"U.S. officers see mixed results from Iraq 'surge'. Sectarian killings decrease in capital; suicide bombings across country rise."

BAGHDAD - "Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said the ongoing increase of nearly 30,000 U.S. troops in the country has achieved "modest progress" but has also met with setbacks such as a rise in devastating suicide bombings and other problems that leave uncertain whether his counterinsurgency strategy will ultimately succeed."

I would expect to be reading floods of stories about how the Iraqi soldiers are taking it to all insurgents, how the militias are caving to Iraqi government troops, and how the Iraqis are fending for themselves. How an Iraqi squad risked their lives to save a lowly American private pinned down by insurgent snipers. How a mixed Sunni-Shiite Iraqi police unit cleared a Shiite neighborhood of insurgents, with happy people leading them to great caches of weapons, thanking them for peace and security. How al-Maliki is cracking down on Shiites and Sunnis alike while pulling them both into a real coalition government, working for the best for all. How walls are being torn down, not built.

Not reading those.

"Critical now, they said in interviews this week, is for Iraqi leaders to forge the political compromises needed for long-term stability."

Maybe they regard compromise the way US Conservatives do, as surrender, defeat, weakness,lack of resolve and determination. That compromise is a sign of a flawed ideological system, and that it has to be all-or-nothing, black-or-white. That there can be no compromise with people who bombed a mosque, or drilled holes in the heads of fellow sect members, or shot people simply because they were of a different sect. That you can't trust anyone other than your own side, and precious few of those. Not reading about the compromises, the moves toward unity, understanding.

In which case it will stay a mess, I'm afraid.

Arf