It looks like the troop surge may be doing some good in Iraq. Mugtada al Sadr has bugged out and is now in Iran with his buddies. Apparently Sadr was afraid a JDAM was headed his way. I wonder what happened to the martyr thing with 72 virgins and all. I thought those guys loved death like we love life. Maybe they just love death for their henchmen and not for themselves. The real reason may be the arrest of his buddy in government who was knocking off other government officials. In Iraq that could cause some concern about relatives seeking revenge. My guess is that Sadr was more concerned about other Iraqi's than the US. If the Mahdi army now disintegrates then the troop surge will be a success. How will the Democrats react to that. Will they still want to surrender, or will they take credit somehow.

I think that we have changed the rules of engagement, and that is more important than the additional troops. I think the ROE have been our problem all along. We need to be killing more of them. It is a war, not a police operation. All Iranians fighting us need to be dealt with, and that includes some not in Iraq.