What happened?

I follow events from Iraq and Afghanistan by reading blogs maintained by people there. That's because I like military history and I like to learn about what's happening in those terms. People reading our popular media may have been surprised that things are going well for the moment and war coverage has moved recently to page 19.

Well, here's a summary of what's been going on since June or so. Her regular site is here, with more background material.

I often read that there's "no military solution" in Iraq, but rarely the other true statement that there's "no political solution" there either.

It's the same here too, except instead of "kinetic" assets, political fighting uses earmarks and other legal corruption of the process. That's what we hope for in Iraq too. We want all these people fighting for their little piece of the federal budget in their own country and not murdering us where we sleep and work.