The end of the year is always a retrospective time, and Juan Cole has an excellent post that debunks several myths about Iraq in 2006, including the idea that military sweeps can uproot the militias, the supposed efficacy of the 80% plan, and the lie that a timeline would be necessarily counterproductive.
Of course, most of what you need to know about Iraq in 2006 is demonstrated by the fact that this information . . .
Iraqi police found 40 bullet-riddled bodies in the capital Monday, an Interior Ministry official said. Most of the bodies showed signs of torture; their hands were tied, and they were blindfolded. None of the bodies has been identified.. . . isn't even a lead news item. Such events have become so commonplace that this was in the "other developments" section at the end of the usual Iraq update article. Yikes.
