For some reason, though the main political controversy in the U.S. is over whether the "Surge" to add 20,000 troops to Baghdad is a good idea, news reports by American media from Iraq make relatively little mention of new preparations to secure the capital city. Terrorist attacks inside and outside the city continue and are well-covered, as they should be, but we don't hear much of the kind of information President Bush just shared with the American Legion's annual convention in Washington, D.C.
The Surge already is getting underway and about half the 40 new 24 hour "Joint Security Stations" for U.S. and Iraqi soldiers already have been erected. Sadr City, the poor Shia district of 1,000,000 presided over by Muqtada al Sadr, is no longer off limits to the G.I.'s and the Americans are finding plenty of ammunition and weapons caches there and have arrested 700 suspects. Elsewhere a number of Sunni terrorists have been arrested (and this is making the news). Overall, killing within Baghdad is lower than in earlier periods.
The President calls it the "Battle for Baghdad," and it is vitally important to the outcome of the war. It deserves a great deal of fine grain attention.
I hate taking "news" straight out of a White House "Fact Sheet," but some of this is just not appearing in the MSM yet.
