Reflection

I am watching the stillness of dawn give way to morning busyness across the surface of a deep, tree-lined pond. The flock of geese that landed here last night have honkingly departed; fish-strikes at surface insects create small galaxies of ripples and tendrils of mist, buffeted and swirling, show an increasing awareness of the presence of the sun above. And I got a great cup of coffee. I'm back in Gettysburg again, taking an R&R break. The past few weeks have been a ferocious rush; in preparation for the Petreus/Crocker report we were asked to pull together more than a few assessments of Baghdad and the trends we've seen on the streets. While much of the focus has been on what the Iraqi parliament has or has not accomplished over the past few months, the surge in Baghdad has given us some windows of opportunity for political engagement at the local level that we're hoping to transform into support for the government. Sunni tribal leaders from the outskirts are stepping forward, turning away from al-Qaeda; Shiite leaders in Sadr City are looking for alternatives to the criminal thugocracy that Sadrist-aligned politics are offering. The large cadre of secular moderates that are involved in local politics have not yet given up hope that they will play a large part in governing their country. I'm going to take a short break and recharge - then I'll head back to Baghdad. There's still a lot of work that we can get done there.