Iraq is a failed state

WAR STUFF
* Time: "Abu Faraj al-Libbi, 40, a Libyan believed to be al-Qaeda's third-highest-ranking official... But the arrest had barely been hailed by President Bush as a "critical victory in the war on terror" when the picture grew murky... Everyone does agree that in al-Libbi, the Pakistanis have reeled in a big fish." LINK
ummm - not everyone agrees with that. and now he is apparently 40. (tas has more)

* "The U.S. military said Sunday that an aide to terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had been captured by Iraqi security forces in Baghdad.
U.S. forces identified him as Ammar al-Zubaydi, also known as Abu Abbas." LINK
yada yada (meanwhile, cnn is reporting that zark 'isnt ten feet tall' - finally we get some truth...

* "Seven U.S. servicemen were killed in different incidents over the week-end, the U.S. military said. An eighth was killed Sunday in a remote area in northwest Iraq during fighting that also left about 75 insurgents dead, a U.S. military official told reporters." LINK
can anyone make sense of that sentence?

* "This weekend, the situation in North Korea is providing a new reminder that intelligence is rarely conclusive, and may thus be vulnerable to manipulation. While some in the Bush administration have been quick in recent days to cite what they described as new intelligence indications suggesting that North Korea's government may be close to staging its first test of a nuclear weapon, at least one intelligence agency was said to have spread word through the administration that its officials had seen nothing particularly new in satellite photographs and other reports." LINK
no kidding. it was farking obvious at first glance, from 10000 miles away. i wonder if INR is the hold-out?

* "The Aussies may be the best infantry, man for man, in the world. But they dislike rules and regulations for their sake. " LINK
ozzies are good at a whole lot of things - man4man. and they hate stupid rules.

* "South Korean officials have reacted with scepticism to US media reports that North Korea is preparing an underground nuclear test... South Korean officials refused to link the tunnel to a possible nuclear test." LINK

* "Some intelligence officials even interpret the recent bombings of Iraqi police stations and military posts as a positive sign. Successful attacks are just dumb luck, they argue, and the high casualty figures merely reflect the fact that growing numbers of Iraqis are putting their lives on the line against the insurgency." LINK

* " The CIA has so far refused to hand over control of Iraq's intelligence service to the newly elected Iraqi government in a turf war that exposes serious doubts the Bush administration has over the ability of Iraqi leaders to fight the insurgency and worries about the new government's close ties to Iran." LINK
go read.

* "PM Ibrahim Jaafari presented several Sunni Arab ministers to parliament Sunday. Less than half of the parliamentarians bothered to show up." LINK
thats worse than the original when only a third of em boycotted...

* juancole: "Few commentators, when they mention such news, point out the obvious. The United States military does not control Baghdad. It doesn't control the major roads leading out of the capital. It does not control the downtown area except possibly the heavily barricaded "green zone." It does not control the capital. The guerrillas strike at will, even at Iraqi notables who can afford American security guards (many of them e.g. ex-Navy Seals). If the US military does not control the capital of a country it conquered, then it controls nothing of importance. Ipso facto, Iraq is a failed state." LINK

* "More than 1,000 U.S. troops supported by fighter jets and helicopter gunships attacked villages Sunday along the Euphrates River, seeking to uproot a persistent insurgency in an area that American intelligence indicated has become a haven for foreign fighters flowing in from Syria.
Marine officials said the operation near the Syrian border, one of the largest involving U.S. ground troops since the battle for Fallujah last fall, is expected to last for several days." LINK
in case you're wondering, its going really badly.

* WaPo A1 headline: "U.S. Officers In Iraq Put Priority on Extremists... U.S. and Iraqi authorities say suicide drivers are invariably foreign fighters. Officers here said they knew of no documented case in which a suicide attacker turned out to have been an Iraqi... The main infiltration route into Iraq for foreign fighters continues to be through Syria, the officers here said." LINK
the war is lost. can we leave yet? the people in charge have absolutely no idea what is going on. none. btw - syria is toast.
and i tried to resist truncating the headline, but alas: "U.S. Senators Put Priority on Extremists"