The sign the administration truly does understand the situation in Iraq

[db44]

Condy Rice is apparently on another administration "surprise trip" to Iraq.

If Iraq was truly under control, if we had faith it was really okay out there, wouldn't it be time to start having pre-publicized trips to Iraq? All the people in the administration have daily public schedules, but these trips are more often than not secrets. They know they ar targets over there, and by keeping in a shourd of secrecy, they show to me they don't have the faith in our people or the Iraqi troops to keep them safe.

[DoubleEdgeSword]

You think her visit may have anything to do with all the stuff going on with Sadr and the unrest between the Mehdi Army and U.S. forces?

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/04/20/iraq.main/index.html

Or perhaps it has to do with al-Queda's latest call for attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/04/19/iraq.main/index.html

No, things are defintely not under control in Iraq. The Green Zone has been closed down.

[Venisenvy]

They know they are targets and they dont want a visit of theirs to destabalize the are so they are doing the smart thing. It still does not mean that the surge has not been working and that there have not been positive developments on the ground.

[Richard Tafoya]

The 'surge' is the same as a massive holiday weekend police presence to deter drunk drivers. It's a temporary, high-resource time-shift of the problem at hand.

It's also unsustainable. When the troops leave, the situation will revert to chaos and civil war between the Sunni, Shi'ite and Kurdish faction of the country.

Until those three factions feel they have enough representation in the core government, enough reparation from both the pre-and-post Saddam periods of conflict and enough ownership of oil revenues going forward, nothing is going to make the country work without our very expensive training wheels.