Another after action report...

...from the New York Times.

The main winners are Ayatollah Sistani and Mr. Sadr, a fiery but low-ranking cleric who is a hero to millions of poor, young and unemployed Iraqi Shiites. Baghdad and Washington, once eager to escalate this confrontation, exit from it somewhat diminished. Najaf, meanwhile, lies shattered, and hundreds of Iraqis, including many of Mr. Sadr's armed followers, have been killed.

"Somewhat diminished" seems to be a somewhat understated description of the condition of the US Forces and the puppe...err...interim government in Iraq, especially in light of this note.

The agreement also calls for all American and other foreign military forces to be withdrawn from Najaf and Kufa, to be replaced by Iraqi police, whose readiness and reliability remain untested.

With Fallujah, that's three important cities where US troops are now officially unwelcome (it's unclear that there's anyplace outside Baghdad's 'Green Zone' where they're actually welcome, and Iraqis aren't particularly welcome there). Where US troops can't go, of course, the Allawi goverment holds no sway.

Bit by bit, the countryside is falling out of our control. Day by day, Americans are dying in an increasingly fruitless occupation. Meanwhile, Bush finally concedes that he made "a miscalculation of what the conditions would be" in post-war Iraq.

But he insisted that the 17-month-long insurgency was the unintended by-product of a "swift victory" against Saddam Hussein's military, the Times reported.
Bush said his strategy had been "flexible enough" to respond. "We're adjusting to our conditions" in places like Najaf, the paper quoted him as saying.

Of course, we're also told that it's remnants of Saddam Hussein's military that are responsible for much of the resistance in Iraq, so it's difficult to grant much credence to the notion that our "victory" was either swift or complete. And while the insurgency may have been unintended (as in "no one expects the Spanish Inquisition..."), it was totally predictable. Any military incursion that deliberately leaves the flanks and rear of the invading force unsecured is clearly inviting a responding insurgency.

And the conditions we're responding to in places like Najaf? And Kufa? And Fallujah? And Sadr City? One word for those conditions is "defeat."

Another is FUBAR.