Steve Mumford's third installation of his Baghdad Journal. He's one of the few remaining "embedded reporters", with the 2nd Cavalry in Sadr City in Baghdad. I haven't seen any reports from Sadr City proper since that incident with the flag and the helicopter. It sounds pretty calm from Mumford's point of view, although, as Andrew Olmstead points out in the Winds of War wrapup, it doesn't make the new Iraqi police appear very good - police are portrayed stealing, breaking under fire, and are used as argument-ending bogiemen by the troopers of the 2nd Cav - none of which argues well for the state of Iraqi police in Sadr City.

Note how the Palestine Hotel and downtown Baghdad NGO employees figure strongly in Mumford's moment of doubt. The problems in Iraq are largely (if not exclusively) to be found in Baghdad proper and the Sunni Triangle to the north and west. Late-summer Shi'ite problems in Sadr City and Najaf seem to have receded. This is good news.