The War From The Inside

The Weekly Standard decides to do its own regularly updated analysis of the Iraq war, to counter-act the accurate but sometimes misleading news reports of the various bombings, murders and kidnappings that are plaguing the country. My view is: the more we know the better. We need to know about the civil war; but we also need to know more about what Petraeus is trying, aganst all the odds, to accomplish. Sometimes you need a military expert to help. The author does not appear to me to be a shill for anyone. According to the Daily Standard,

Kimberly Kagan is a military historian who has taught at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Yale University, Georgetown University, and American University. She is a Senior Fellow and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Center for Peace and Security Studies at Georgetown University, where she teaches the History of Military Operations;an affiliate of the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard University; and a visiting fellow at Yale International Security Studies.

Money quote:

This report describes in detail and evaluates significant combat on Haifa Street in Baghdad, and clear-and-control operations south of Baqubah in Diyala province, placing these operations within the overall strategic context of the struggle. It discusses coalition efforts to disrupt al Qaeda networks in Iraq, the probable effects of those efforts, and the integral relationship between those efforts and efforts to stem sectarian violence. This report also briefly addresses the evidence for at least tacit Iranian support for Sunni insurgents in Diyala.

It's downloadable as well.