Kos points me to a timely reminder by Steve Gilliard as to what's been going on in Iraq. It's mostly out of the news as far as I can tell, but not really going well either.

If you want a strategic position, I think the big crunch comes when the insugency figures out how to take down our C-130s, meaning they get someone to sell and train them with portable SAM systems and start working in teams of two or three.

Hopefully we'll be able to get out before then, but with the neo-con plans for a permanent footprint, I'm not counting on it.