Piercing through the buzz

The latest buzz in the old media and among liberals centers around the intelligence report that was recently released. There's all sorts of conspiracy theories being put forward, including that the Bush administration "withheld" the report in order to hide the "bad news".

Wretchard, in his usual style of patient and cogent analysis examines what is really going on in Iraq in a series of articles: Iraq, Part 1, Iraq, Part 1.1 and his latest, Iraq, Part 2.

He makes several interesting observations. In one sense we are victims of our own success. We defeated Sadaam's army so rapidly and hunted down the old Ba'athists so well that we left a power vacuum. Into that vacuum poured terrorists, agents from Iran, Syria and Jordan and disaffected Ba'athists. While we have had much success in dealing with them (mostly by killing them in large numbers), we haven't, until recently, had the time to train Iraqis to defend themselves against these attacks.

Using statistical data, Wretchard shows that the violence is still centered in the same areas as before - the Sunni triangle and whereever the buffoon al Sadr happens to be. He points out that what is happening right now is not outside the norm of what has been happening for some time now, and as the President has repeatedly said, we need to be patient and allow the military to do their work.

Despite the reports in the US press, Iraqi bloggers see a different story, different patterns, different facts and a completely different outcome.