of reconciliation.)

(Iraqslogger) "According to Az-Zaman daily, the period of “entente” between the major political forces in Iraq, which started with the return of the Sadrist and IAF MPs to the parliament and the announcement of a round of meetings between political leaders, has reached a premature end."

(CSMonitor) The Iraqi US ambassador lays into the US for not equipping the Iraqi forces.

(Iraqslogger) Iraq privatizes its refineries? (If I'm reading this right, they're not giving up any of their facilities, but allowing foreign companies to (try to) build their own refineries in Iraq. Hah!)

And, in "The Other War," (TurkishPress?) The Italian Foreign Minister said the US should "wind down" its operations in Afghanistan in favor of the NATO/ISAF force.