Sgt. Stryker & Sparkey of the military groupblog Sgt. Stryker's Daily Briefing have spun off a new groupblog called "Iraq: the Good, the Bad and the Fugly" as part of an attempt to collate a balanced summary of news from Iraq. Originally, Sgt. Stryker was going to report bad news, and Sparkey was going to concentrate on good news; I'm not sure if this division of labor will be continued on the new groupblog.

Sparkey notes reports that the 101st Airborne is starting to ramp down deployments in Mosul and other areas in the North as the new Iraqi police take over day-to-day policing duties; it's suggested that smaller units will be garrisoning the North when the rotation takes the 101st out of Iraq. Meanwhile, crime rates have plummeted in the last two weeks as the police start to hit the streets in earnest.

Sgt. Stryker, on the other hand, passes along a series of rumors, presumably from personal sources in Iraq, as he gives no links. He also notes an article on how tribal chauvinism is complicating reconstruction in some Iraqi localities, as feuding tribes and sheikhs squabble over Coalition improvements in what should be public, common areas like the construction of water pumping stations.