"Show me better facts and I'll gladly change my mind." - Phill Sawyer

"Don't Celebrate Turnaround in Iraq Just Yet": "Thomas E. Ricks: Well, that's the big question. Are the warring sides standing down until Uncle Sam gets out of the way? The Sunnis have largely stopped fighting while they seek to cut a deal to get a place at the table in post-Saddam Iraq. And the Shiites have stopped fighting the Americans for at least six months, they say -- and why not? With the Sunnis standing down, Uncle Sam would be focusing all his firepower on the Shiites. But what if the Sunnis get sick of waiting? And what happens when U.S. forces start declining in number next year?"...

...(a question posed to Rick) "Boonsboro, Md.: When will it be okay to state that we are winning in Iraq and all the naysayers ("the war is lost") were wrong? Even the New York Times is admitting things are going well.

Thomas E. Ricks: Well, things are going better. I just got back from Baghdad last week, and it was clear that violence has decreased. But it hasn't gone away. It is only back down to the 2005 level -- which to my mind is kind of like moving from the eighth circle of hell to the fifth.

I interviewed dozens of officers and none were willing to say we are winning. What they were saying is that at least now, we are not losing. But to a man, they were enormously frustrated by what they see as the foot-dragging of the Baghdad government."