Time

Today's "Zarqawi Offensive" has been anticipated for some time. I'll just provide the links.

Belmont Club.

As an aside, one might remark on the extremity of the Jihadi effort in Iraq. They are sending their best team, the team that harried the IDF out of Lebanon to no good effect. US forces have quietly become very efficient, with chemical test kits to screen suspects for explosive residue, aircraft which electronically detonate IEDs, a steady drumbeat of raids on explosives factories and other operational advances. The enemy is still able to kill Americans, but not in any decisive numbers. But how will America use its capability to achieve a strategic result?

Smash.

To summarize: a week before the official turnover of sovereignty, a group of mostly foreign insurgents, led by a Jordanian terrorist, launched open attacks against Iraqi police stations and security checkpoints in five Iraqi towns. Their objective appears to have been to seize weapons and ammunition, and to deter the local population from supporting the new government. By noon, fighters in four of the five towns had been defeated or repelled.

Is Zarqawi getting desperate?

Iraq the Model.

Once again I address those who think that the war on terror was a mistake; take a look at the Iraqi field and you can see how the terrorists have gone crazy proving by themselves that the war is on them. Still they can kill some of us but they can't kill our dreams and they can't kill Iraq. No more martial laws and we're ready to give more sacrifices to achieve our ultimate freedom and build democracy.

And while Thomas P.M. Barnett appears to be travelling at the moment, he'll probably have a lot to say soon.