Iraq News (13 Mar)

The Good: Things have definitely turned around in Fallujah as the Awakening councils have turned to politics. Certainly a lot different than 2004, as I'm sure David Bellavia could tell you. There was also a 5K Fun Run recently. I'm guessing there was running going on in 2004 by young military-aged males, but it was probably not very fun (H/T Gateway Pundit). Also, Iraq's port in the Persian Gulf, Um Qasr, is slated to be overhauled to make it more economical. First on the chopping block will be all the Soprano-style militias that currently control the joint.

The Bad: Three soldiers were killed in a rocket attack down south. A young Iraqi girl was killed on accident by US forces during an escalation of force incident. Also, the fingers of a group of contractors that were kidnapped in late 2006 have been obtained by US authorities. Hopefully, they can be found in the near future...

The Ugly: The Pentagon Study on the Al-Qaeda links to Saddam that didn't exist aren't going to be released on the internet, but a CD can be mailed to the press?!? I don't understand why unclassified info would be released to the elite in the press, but not those unwashed, boorish blogger types. Also, apparently Americans don't know shit about Iraq, since they can't even cite a ballpark figure of how many military deaths have happened in Iraq. C'mon people, it's the most well-documented statistic out of Iraq. Is American Idol really that important?

Fallujah 5K: As a smoker...not my idear of fun, but good for them!