Muscatine

To Mike M

I think you got it wrong, Mike. Ruggy didn't name his ranch ''Pig in a Poke,'' he named it ''Poking da Pig.''

End in sight

Baghdad security plan to end soon

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Baghdad, 13 November 2007 (Gulf News)

Iraq's government hopes it will soon be able to declare an end to a US-Iraqi security operation in Baghdad following a sharp drop in insurgent attacks in the capital, a military spokesman said yesterday.

Brigadier-General Qasim Mousawi, Iraqi spokesman for the nine-month-old Baghdad security offensive, said the decline in violence would also allow the government to reopen 10 roads this month that had been closed for security reasons.

''We are in the final stage of Operation Imposing Law ... Soon the prime minister will declare the final victory against terrorist groups and Al Qaida,'' Mousawi said.

''This will mark the end of Operation Imposing Law.'' Mousawi did not suggest that would mean an end to joint military offensives in Baghdad.

Troop decrease

US military reversing Iraq troop surge
The military has started to reverse the 30,000-strong troop increase.

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13 November 2007 (Associated Press)

The first big test of security gains linked to the U.S. troop buildup in Iraq is at hand. The military has started to reverse the 30,000-strong troop increase and commanders are hoping the drop in insurgent and sectarian violence in recent months - achieved at the cost of hundreds of lives - won't prove fleeting.

The current total of 20 combat brigades is shrinking to 19 as the 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, operating in volatile Diyala province, leaves. The U.S. command in Baghdad announced on Saturday that the brigade had begun heading home to Fort Hood, Texas, and that its battle space will be taken by another brigade already operating in Iraq.

Between January and July - on a schedule not yet made public - the force is to shrink further to 15 brigades. The total number of U.S. troops will likely go from 167,000 now to 140,000-145,000 by July, six months before President Bush leaves office and a new commander in chief enters the White House.

The acceleration of the U.S. mission away from direct combat to more of a support role will put greater pressure on Iraqi security forces to bear more of the load. And it will test the durability of new U.S. alliances with neighborhood watch groups springing up with surprising speed.

Declines in Iraqi civilian and U.S. military casualties in the past few months and talk among U.S. commanders of an emerging air of optimism and civic revival in some Baghdad neighborhoods point to positive security trends.

Oh, no

This isn't a reference to that scene in ''Deliverance'', is it??