Iraq In Fragments

• The surge is progressing so nicely, even on the security level, that nobody can report on it.

Nearly 90 percent of U.S. journalists in Iraq say much of Baghdad is still too dangerous to visit, despite a recent drop in violence attributed to the build-up of U.S. forces, a poll released on Wednesday said.

The survey by the Washington-based Pew Research Center showed that many U.S. journalists believe coverage has painted too rosy a picture of the conflict.

A separate Pew poll released on Tuesday showed that 48 percent of Americans believe the U.S. military effort in Iraq is going very or fairly well, up from 34 percent in June, amid signs of declining Iraqi civilian casualties and progress against Islamist militants such as al Qaeda in Iraq.

But most journalists said they believe violence and the threat of violence have increased during their tenures.

To the wingnuts, this probably means that the journalists are on the other side. But really, they're inside their hotel rooms trying to keep from getting killed. This is called "success."

• Turns out that arming the Sunnis could make things worse:

The American campaign to turn Sunni Muslims against Islamic extremists is growing so quickly that Iraq's Shiite Muslim leaders fear that it's out of control and threatens to create a potent armed force that will turn against the government one day.

The United States, which credits much of the drop in violence to the campaign, is enrolling hundreds of people daily in "concerned local citizens" groups. More than 5,000 have been sworn in in the last eight days, for a total of 77,542 as of Tuesday. As many as 10 groups were created in the past week, bringing the total number to 192, according to the American military.

I mean, does ANYONE trust the US military, desperate for good news, to properly screen these Sunnis? We already know that some of them are former insurgents. We know that they have no interest in a political reconciliation. This does nothing but create a three-pronged set of armed militias, the Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis. A short-term fix that risks long-term stability is folly.

UPDATE: Oh yeah, the White House wants their money:

“No matter how some leaders here in Washington, D.C., feel about the war, our troops deserve their full support,” President Bush’s chief spokeswoman, Dana Perino, said as the president was heading to the Pentagon for a series of briefings, after which he was to comment.

This is the "let's be friends, we'll agree that you have concerns, and you agree that we can do every single thing we want."