A Milestone Round Their Necks

The surge is going about as well as can be expected, it seems. Announcements by the United States, through both Iraqi and US officials, that the new influx of meat for the block was reducing sectarian violence have been greeted with four bomb explosions and a hundred and sixty deaths in Baghdad. "We've seen both inspiring progress, and too much evidence that we still face many grave challenges," an American military spokesbeing responded; apparently the symptoms of progress were too inspiring for him to specify just then. Perhaps he was referring to the latest milestone in the facilitation of the people of Iraq along the road to self-reliance: the province of Maysaan has been transferred to the control of the Iraqi authorities as part of an ongoing demonstration to the rest of Iraq of what is possible when the people of Iraq work together, according to one Major General Shaw. The Coalition of the Invited "will continue to train and mentor Iraqi security forces", just in case the people of Maysaan are not working together quite as we would like; and they will also "patrol Maysaan's border with Iran" to prevent illegal incursions by foreign military personnel.