Iraq News 28 Feb

The Good: Millions are in Karbala for the Arba'een pilgrimage. For those that think life was great under Saddam's "secular" tyranny of genocide should heed this quote from the AFP: "Under Saddam, those who went to Karbala were killed or had their legs shot so they could not walk again." It should be noted that sectarian strife was not a Cheney conspiracy to gain greater control of oil fields as some on the far-left have mentioned. There is talk about the Sadr trend turning the Mahdi Army into some kind of cultural/humanitarian organization. While Mr. Sadr's people aren't going to be waving American flags anytime soon, this is a welcome change of behavior from the violence preceding the ceasefire in August '07.

The Bad: WaPo is running a front page article slamming the US alliance with the Sons of Iraq (just in time for that debate about Iraq in the Senate, not coincidentally). It's not enough that American media are out to get these guys, but the Iranians are apparently conspiring to target the mostly Sunni-group of Al-Qaeda killers too. I anxiously await Mr. IraqPundit's response to this. Update on the fiasco with Turkey here, and the entire operation may be a clever ruse to divert the Turkish public's attention from...headscarves?

The Ugly: Gross incompetence is apparently the standard when providing Marines on the front lines with the gear they need. The Pentagon is establishing a probe into why it took 18 months to get them lasers that are utilized at checkpoints. This culture of draggin' ass is a complete embarrassment in a time of war.

That's a lot of pilgrims!