If our leaders did not forsee the local Islamic clerics, Iran, Syria or Saudi Arabia sicking their filthy noses and hands into the stew of Iraq - to insure that a democracy was NOT implemented - then our leaders did not have a "plan"...
If our plan does not include destroying large numbers of avowed enemies that "engage" us - then we will earn no respect (fear of power) and we will fail... That is not a plan...
If our "plan" was to win the "hearts and minds" of the meek Iraqis and they in turn will overcome the objections of the lunatic Islamists in Iraq -- that is not a plan.. that is someone smoking funny cigarretes...
Semper Fi
Sure they would have foreseen it, they're not stupid, and they get input from the best and brightest. It's just that violence directly against Americans had dropped off in the last three months or so, only to have this sudden and what would have to be, in the long range view, unexpected flare-up here in the last week.
I'm just wondering if it indicates a renewed vigor on the part of the jihadists, and possibly a new offensive. Relatively speaking, they were licking their wounds following their offensive during Ramadan, up until now anyway.
It's also worth noting that this is going on simultaneous to a lot of troop rotation in and out of Iraq. That could be a factor somehow.