Victory In Iraq No Threat To Obama - N.Y. Times

Or so I gather from this Times story....

In Sadr City, the small brick building that served as the Mahdi Army’s headquarters still stands. But not fifty feet away, a freshly built Iraqi Army post towers above it now. Next to the army post, perhaps to heighten the insult to the militia, the Iraqi government has begun installing a new sewer network, something this impoverished and overcrowded ghetto sorely needs. “Wanted” posters adorn the blast walls there, too, imploring the locals to turn in the once-powerful militia leaders.

Inside the Sadr Bureau, as it’s called, the ex-militia gunmen speak in chastened tones about moving on, maybe finding other work, maybe even transforming their once ferocious army into a social welfare organization. I didn’t see any guns.

“Please don’t print my name in your newspaper,” one former Mahdi Army commander asked me with a sheepish look. “I’m wanted by the government.”

....headlined, "Back in Iraq, Jarred by the Calm", and this audio of McCain adjutant Steve Schmidt laying the smack down on the Grey Hag....:

....for trying to blame Darth Queeg for the "Wall Street Meltdown" because campaign manager Rick Davis used to be, so sayeth the Times, a paid shill for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

If they thought acknowledging just how wrong their candidate got the Surge that brought Iraq its "jarring calm" on their own pages (and, implicitly, just how right his opponent got that little issue) would damage him, I have to conclude that they never would have allowed Dexter Filkins' piece to run in the first place.  Right?

The foreign policy debate is this Friday.  Could be some unpredictable moments in store.