I'm back! Did you miss me?

I've been out of the loop for a few days and I'm doing my best to get back into it. I append below a few thoughts on some of the major goings-on.

Interesting to see that they decided to move the so-called "handover of sovereignty" forward a few days. As I predicted the sovereignty we have so benevolently granted to the Iraqi people looks a bit strange.

The massive terrorist attacks in Iraq last week, which claimed the lives of 100 people, most of them Iraqis, were condemned by many sections of the Iraqi Resistance and their supporters. This highlights a distinction between the broadly popular armed groups such as al-Sadr's supporters and the Fallujan insurgents and groups such as al-Zarqawi's Ansar al-Islam, with little or no popular support and a virulently extremist ideology (Zarqawi denounced the Shia and Sadr as Kafir, infidels, at the height of the insurrection against American forces by Sadr's supporters). The best analysis of this distinction of which I am aware is that of Rahul Mahajan. Too many on the Left like to see those groups engaged in armed struggle against the occupation (which I stress again continues despite all the talk about the ""handover") as a homogeneous entity, when in truth there are many, often very important differences. Illusions about the reality of the situation on the ground will not help to end the occupation or safeguard the future of the Iraqi people.