The Boston Globe reports that the violence in Iraq has lately been revolving less and less around the Sunni insurgency we've all come to know and love, and more and more around ethnic/sectarian violence: Sunnis v. Shiites and Kurds. Sunni sheikhs are calling for inter-Iraqi war. Shiite death squads are doing what death squads do. And then there's Kirkuk... Fuck. And yes, these are the critical signs to watch, even more than headlines saying "Americans kill X insurgents" or "Guerillas blow up Y Marines."

Also wonder if it might not be best for Iyad Allawi to have his way and keep running Iraq's security forces, rather than handing the Ministry of Interior over to the Shiites, who would probably get those Shiite militias more heavily involved in counterinsurgency. Y'know, on the assumption that internecine death-squadding is not a good thing.