The 30th of June...

The obvious question that I know I might get today is "What is Iraq like now that all US combat troops are out of the cities"?  And the obvious response will, of course, be:  "How the fuck should I know?  No troops are in the cities!"

Fortunately, I have the best intelligence service ever created at my fingertips--the Internet.  That's not a joke, either--the Internet and the blogosphere have served me well when traditional intelligence assets have failed.  I could elaborate, but then I'd have to kill all my readers, and where else am I going to get universal adoration?  

Ibn Muqawama, a guest blogger at Andrew Exum's "Abu Muqawama" (at his new home at the Center for New American Security), provides a series of links from a number of sources describing the events of Iraq's newest national holiday, Soverignty Day.  The links run the gambit from the Wall Street Journal to al Jazeera.  

Lots of stuff on the U.S. pullout from Iraqi cities today.  The reactions of Iraqis serve as a sobering reminder to us Americans that Iraqis see things quite a bit differently than we have.

Nevertheless,  the New York Times, Jawad al-Bolani, and others (Prof. Bacevich being the reliable exception) agree that there is a lot of work left to do, and that most of it will have to be done by Iraqis with a little help from us when necessary.

Includes a comment from Lt. Col. Gian P. Gentile.

You know, I've been on a lot of message boards and I've moderated a message board as well. Increasingly, it looks like Lt. Col. Gentile quickly turning into "that guy" on all the message boards--Small Wars Journal, Abu Muqawama, etc. At least he seems relatively civil in the most of his posts.  By Internet standards, at least.    

Addition:  For those of you following the Australia leave story arc (yes, this blog has story arcs), I'm currently still stuck in Iraq waiting for a flight.  

Bonus:  Taskforcemountain.com also reports.