historiblogography

stand there long enough, and someone will figure out where you're standing

1) State Department employees in the Green Zone now in helmets and body armor at all times while outdoors, due to increasingly effective mortar and rocket attacks.

2) Successful smash and grab attack ends in the capture and disappearance of U.S. soldiers, who now cannot be found by thousands of searchers; the quick reaction forces responding to the attack both slowed by roadside bombs, suggesting that their routes were known or anticipated by shrewd guess work. Or luck, in which case there are just a lot of roadside bombs scattered around.

3) "In the northern city of Mosul, more than 200 Sunni Arab insurgents mounted a sophisticated attack on several targets using suicide car bombers, rocket-propelled grenades, assault rifles and improvised bombs, said Maj. Gen. Watheq al-Hamdani, the top police commander in Mosul."

Company-sized elements launching combined arms attacks. Those dead-enders are really dragging out their last throes.

So: I think we may be entering a significant new phase of the war, here, as multiple contenders have reached a critical level of discipline and cohesion. They've got the range on us, is what it looks like to me, and can begin the real work.

Or not, and here's hoping I'm wrong. But the next few weeks will be interesting to watch. And my sense grows that our departure will take place under uglier circumstances the longer it's delayed.

posted by Chris Bray @ 3:58 AM