A "genuine prospect for success"!!1!

-- St Senile McSame.

Security has improved! Violence erupts in Eastern Baghdad. No, again. Hundreds flee Baghdad as US/Iraqi troops and al-Sadr's militia battle for control.

As rockets and mortars rain down like a beautiful spring shower over an Indiana market, "anxiety rises over vulnerable housing" in the US-protected, heavily fortified Green Zone.

In fact, the endeavor has been so successful that the Bush State Department is defending their decision to renew their Blackwater security deal without prior Iraqi government approval, citing the need to protect staff.

The Iraqi govt said Tuesday that unauthorized vehicles and motorcycles will be banned in the capital from 5 a.m. to midnight Wednesday.

In another defining moment in the war, "British troops have been sent back into Basra just months after control of the southern city was placed in the hands of the Iraqis. British soldiers are now embedded with Iraqi army units in Basra, fighting insurgent groups which now hold power in large areas of the city."

"Moqtada al-Sadr threatened on Tuesday to end a truce he imposed on his militia last year" -- if the Iraqi govt does not halt their attacks on his followers or set a timetable for a US withdrawal -- "raising the prospect of worsening violence just as top U.S. officials prepare to testify on Iraq in Washington."

What phenomenal progress! And here's your chance to thank Gen Betra Petraeus! Pudfaced rethug Mitch McConnell, over on his "teammitch" blog, has "drafted a thank you letter to David Petraeus, and has it set up so that you can add your name and brief comments that will be presented to the General." Earlier I went there to add a "brief comment," only to find that the link didn't work. They may have fixed it by now.