"A year ago, terrorism and the insurgency against the Coalition and the Iraqi security forces were the principal sources of instability," Zalmay Khalilzad, U.S. ambassador to Iraq said.
"Violent sectarianism is now the main challenge ... It is imperative for the new Iraqi government to make major progress in dealing with this challenge in the next six months."
Khalilzad cited as reason for Americans to be "strategically optimistic" about Iraq the increased political engagement of the Sunni Arab minority previously dominant under Saddam Hussein and what he called a significant weakening of al Qaeda in Iraq
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/MAC225983.htmGen. George Casey, the senior U.S. commander, said
al-Qaida has increased its killings in Baghdad to show it remains a force to be reckoned with after the June 7 killing of its leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
In response to the al-Qaida attacks, ''what we are seeing now as a counter to that is death squads, primarily from Shiite extremist groups that are retaliating against civilians,'' Casey said at a news conference with Rumsfeld. ''So you have both sides now attacking civilians, and that is what has caused the recent spike in violence here in Baghdad.''
http://www.newspress.com/Top/Article/article.jsp?Section=WORLD&ID=564768859455095999all of this parsing out of blame . . . who's on first?