[Night Hides Not]

Lost in the discussion of the "surge" were adjustments to the Rules of Engagement. The word has obviously reached Iraq that we're tired of playing nice. Mookie got the message, and hightailed it to Iran.

The Iraqi politicians also got the message "it's our way or the highway". They see the window of opportunity is closing fast.

My concern is what happens when Mookie and his partners in crime decide it's time to return to Iraq. Will they be welcomed with open arms, or with a noose?

[LS]

It's less a change in rules of engagement than it is in the strategy from killing terrorists to hold, control, and secure Baghdad.

The former gets rid of far more bad guys sooner, but the latter gives the impression that you are "winning," and, if the politicians are weak-kneed, tends to solidify support better.

[nina0113]

Lost in the discussion of the "surge" were adjustments to the Rules of Engagement.

It wasn't lost on us - a friend who is less news-addicted than we asked several weeks ago what we thought of the surge, and we told him the changes in the ROE was what would make the most difference.

[cookcounty]

"Lost in the discussion of the "surge" were adjustments to the Rules of Engagement. "

General Petraus sat right there in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee and told them this, but being Senators, they had trouble listening because they were thinking of how to turn the Q&A session into a speech-making opportunity.

[plenipotentiary]

Ironically the Dem gains in the last election made a Bush policy success in Iraq more likely, because the Iraqis now understand that they have less than a a maximum of two years to get control of the situation before the Dems possibly get the Presidency, and the US troops are gone.

[baltoga]

If history repeats itself Mookie may not get the "welcome wagon" treatment when he returns to Iraq.