Iraq is a problem. Truthfully, though, I think that no one here can get good idea of the real situation there. One day I read about enterprise sprouting, see pictures of goods being sold in Baghdad, etc., and it's good. The next day there are our guys being burned. And now we have some sort of insurrection, but from here it's extraordinarily difficult to figure out what's really going on. It seems we are-right now!-going into Fallujah. To get the people who mutilated the Americans? If not, to do what?

And then this Sadr guy is stirring up all sorts of trouble. According to the Times, his private militias have taken over a whole city while the US forces say things like "We'll get him when we decide to." Do we want to? And is the Times right? What's really going on?

As a sidenote, wouldn't this be a swell time for Bremer to send in troops contributed from our close allies the Saudis? Surely the Saudis would be happy to help, seeing as we equip their air force, train their army, and saved them from Saddam, who was launching missiles at them. Surely they'd be happy to step in and keep thousands of Moslems certain death from fighting against us, right? Wait, huh? What? The Saudis aren't helping us in our hour of need? Shocking!