Small bumps but significant steps.

Well, I just navigated away from CNN and theres a lot of news coming out of Iraq. Today, one of the female members of the Interim Council was ambushed; her son was killed but she survived, although there are no reports of injuries...so far. Interestingly enough, she had replaced a previous female member killed earlier this year in another ambush.
Is anyone surprised that the jihadists would target women? uh....not me.
The best news though, comes out of Najaf. That bully Al-Sadr sent a letter to Shia leaders in the Interim Council promising withdraw his militia. In response, the US coalition is suspending operations in and around the city. Iraqi police and defense forces will be let back into began restoring order.

While the U.S.-led coalition was not involved in the negotiations or the agreement, the coalition military will respect it by immediately suspending offensive operations around Najaf and by repositioning troops, coalition military spokesman Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said.

This is probably the best news so far in this long and disappoingting spring. Pray to Allah that Al-Sadr sticks to his promise.
More marines killed....I wonder how many soldiers were killed by ex-Nazis and other never-enders in postwar Germany. Just curious, cause it could be a useful statistic in contextualizing the reality of insurgency after victory in a way. In other words, many have howled about how many soldiers have been killed after the end of 'major operations' and have used this as a criticism of US policy in Iraq, or simply as another point against Machievelli George- well, we were fighting with guerillas in Germany two years after V-E. Perhaps we should look closer and compare both postwar situations; in a way, we are doing the same thing in Iraq as we did in Germany- attempt to establish a democracy in a post-dictorial landscape ravaged by war.
Well, here is the link.


Eve