This is delightful.   It's nice to know you can depend on some things.

Specifically, Teribus continues his winning ways as a perfect negative indicator.

He thinks "the surge" has resulted in the improved Iraq situation.

Uh, actually what has resulted in the improved Iraq situation has 3 causes.

1) The US military has totally rejected Teribus' brilliant, yet, somehow self-defeating attitude, that all Sunnis are the same as unreconstructed Nazis at the end of World War II. Instead, under Petraeus, the approach has been to reach out to Sunnis--to consider them just Iraqi citizens--as I have advocated from the start--and Teribus has opposed. Now even the Shiite government has been dragged kicking and screaming into this changed approach. If Teribus' long-held views were still being adhered to, the improvement would be much less.

2) Al-Sadr has decided that lying low for a while is the best policy. But he and his forces will still be there when the US leaves.

3)   By far the most significant cause of the improvement in Iraq is the stupid, thug-like Puritanical behavior of Al-Qaeda.   As I've noted quite a few times, Al-Qaeda's insistence on trying to enforce its own brand of Islam by maiming and murder has alienated the only possible support it could have had in Iraq.

It's as if the Inquisition had been introduced into Iraq. Consider how popular the Inquisition was with Protestants. After all, both sides were Christian. Or consider how popular Cromwell's side was after his death. What kind of a reception did Charles II, who brought, among other things, a total end to Puritanism as a guide for rule, get? How popular are Puritans of any stripe these days?

If the US had left immediately after toppling Saddam, the anti-US feeling in Iraq would be practically non-existent.

And if al-Qaeda had behaved then as it is behaving now, there would have been absolutely no chance al-Qaeda could take over in Iraq. As there is no chance now. The presence of US soldiers makes absolutely no difference to this. Al-Qaeda is its own worst enemy. And the tiger will not change his stripes.

It's also interesting that Bush has been forced to eat his own words--and the US military is now accepting what Bush--and McCain--said would be a dreadful mistake--a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq.

As the WSJ points out today 19 July 2008: this "marks a change of course for the White House, which had resisted attempts to set troop withdrawal goals, and reflects the unpopularity of the US presence among Iraqis."

The timetable is also Obama's approach. So Bush and McCain have to give in to reality--and Obama's plan for Iraq.

Teribus and his fellow hardliners strike out again.

Situation normal.