Securing Baghdad-- The Moat Strategy

We're really turning the corner now...

AP: Iraq to dig trenches around Baghdad

Iraqi security forces will dig trenches around Baghdad and set up checkpoints along all roads leading into the city to reduce some of the violence plaguing the capital, the Interior Ministry said Friday.

To help halt that bloodshed, more U.S. troops have been shifted to Baghdad from the insurgent stronghold of Anbar province, a senior U.S. commander said...

Nothing says 'welcome to our capitol' like a good solid trench.

In related news, I watched the streaming video of the President's press conference this morning (boy, he sure has been chatty lately, no?) and heard a real gem. The President continued to use Zarqawi to justify his invasion of Iraq. After a reporter questioned him on that much-debunked point, Bush conceded the findings of the Senate intelligence Committee that Zarqawi and the Iraqi government had no relationship and that, in fact, Hussein viewed al Qaeda as a threat and wanted Zarqawi kidnapped or gone (Bush also lied- no surprise there- by stating that he had never insinuated a relationship between the two anyway).

However, the President insisted, Zarqawi had been in Iraq at one point and that was enough for him. Note to other countries (including the U.S.): If any terrorist has ever passed between your borders, however briefly or secretly, your country may be invaded at any point. Withusoragainstus and all.

So this war went from being about mushroom clouds and 9/11 to being about... Zarqawi may have passed through at some point. Or something. Who can even keep track anymore. Had enough?