Jill Carroll’s report for The Christian Science Monitor is both realistic and hopeful about the counterinsurgency effort in Iraq. On the one hand many important bad guys have been captured (including Abu Qutaybah and Sabawi Ibrahim Hassan), on the other, the insurgency is so decentralized and doesn’t have a hierarchy of leaders and this makes our work very difficult. The thing, in the end, will hinge on the loyalty of the population and the intelligence we get from them. Also note Austin Bay’s comments on General Abizaid’s testimony.