1) General Petraeus before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today:
Achieving progress in Afghanistan will be hard and progress there likely will be slower in developing than was the progress in Iraq. Nonetheless, as with Iraq, in Afghanistan hard is not hopeless.
Wonderful to put to rest any suspicions that the military might be trying to copy its Iraq surge success onto Afghanistan, despite the vast difference in geography, population demographics, society, etc, etc.
2) Peace Now claims Israel is still building more in the West Bank than in Israel proper:
Even during the freeze a larger number of housing units than the national average will be built in the occupied territories.
Meanwhile, a 10,000 strong pro-settler protest marched through Jerusalem.
3) Pakistan detained five Americans who had been missing since leaving the Washington, D.C. area last month.
4) Yes, the bombings yesterday in Iraq were horrific, mindless acts of violence. But this response is actually encouraging, for the political future of Iraq.
Iraqi MPs have demanded that top ministers face questions in parliament over security …
