Returning to a topic that’s near and dear to our hearts, but hasn’t been anything near a focus for the news media for months now- Iraq’s Defense Minister has made a recent statement that Iraq’s military might be able to take over internal security (meaning worrying about the shit that’s happening in their own country and taking care of it themselves) by 2009, and handling the rest of the burden (all the cats who keep coming into Iraq to mess things up) by 2012.

In the second of two hearings this week focusing on the military situation in Iraq and the mission of American forces, Chairman Ike Skelton, a Democrat summed up a question many are asking about progress in Iraq’s security forces. “The question now is how do you sustain it? And part of that solution will depend on political progress in Iraq but part will depend on developing an effective non-sectarian Iraqi security force,” he said.

A tall order as all can surely recognize, and I for one am not holding my breath, but at the same time, I do have hope that maybe the people, and more specifically the gov’t and military of Iraq are ready and willing to accept the responcibility of taking care of their country.

But while Iraq may actually be tempering down, at least for us, the Middle East is still far from a mellow place. For example-

Israeli air strikes killed at least seven Palestinians, including a mother and child, in the Gaza Strip on Thursday as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed to wage a “war” to stop rocket attacks on the Jewish state.

The escalation in violence prompted Palestinian leaders to warn that renewed peace talks — spurred by last week’s visit by U.S. President George W. Bush — were at stake.

The latest in a series of air strikes killed two Hamas militants and wounded three others, Hamas said.

A prior Israeli air strike on a car in the Gaza Strip killed at least one Islamic Jihad militant, as well as a mother and child riding in a donkey cart, Palestinian hospital officials said. A third air strike killed a militant leader and his wife.

Well alright, great to hear those peace talks are working out, and everyone involved seems to be acting rationally here. Just awesome.

Oh hey, before I forget (like so many others seemed to have done for a while til it came to bite us all in the ass), Al-Qaeda is back to their old tricks of killing folks and blowing things up. You know, fun terrorist type stuff. Only this time, it’s not just another faceless nameless statistic that suffered their wrath… it’s… wait for it…

The CIA has concluded that members of al-Qaeda and allies of Pakistani tribal leader Baitullah Mehsud were responsible for last month’s assassination of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, and that they also stand behind a new wave of violence threatening that country’s stability, the agency’s director, Michael V. Hayden, said in an interview.

Offering the most definitive public assessment by a U.S. intelligence official, Hayden said Bhutto was killed by fighters allied with Mehsud, a tribal leader in northwestern Pakistan, with support from al-Qaeda’s terrorist network. That view mirrors the Pakistani government’s assertions.

The same alliance between local and international terrorists poses a grave risk to the government of President Pervez Musharraf, a close U.S. ally in the fight against terrorism, Hayden said in 45-minute interview with The Washington Post. “What you see is, I think, a change in the character of what’s going on there,” he said. “You’ve got this nexus now that probably was always there in latency but is now active: a nexus between al-Qaeda and various extremist and separatist groups.”

Hayden added, “It is clear that their intention is to continue to try to do harm to the Pakistani state as it currently exists.”

Kinda makes you wish we’d just stuck to going after them after 9-11 and kept that our main focus… doesn’t it?

But hey… the news isn’t all bad, after all- what kind’ve world would we be living in if the news was always bad?

One battle that might be drawing to a close is the Writer’s Guild against the Studios. As the Director’s Guild works out a deal with the big machine, many of the issues resolved pertain to the Writers as well… so maybe this could be winding down?

And a cease fire that seems to be a little more finalized came from the Democrats the other day.

A Democratic presidential debate unfolded with an exchange of pleasantries and acts of contrition among rivals on Tuesday as Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama promised to dispel a rancorous feud over race and gender that had threatened to divide the party and alienate voters.

It was a night of “John” and “Barack” and “Hillary,” soft voices, easy jokes and belly laughs. Even the normally pugnacious Tim Russert, one of the moderators, seemed subdued.

“We’re all family in the Democratic party,” Mrs. Clinton said, glancing toward her competitors who were seated closely around a table. “We are so different from the Republicans on all of these issues.”

Well, at least we’ll still get the Red vs Blue fight, cuz otherwise… how boring would the Presidential Race be? Right people?

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