I can’t be the only one troubled by the apparent decision to hand over the pacification of Falluja to some kind of Sunni/Iraqi force. Rumsfeld suggests that this is a recommendation from the Marines on the ground. You can certainly see why an effective Iraqi attempt to destroy the Baathist and Islamist forces in Falluja would be a good thing. But how realistic is that? And what does this sign of our retreat say to the rest of the population? Here’s a paragraph that made my stomach lurch:
And amid condemnation in Europe and elsewhere for what some leaders say are heavy-handed tactics in Falluja, American military and civilian officials in Iraq have shown much reluctance to return to all-out fighting here either, despite strong talk from President Bush and other administration officials about ending the insurgency.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m aware that we have to strike a balance here – between quelling unrest and provoking more of it. But if we had the chance to eradicate a whole swathe of Baathist/Islamist terrorists and walked away, then it would amount to a huge miscalculation. In my lower moments, it makes me worry if the Bush administration has begun to abandon Iraq to internal chaos. I cannot believe they would do that. But this Falluja reversal is mystifying, to say the least.
THE BIGGEST SURPRISE: “As a person who has followed the Iraqi situation pretty closely, the results I read in the USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll were pretty much what I would have expected. The biggest surprise, by far, was the one about family income. I was frankly shocked to read that 84 percent said their family income was the same or better than before the war. While I know the media coverage can be slanted and misleading about many things, the impression I have seen from virtually every source about this topic has been so far off from what the poll results show that I am truly bewildered.
Could it be that media people are so jaded by the level of prosperity they enjoy that they simply cannot believe that the situation in Iraq could possibly have been this bad before the war? But since many of these same people have visited areas of the world with even more extreme poverty than they see in Iraq, I doubt this is truly the case. A more plausible explanation may be that non-Iraqis failed to understand the extreme deprivation of the quality of life that the Iraqi people lived with under Hussein. Whatever the cause I think it is a fascinating subject that really deserves a great deal of scrutiny and research.” – More feedback on the Letters Page.
A GERMAN … Takes on anti-Americanism and even defends George W. Bush!
SHARIA IN NIGERIA: Another region succumbs to theocracy.
THE NYT VERSUS STANDARDS: I’ve always failed to understand the left’s general educational policies. I’m particularly flummoxed by the horror so many feel at the thought of subjecting bad and failing schools to tough standards with consequences. Of course, the New York Times is against such standards. Eduwonk explains how they still get it wrong. (Hat tip: Mickey.)
THE GUARDIAN AND THE ENVIRONMENT: A nice tour through some truly bad journalism.
The Dish 