Iraq News (12 Mar)

The Good: There is a huge conference going on in the city of Erbil in the autonomous Kurdish region. A variety of issues are being discussed: Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Somalia, and of course stability in Iraq. A stable Iraq will largely be contingent upon help from its neighbors, so these diplomatic talks are important. Interesting that it's being hosted by the Kurds. The conventional wisdom by US pundits is that Arabs hate the Kurds, maybe I'm missing something, but it seems they are getting along alright during this conference. Anyone with more knowledge of the cultural situation, please correct me.

The Bad: More shitty violence. An IED that was targeting a US convoy missed and hit a bus full of civilians killing 16. The route was from Basra to Nasiriyah in southern Iraq and this looks like the work of Shi'ite militants, not Al-Qaeda as some have postulated. Like an '85 Dodge Omni, attacks in Iraq have stalled. The new report to congress on Iraq indicates that attacks and violence levels in Iraq are holding steady after a huge drop in October (after Ramadan) and November 2007. This wouldn't be bad news if the violence levels weren't already at unacceptable levels.

The Ugly: Admiral Fallon, CENTCOM commander, has resigned. This issue is a little close to the chain of command and there will not be further discussion by yours truly of this issue on my blog. I'm trying my darndest to stay out of trouble my last 3 months here...well maybe, haha. Please see a plethora of other blogs for better and more insightful analysis.

Savages