Meanwhile in Iraq

I caught the end of an interview on this morning's NPR with a General in Iraq about Iraqi police/army progress. It seems that a Sunni officer was arrested by someone (nobody seemed to know who, exacty), jailed and replaced. The General said Shias arresting Sunni outlaws is okay, but when Sunnis try to arrest Shias, they find trouble. "This attitude has got to change," said the General.

So, if we're waiting for an attitude change, how many generations will we be there?

Apparently, other less optimistic minds are dealing with the problem in another way.

Soldiers are building a three-mile wall to protect a Sunni Arab enclave surrounded by Shiite neighborhoods in a Baghdad area "trapped in a spiral of sectarian violence and retaliation," the military said.

[T]he concrete wall, including barriers as tall as 12 feet, "is one of the centerpieces of a new strategy by coalition and Iraqi forces to break the cycle of sectarian violence" in Baghdad.

  Yahoo article

Yeah. That should work. Works in Palenstine.

Go ahead. I'll wait while you beat your head against a wall.

Back?

At least somebody's thinking, though. And I believe providing a nice out should anybody care for one....

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the Bush administration will take into account Iraq's political progress when deciding this summer whether or not to bring home some of the thousands of extra troops the U.S. has sent to tamp down violence there.

  Yahoo article

I hear you, Bob. Just tell them they haven't made enough progress. It's their fault entirely. Home free.

The story about the wall did have at least some encouragement in quotes from a couple of Iraqis.

"It is good from one hand to curb violence and have control of terrorists. But it's bad on the other hand to be separated from others. We should live in one area like brothers, not be separated from one another," said Bashar Abdul Latif, a 45-year-old teacher.

"I don't think this wall will solve the city's serious security problems," said Ahmed Abdul-Sattar, 35, a government worker. "It will only increase the separation between our people, which has been made so much worse by the war."

Indeed.