My oh my. One of the biggest private companies providing security in Iraq is called Custer Battles. That's just too bad. (Apparently it's the last names of the two founders.)

Found via this interesting Salon piece describing the mood chance in Iraq recently. Too early to say, but it sounds supsiciously like what happened in Afghanistan starting a year or so after the fall of the Taliban.

I was planning a trip that would pass through Afghanistan; now it looks like it's not going to happen anytime soon. This is partly a result of my own circumstances, and partly a result of the not-as-safe-as-was-or-could-be nature of the place.

Unrelated via NicMoc: Our old friend Vladimir Meciar advances in Slovakia....