Bad News

Rajiv Chandrasekaran, the WaPo's Baghdad bureau chief, tells PBS's NewsHour that any messages being sent by the Allawi regime about better security is so much bluster, "a lot of tough talk." Among other things, "The bulk of Iraq's policemen still have not gone through any academy training." He assures us that this "tough talk" is just "a symbolic move." That very night, the cops round up 500 criminal suspects.

IraqPundit notes that the hapless LA Times, explaining what it thinks is a continuing radicalization of the Sunni triangle, offers this: "The conservative Salafi, Wahhabi and Sufi teachings that have proliferated in Sunni Iraq since the fall of the regime last year provide a moral basis for the armed opposition." Sighs Iraqpundit: "Salafi and Wahhabi sure. But Sufi? Sufis are among the most peaceful, tolerant folks around."

John Leo at U.S. News (link via Instapundit) flips back through the LAT a couple of pages. "A June 29 report depicted the new prime minister, Ayad Allawi, as obscure and unpopular: 'little-known to most Iraqis after spending more than three decades in exile . . . . Many Iraqis have questioned the interim government's legitimacy.' But four days earlier, the Washington Post reported that a large majority of Iraqis knew very well who Allawi was and backed him with confidence. Citing a survey commissioned by U.S. officials in Iraq and conducted by an independent pollster, the Post said 70 percent of Iraqis were familiar with their new leaders and 73 percent approved of Allawi to head the new government."