Bowing at the feet of the Internet

UNIVERSAL REMOTE

The last time I was in England, communications between the UK and the US were virtually non-existent. I can remember that it took two days for us to find out the score of that year's All-Star game.

This year it's been completely different as Oxford University, with its wireless Internet system, has allowed me to find out all kinds of things—from Ichiro's inside-the-park home run on Tuesday night to Albany's awful rain storms the same evening.

And, of course, I've been following the American political news as well—from Senator Sanctimony's natterings ("on the run," my ankle) to Sara Taylor's hopeless circumlocutions of yesterday. Anyway, it's a real luxury being able to follow this stuff while on this side of the Atlantic. I just hope that we'll be able to do so as we visit less—shall I say—cosmopolitan areas.

The thing that's caught my eye this morning in looking over American news is the following: Apparently, the Bushies will soon be releasing an update on how things are going in Iraq and will point out that

the new American strategy in Iraq has been satisfactory on nearly half of the 18 benchmarks set by Congress, according to several administration officials.

Nevertheless,

the report also acknowledges that some military benchmarks have not been met, including improvements in the ability and political neutrality of the Iraqi security forces and the Iraqi government. Even in some areas where the report will cite progress, the officials in Washington said the document would acknowledge that the overall goal of political reconciliation remained elusive and would chide the Iraqis for failing to take advantage of the presence of more American troops to take more far-reaching steps.

And one need look no farther than here to see that security in Iraq remains a real problem and is, in fact, an obstacle to Americans' safety.

A previously undisclosed Army investigation into an audacious January attack in Karbala that killed five U.S. soldiers concludes that Iraqi police working alongside American troops colluded with insurgents ...

The investigation reveals several new details about the assault, including:

•Iraqi police suddenly vanished from the government compound before the shooting started.

•Attackers, evidently briefed on how U.S. forces would defend themselves, bottled up more than three dozen soldiers in a barracks and headquarters complex using a combination of smoke and fragment grenades and satchel charges to blow up Humvees.

•Gunmen knew exactly where to find and abduct U.S. officers.

•Iraqi vendors operating a PX and barbershop went home early.

•A back gate was left unlocked and unguarded.

Thank you, Mr. CEO President. That $12 billion a month is certainly money well spent.

On a personal note, happy belated birthdays to Chill and reader Oslandocle. Here's hoping they were happy and relatively abstemious.