Iraq News (2 Mar)

The Good: The Diyala Sons of Iraq, who had been on strike for days in protest of allegations of sectarianism against the Provincial Police chief, have returned to their duties. Diyala has been a hot-bed of Al-Qaeda activity and this is crucial to eradicating the hated extremist group from the province. Jar Allah, an Al-Qaeda foreign fighter facilitator, has been killed in Mosul, and the leader of a cell responsible for female suicide bombers has been detained.

The Bad: Ministry data on Iraqi deaths from extremist violence indicate an uptick for February. This is most likely due to the Baghdad pet market bombings on 1 Feb which killed nearly 100 people. Recall these bombings were carried out by females who were mentally impaired. Expect a lot of discourse that the Surge is a total failure based on this one month of data. One only need to look a year ago at the number of civilian deaths to understand that the Surge has significantly reduced the violence.

The Ugly: Ahmadinejad and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Mullen show up in Iraq on the same day?!? Only in this place.

Rocket thru the Roof, Good Shot!