The bright side? Still looking

Things are safer in Iraq, especially since the assualt on Fallujah. Just read the news, people. Like this article which tells us the insurgents aren't going to give up:

The recapture of Fallujah has not broken the insurgents' will to fight and may not pay the big dividend U.S. planners had hoped - to improve security enough to hold national elections in Sunni Muslim areas of central Iraq, according to U.S. and Iraqi assessments.

Instead, the battle for control of the Sunni city 40 miles west of Baghdad has sharpened divisions among Iraq's major ethnic and religious groups, fueled anti-American sentiment and stoked the 18-month-old Sunni insurgency.

Wait, that can't be right. Maybe this article, which discusses military plans to withdraw troops from Fallujah. That's good news, right?

Senior Marine Corps intelligence officers in Iraq are warning that if U.S. troop levels in the Fallujah area are significantly reduced during reconstruction there - as has been planned - insurgents in the region will rebound from their defeat.

The rebels could thwart the retraining of Iraqi security forces, intimidate the local population and derail elections to be held in January, the officers say.

They have further advised that despite taking heavy casualties in the week-long battle, the insurgents will continue to grow in numbers, wage guerrilla attacks and try to foment unrest among Fallujah's returning residents, using the idea that expectations for improved conditions have not been met.

At least the Shiites are all united behind Iyad Allawi, right?

Resistance to the interim Iraqi government may be expected in the Sunni Triangle, where Saddam Hussein drew his support. But this is an overwhelmingly Shiite Muslim province. Its distrust of the government — led by a fellow Shiite, Iyad Allawi — underscores a growing uncertainty over Iraq's future as a viable state. As the country heads toward elections in January, many fear that Iraq could unravel into an assortment of regional tribes, religious groups and ethnic communities.

Well, crap. At least there hasn't been any violence-

Ambushes and bomb attacks jolted central and northern Iraq on Wednesday as insurgents pressed a campaign against American and Iraqi forces after the American-led offensive that left swaths of Fallujah in ruins.

The violence flared in cities across the Sunni triangle, from Ramadi to Bayji to Kirkuk, though guerrillas largely stayed off the streets of the inflamed city of Mosul on the second day of an American sweep there. At least 21 Iraqis were killed and dozens wounded in the wave of attacks on Wednesday.

If I were Bush, I guess I wouldn't want to live in reality either.