In Baghdad, many candidates are handing out gifts to potential supporters, including coupons for free meals for families at popular restaurants, food baskets and leather-bound diaries with the candidates’ names on them. There are also allegations that tribal leaders are getting cash payments to deliver blocs of votes to parties or candidates.

...it is conservatives who have been proven wrong again and again. Politically and intellectually, the right is discredited, and the arguments of its rump minority in Congress will be easy to dismiss. Liberal self-confidence is sky-high. That's why it's important to admit that Bush was right about the surge. Doing so would remind Democrats that no one political party, or ideological perspective, has a monopoly on wisdom. That recognition can be the difference between ambition -- which the Obama presidency must exhibit -- and hubris, which it can ill afford.

Gunmen ambushed the car of a prominent leader of the Iraqi Prime Minister's Da'wa Party in Babil Province on Friday, Sam Dagher writes for the Times. Haitham Kadhim al-Husaini, a Da'wa candidate for the Babil provincial council was killed and four others were reportedly injured. The Times article says the four wounded were "other party officials," while the Post reports below that the other victims were "guards." Al-Husaini was a district commissioner in the Jabala (Jbala) sector of Babil Province whose wife and four children were killed two years ago in the intense sectarian violence that seized the mixed Jabala area, about 25 miles south of Baghdad. Dagher segues into the intensifying electoral rivalry between Maliki's Da'wa Party and the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI) in southern Iraq. Prominent ISCI MP (and Shi'a cleric) Jalaluddin al-Saghir on Friday denounced accusations by Da'wa supporters that the ISCI had plotted to oust the prime minister in a sermon. Meanwhile, leaders in the Sadrist current, which has not formally entered the provincial election contest with its own candidates, "urged followers on Friday to vote for two lists that it said were made up of independent candidates," Dagher writes, without specifying which lists. In Baghdad, Ali Mohammed Muslim, identified as a senior Sadrist activist, campaigned Friday in Sadr City on an anti-corruption platform.

Saad Sarhan reports on the assassination of al-Husseini in the Post, citing a local police spokesman who said that the Da'wa leader's car "was riddled with bullets," adding that the "guards fired back, but the assailants escaped."

Prime Minister Maliki's endorsement of the Da'wa-party-led "State of Law" list in the upcoming polls "has effectively turned the contest into a referendum on his rule," Amit Paley argues in a Post front-page feature. Paley cites "interviews with more than 100 Iraqis across the country" that show "broad support for Maliki," Though the Da'wa Party is historically a religious party, Paley writes that the PM's rhetoric has shifted since his days as a less prominent MP, to rely more on secular appeals, adding that Maliki's ostensible support of centralized government in Iraq has led to rifts with his erstwhile allies in the Kurdish and Shi'a political parties, and mentions in passing that "Sadrists blame him for military campaigns against them." Paley adds that Da'wa campaign aides hope to capture at least two governorates in the south, and also "believed the coalition could also win a majority of seats in Baghdad, Najaf, Basra and Dhi Qar provinces." Worth a full read for several quotes from Iraqis expressing their support for the PM and his party, although one comes away still wondering just how deeply the PM's support will run in the January elections. The notoriously reclusive prime minister did not agree to be interviewed for the article, Paley notes.

As Pres. George Bush prepares to step down, Post editors fire a parting shot with an editorial evaluating the 43rd president's national security policies. The eds both chastise the president for the 2003 war and its consequences, while oddly praising him. Bush is faulted for rifts with European allies over the invasion, the absence of WMDs, and "disgracefully bad planning," adding:

Though relations with Europe have been significantly repaired, Iran exploited the divisions in Western ranks to make mischief in both Iraq and Afghanistan -- and to advance its bomb-building.

But, as matters in Iraq now stand, there is a decent chance of a reasonably pro-American incipient democracy in the heart of the Arab Middle East. This would be a major accomplishment, and one that would cast the invasion, the failures of the early years of occupation and the painful loss of more than 4,000 American lives and many thousand more Iraqi lives in a different light than that in which they are seen by most Americans now. It would also vindicate his unpopular decision to stabilize Iraq with more U.S. troops rather than abandon it to civil war and possible genocide -- an instance in which Mr. Bush's self-assurance and steadfastness paid off.

Recalling journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi's "farewell kiss" to the American president from the Iraqi people, one wonders if President Bush will be seen "in a different light" among Iraqis in a few years' time -- or not.

Iraq's campaign is taking on a rough-and-tumble feel: Candidates are showing they aren't averse to exaggerating their credentials or engaging in some old-fashioned buying of votes. Questionable tactics have included vandalizing rivals' posters, voter intimidation and disobeying a law that prohibits using religious identification to win votes, according to the U.S. military and the Iraqi election commission.

During a telephone interview, Abdul Sattar al-Biriqdar, the spokesman for the High Judicial Council, which administers Iraq’s court system, said Dhiyaa al-Kinani, the investigating judge, had not been aware that Mr. Zaidi’s lawyer and family members had repeatedly sought to visit Mr. Zaidi in prison.

At first, Mr. Biriqdar denied knowing Mr. Zaidi’s whereabouts, but later he said Mr. Zaidi was at an Iraqi detention center in the Green Zone operated by the Baghdad Brigade, a military unit that answers to the prime minister’s office. Mr. Biriqdar said anyone who sought to see Mr. Zaidi would be permitted to do so.

But during a recent visit to the complex, an Iraqi Army guard told a reporter who requested a visit to leave immediately. The guard also said it was “dangerous” to seek to meet Mr. Zaidi.

What remains is an Iraq turned from aggressive, hostile power in the heart of the Middle East to an emerging democracy openly allied with the United States. No president would want to be responsible for undoing that success. In Iraq, Bush rightly took criticism for all that went wrong -- the WMD fiasco, Abu Ghraib, the descent into bloody chaos in 2005-06. Then Bush goes to Baghdad to ratify the ultimate post-surge success of that troubled campaign -- the signing of a strategic partnership between the United States and Iraq -- and ends up dodging two size 10 shoes for his pains.

Many displaced Iraqi homeowners were dealt a double-blow by the housing market in their country, writes Tom Peter in the Monitor. Fleeing deteriorating security conditions in their neighborhoods or the threat of direct violence, Iraqi families often let their properties go at fire-sale prices. Now, property values are rising, and displaced families find that they cannot buy their way back into their old neighborhoods. "For example, in Ghazaliya, a neighborhood in western Baghdad, houses used to go for between $60,000 and $76,000, then they dropped to between $42,000 and $51,000, and in some cases went for as little as $25,000. Today, some houses go for as much as $102,000," Peter writes. Many returning displaced must make drastic lifestyle changes or become renters in a society where the majority of Iraqis lived in a home that they or family members owned before the war. The Iraqi government is mulling some assistance for families in such circumstances, but it doesn't appear to be much beyond what is in the offing for Iraqis in other categories of displacement. Worth a full read.

Anticipating that President-to-be Barack Obama may find current plans too slow, Pentagon planners are drawing up new accelerated withdrawal options for US forces in Iraq, Elisabeth Bumiller and Thom Shanker write in the Times. Military officials said that the incoming president had not requested the new timetables, but that the Pentagon was taking its cues from Obama's public statements. The existing plan shown to Obama in December includes "withdrawing two brigades, or some 7,000 to 8,000 troops, over the next six months," the Times reporters write, but US military officials have not provided further specifics, apart from noting that "the plan does not set forth as fast a withdrawal as Mr. Obama pledged during the presidential campaign, when he repeatedly promised to have all combat troops out of Iraq within 16 months of his taking office, or by May 2010." The Times Pentagon sources and Obama transition officials wouldn't go much further on any details of the new reported withdrawal plans. Brooke Anderson, national security spokesperson for the Obama transition said the new president would meet with top military commanders to "to make a determination to how we move forward to safely redeploy our combat brigades in 16 months." Meanwhile, "Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, said Mr. Gates intended to make sure that Mr. Obama, once he is commander in chief, gets to hear directly from all of the senior military officers with a stake in the Iraq and Afghanistan missions before making any decisions," the Times reporters add, noting that some commanders are wary of a rapid withdrawal from Iraq, but that the Obama plan to increase American forces in Afghanistan requires a shift in resources away from Iraq.

What will be the final word on the American invasion of Iraq in the history books? In a Monitor series speculating on the Bush legacy, Howard LaFranchi cites a few analysts, some of whom suggest that historians will look kindly on the Bush administration's decision to invade. While Harvard professor Joseph Nye suggests that the Iraq war asserted American "hard power" at the expense of US "soft power," Georgetown Prof. Robert Lieber suggests that America's relations with its allies have not been damaged by the war, and ex-Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson says that the Bush legacy on Iraq was saved by the 2007 "troop surge." While Lieber laments "loss of life" and "the hit to America's reputation caused by poor prewar planning and the ineptness of Iraq's new government," he also warns that the war has "freed Iran to become the dominant actor in the region." LaFranchi's piece makes no direct mention of the humanitarian cost to Iraq of the invasion and aftermath and indeed includes no Iraqi voices.

In the Monitor, Ben Quinn notes that President Bush's decision to award former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair with a Medal of Freedom has been received with "a chorus of disapproval" back in Britain, especially by critics of the former PM's decision to back the US invasion of Iraq. "Poodle of honour" read one national headline, Quinn writes. The Monitor reporter also notes that as the Israeli assault on Gaza proceeds, Blair's effectiveness as a Middle East envoy on behalf of the so-called "Quartet" appears compromised by his association with President Bush's policies in the region.

Retired Gen. Eric Shinseki, a household name for challenging then-Defense Sec. Donald Rumsfeld over the number of American troops required to occupy Iraq, and now Barack Obama's nominee to head the Department of Veterans Affairs, has promised to modernize the claims and records processes at the administration, Ann Scott Tyson writes in the Post. Sen. Daniel Inouye praised the retired general for his candor during the fellow Hawaiian's confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Veteran's Affairs: "He told the truth, and in doing so took a position contrary to the administration," Inouye said. "His honest assessment that more troops would be needed cost him his job, but it is the surest measure of his fitness to serve as a Cabinet member."

Joel Auerbach writes in the Post that retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Jonathan Scott Gration, who flew 274 sorties over Iraq during and after the first American Gulf War, could be President-elect Obama's pick to head NASA. A son of missionaries who spent his boyhood in Congo, Gration would be the first NASA chief from outside the "space community."

The final version of the law ended up with vague wording saying there had to be “a woman at the end of every three winners.”

...In an attempt to resolve the confusion, the electoral commission has announced that in each province it will award the third seat any party wins to one of its female candidates. At first blush, that would seem to ensure even more seats for women, but the approach applies only to parties that have multiple candidates and win multiple seats. That may work in more populous provinces, according to one commission member and to the commission expert. But in other provinces, some parties that win seats may consist of only one or two local leaders — and they are rarely women.

“His eminence stressed that he does not support any political entity,” said Mr. Haydari, referring to a meeting he had with Ayatollah Sistani a few days ago. “His exact words were ‘I do not support any political entity.’ ”

The report disclosed several instances in which KBR either failed to provide adequate cost information or supplied questionable cost reports. Bowen also took the Corps of Engineers and the Joint Contracting Command to task for changing the prime contract officer, who supervised the work, 13 times over three years.

The KBR contract was based on costs plus a fixed fee and carried cash rewards based on performance. Although KBR did well in the areas of health and safety measures as well as property management, it was penalized in areas such as cost-overrun forecasts and project schedules. As a result, an evaluation board awarded the company $6.5 million out of a potential $25 million.

Three months before Amin al-Qaraghouli walked into a meeting of tribal sheikhs here and blew himself up, killing 23 people, he was in jail for planting roadside bombs. He was freed after local elders backed his claim that he had abandoned his violent past. The Jan. 3 attack in this town of dirt roads and mud-brick buildings 25 miles southwest of Baghdad was the worst suicide bombing in months and a deadly reminder that Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) remains within striking distance.

While the growth of tribal influence may provide a counterbalance to sectarian politics, it could also lead to a rise in violent civil disputes. The Yusufiyah bombing reveals frustrations within the local SOI group, the country's community policing program that arose from the Awakening Movement.

From now on, Mr. Qaraghouli, the deputy, says if the SOI know someone is guilty of murder they will skip the court and execute the alleged killer themselves. He admits this type of vigilante justice could create enduring bloodshed. "We will risk hate and fighting forever. It will affect the future of our sons," he says, undeterred.

He heads a council of 10 tribal leaders established last year by Maliki, the prime minister's tentative but far-reaching attempt to cultivate rural support. He said he meets with the U.S. military every two weeks. Each Tuesday, he gathers a council in Thuluyah with the mayor and heads of the police, city council and army to review security here.

Khalil's analysis is blunt: He used to be on the losing side. His formula is simple: With God, guns and money, he is now the authority in town.

U.S. troops this year are being forced to rely on their Iraqi partners more than ever, particularly in detention operations. The American military is in the process of emptying its detention facilities to comply with the new requirement that bars the U.S. government from holding suspected criminals who have not been charged by Iraqi authorities. "We used to detain people for their intelligence value only," in some cases, said intelligence officer Capt. Dominic Heil, 25, of California's Napa Valley. "We can't do that anymore."

American military officials have taken some steps toward that end, closing down large bases and outposts occupied only by U.S. troops. But they have no imminent plans to shut down dozens of inner-city bases like the one in Sadr City, which they call a joint security station. A handful of Iraqi officials work alongside Eifler's unit. Like other security stations in Baghdad, it is overwhelmingly populated, and unmistakably controlled, by Americans.

Mr. Moussawi said that Mr. Surawi also admitted that he had connections to some Iraqi political figures, suggesting that some Iraqi politicians had had ties to violent extremists. “We have the names of those helping this terrorist. They work inside Iraq and unfortunately some of them are part of the political process,” Mr. Moussawi said. “Their aim is to shake stability.”

Those looking for absolute fairness in this distinction will never find it: a soldier who cowers or blunders into harm’s way will receive his medal just as surely as his quick-thinking, unscathed buddy will not. A soldier whose lacerations heal completely will wear the same medal as someone who has lost a limb or been paralyzed for life.

None of this relieves the military of its duty to fully honor those whose injuries are unseen. A Purple Heart may not be the answer — not until, perhaps, advances in brain science bring full objectivity to the diagnosis of mental injury. But PTSD sufferers surely deserve medical care every bit as diligent and excellent as what their fellow veterans receive for more visible injuries.

The Iranian businessman was looking for high-quality American electronics, but he had to act stealthily: The special parts he coveted were denied to Iranians, especially those seeking to make roadside bombs to kill U.S. troops in Iraq.

With a few e-mails, the problem was solved. A friendly Malaysian importer would buy the parts from a company in Linden, N.J., and forward them to Iran. All that was left was coming up with a fake name for the invoice. Perhaps a Malaysian engineering school? "Of course, you can use any other company as end-user that you think is better than this," the Iranian businessman, Ahmad Rahzad, wrote in an e-mail dated March 8, 2007.

But disagreements over the choice led to more walkouts from the main Sunni political coalition, Tawafiq, on Saturday, weakening the bloc before crucial provincial elections scheduled for the end of January and raising the possibility of street protests by outraged Sunnis. The dispute may also keep Parliament from passing any legislation until a speaker is chosen and confirmed/

Tawafiq had been given until Friday to come up with a new candidate for the post. On Thursday, Iyad al-Samarraie, Tawafiq’s head and a senior leader in one of the bloc’s main parties, the Iraqi Islamic Party, said in an interview that he had been nominated for the position. Accusing the party of trying to force its coalition partners into accepting Mr. Samarraie, four Sunni deputies, including Taha al-Luhaibi, said Saturday that they would leave Tawafiq.

The report, produced by a regional IG office established last year to keep closer watch on expenditures in Iraq and Afghanistan, says the State Department Bureau of Diplomatic Security had been "highly effective in ensuring the safety" of diplomatic personnel in Iraq. There have been no casualties among U.S. diplomatic and civilian officials protected by contractors under the bureau's supervision.

There is no mention of the indictment last month of six Blackwater guards in a 2007 shooting incident in Baghdad that left at least 14 Iraqi civilians dead. The incident led Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to change procedures for guarding diplomatic convoys and to calls to cancel Blackwater's contract when it is due for review this spring. An umbrella Worldwide Personal Protective Services contract covers the State Department's relationship with the three companies, each of which is capped at $1.2 billion in payments over a five-year period, with annual reviews, for services in Iraq and elsewhere. The current contract was first signed in 2005.

Equally troubling -- or, as Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) put it, "appalling" -- were revelations about how money was squandered on lavish perks -- like more than $2,400 each for two occasions at a ritzy D.C. steakhouse (no info on how many people that fed), for which no justification was provided. Or stays in luxury hotels ($380 per night for Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas). Officials with the group dispute some of the report's findings, argue that they are on the right track with new leadership and say that they want to work with Congress to take any needed corrective actions.

Although the majority of Diyala’s population is Sunni, the provincial council is dominated by Shiites because Sunnis boycotted local elections in 2005. But as new provincial elections, scheduled for Jan. 31, are approaching, tensions between Sunnis and Shiites have increased.

How Safe Is Iraq?
Will President-elect Barack Obama accelerate the US withdrawal?
What role will the Sons of Iraq play this year?
Has the political situation improved?
How volatile is the rift between Arabs and Kurds?
How is the Iraqi economy doing?
How does Iran factor in?

On Wednesday, hundreds of thousands of men and women thronged the area around the shrine, beating their chests and foreheads in mourning. Some men and boys expressed even greater fervor in more extreme rituals, beating themselves with chains and cutting their scalps and letting the blood flow.

In one of the most spectacular rituals, the Twarij run, thousands dashed two miles to the shrine from an area outside the city center, to symbolize their rush to heed Imam Hussein’s last cries for help in battle.

...a de-escalating war in Iraq won't immediately curtail expenditures needed to keep troops and equipment whole. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, in a New Year's Eve request to Congress, asked for an additional $70 billion to pay for war costs. At the same time, ramped-up military operations in Afghanistan under Mr. Obama will cost the US government more.

Perhaps the biggest reason defense spending won't fall anytime soon is that it would be too hard for congressional lawmakers to justify cuts to defense during a recession, and lawmakers will instead seek to retain and renew defense contracts – and keep thousands of people in their jobs.

The settlement, made public Monday, was reached last month, said Aden Fine, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, who represented Mr. Jarrar. The size of the settlement “should send a clear and strong message to all T.S.A. officials and airlines that they can’t discriminate against people for how they look or for the ethnic content of their speech,” Mr. Fine said. Neither the Transportation Safety Administration officials or JetBlue admitted having done anything wrong, and the settlement agreement states that it “is not an admission of liability or fault or wrongdoing or responsibility.”

Babylon endured numerous restoration and reconstruction projects during the reign of Saddam Hussein; it was heavily plundered after his fall (a recovered artifact is above), and used as the site of an American military base. The Babylon project, financed by a $700,000 grant from the State Department, will map the city’s archaeological sites, develop conservation plans and pursue possibilities for tourism and education.

The guards did not speak during their arraignment on 14 counts of voluntary manslaughter, 20 counts of attempting to commit manslaughter and one count of discharging a firearm during a crime of violence. They will face a mandatory minimum sentence of 30 years if convicted of the firearms charge.

In coming months, defense lawyers are expected to file numerous motions challenging the evidence and whether the government can bring criminal charges in the case. U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina scheduled a hearing for Feb. 17 on some of the legal issues.

The elections are part of a series of votes scheduled in Iraq this year, including parliamentary elections and a referendum on the withdrawal of American forces. Taken together, they are expected to shape the political future of Iraq as it emerges from an extended period of sectarian violence and continues to wrestle with such basic questions as whether it will be a single nation or several.

...Provincial councils are roughly the equivalent of state legislatures in the United States, and the balloting for them is expected to correct underrepresentation in local governments among Sunni Arabs, particularly in areas where there has been heavy insurgent and sectarian violence, including Baghdad, Anbar, Diyala and Nineveh Provinces. Sunni Arabs largely boycotted the 2005 provincial elections.

There is widespread fear, however, that the vote may set off a new round of clashes. At least one candidate has been assassinated by political rivals and a number of opposition candidates have been arrested, several of whom are being investigated for terrorism-related charges in Diyala.

Well, maybe not everyone. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, just back yesterday from schmoozing with the Iranians, skipped the event. He was also a no-show for the ceremony last week turning over the Green Zone to Iraqi control.

Just inside the gateway of the new United States Embassy in Baghdad, a US Army lieutenant colonel acted as the diplomatic equivalent of a Wal-Mart greeter, welcoming guests Monday afternoon to the dedication ceremony for the largest – and most expensive – American mission in the world.

Most of the casualties were taken to Kadhimiya Hospital, where tearful Iranians who spoke no Arabic communicated in hand signals with the hospital staff to ask about loved ones. An Iraqi man who gave his name as Abu Fatima said his cousin Haidar had taken his 4-year-old son to visit the shrine for the first time. Father and son both died in the attack.

The office of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki issued a statement calling for an investigation into the attack. Mr. Maliki was on the second day of an official state visit to the Iranian capital, Tehran, where he met with Iran’s supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hassan Ghashgavi, said Sunday’s attack was the product of the “wrong” policies of Iraq’s “foreign occupiers,” according to IRNA, the official news agency.

By most accounts, sectarian tension has declined in recent months. As a sign of that improved atmosphere, Iraqi officials, at the urging of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, had reopened the Bridge of the Imams on Nov. 11, rejoining Kadhimiyah, the neighborhood around the shrine, with the Sunni neighborhood of Adhamiyah, once an insurgent stronghold. The bridge had been closed since 2005, when a stampede, triggered by rumors of a suicide bomber, killed 800 Shiite pilgrims in one of the war's most horrific episodes.

Senior Interior Ministry officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said they had opposed the decision at the time, and on Sunday, they blamed the bridge's reopening for this attack and another one Dec. 27 that killed at least 22 people near a car garage.

The classes, for service members only, offer students a sense of normalcy, a place where a professor calls them by their first name, where classmates debate ideas openly, where academic discussions often encompass the lives they lead in Iraq.

On a recent Sunday morning, several soldiers carrying rifles and textbooks made their way to a theater built for Saddam Hussein. Inside, professor Lisa Brooks was teaching the sleep-deprived service members about sleep and dreams. A voice on the Camp Victory loudspeaker interrupted: "Attention, please. There will be a controlled detonation in 10 minutes."

It's a big change from 50 years ago, when there was widespread fear that soldiers were "undernourished," says Linda Van Horn, professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine.

In other news, Maryland state troopers decided that a Washington-area antiwar group was a white supremacist threat, and a military affairs commentator suggests that in the future, cool-handed robots will project American power where infantry troops now do the job.

The Biladi satellite channel disputes the official US military account of a shooting of one of its employees in central Baghdad by US forces last week, Ernesto Londoño writes in the Post. US forces issued a statement Saturday on an incident reported earlier on IraqSlogger, saying troops fired on Hadil Imad on Thursday after she behaved "erratically" and failed to heed multiple warnings, without giving further details. The 24-year-old member of the Iraqi channel's production team is in critical condition with serious internal injuries. Biladi issued a statement Saturday disputing the official US account and claiming that American forces shot Imad "in cold blood." As Londoño notes, the shooting occurred on the day that the US-Iraqi security agreement came into effect and has raised questions in Iraq over the extent to which US troops can be held accountable in the Iraqi justice system under the new agreement. While the US statement said troops followed "approved defensive measures," Londoño suggests that the incident may call into question the nature of the Iraqi "sovereignty" promised by American and Iraqi officials under the new agreement. "The agreement allows for the prosecution of U.S. troops under Iraqi law only in the case of premeditated grave felonies committed when the personnel are off base and off duty, and only after American officials certify that threshold has been met," the Post reporter writes. Meanwhile, Iraqi PM Nuri al-Maliki arrived in Iran on Saturday for an official visit, including a parlay with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Campbell Robertson touches on the Hadil Imad story in the Times, but reports only the US military statement without noting Biladi channel's reaction. Robertson goes a bit further than the Post report on the Maliki visit to Iran, noting that the Iraqi PM told Iranian state TV that Iraq would be an “axis for positive relations with Iran” and would not be a base for hostile operations against its eastern neighbor. After the meeting with Pres. Ahmadinejad, PM Maliki reportedly said that Iraq sought to “increase political and economic ties” in mutual interest with its neighbors, while the Iranian president reportedly added that “What is important for the Islamic Republic of Iran is Iraq’s independence, construction, security as well as development.”

In an article on Arab public opinion the Israeli operations against Gaza and the tepid and even anti-Hamas response of Arab regimes, Anthony Shadid writes in the Post that "Even in Iraq, beset by its own conflicts, the Palestinian issue echoed in sermons Friday." 'It is a shameful stance that Arab countries have,' Nadhim Khalil declared in a sermon in Thuluyah, a conservative Sunni town north of Baghdad," Shadid writes. IraqSloggers' Amer Mohsen noted the increasing Iraqi concern for the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza last week.

The Post's Lisa Rein and Josh White note that Maryland State Troopers' secret surveillance of domestic groups, including anti-war activists, was more widespread than originally reported, noting that "The DC Anti-War Network, which opposes the Iraq war, was designated a white supremacist group, without explanation."

With precious little time remaining to wax sarcastic on President Bush while he still holds the office, Times columnist Frank Rich writes opines that "Bush’s first and last photo-ops in Iraq could serve as bookends to his entire tenure. On Thanksgiving weekend 2003, even as the Iraqi insurgency was spiraling, his secret trip to the war zone was a P.R. slam-dunk. The photo of the beaming commander in chief bearing a supersized decorative turkey for the troops was designed to make every front page and newscast in the country, and it did. Five years later, in what was intended as a farewell victory lap to show off Iraq’s improved post-surge security, Bush was reduced to ducking shoes."

Finally, John Pike contributes an op-ed to the Post that welcomes, with a surprising degree of blithe optimism, the possibility of wide deployment of robotic military machines that the GlobalSecurity.org director says represents the future of American land warfare. "Within a decade," Pike writes, "the Army will field armed robots with intellects that possess, as H.G. Wells put it, 'minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic.' . . . These killers will be utterly without remorse or pity when confronting the enemy." With reference to US operations in Iraq, Pike suggests that, "that's something new," explaining that, "in 1947, military historian S.L.A. Marshall published 'Men Against Fire,' which documented the fundamental difference between real soldiers and movie soldiers: Most real soldiers will not shoot at the enemy. Most won't even discharge their weapons, and most of the rest do no more than spray bullets in the enemy's general direction. These findings remain controversial, but the hundreds of thousands of bullets expended in Iraq for every enemy combatant killed suggests that it's not too far off the mark," continuing "Only a few troops, perhaps 1 percent, will actually direct aimed fire at the enemy with the intent to kill. These troops are treasured, and set apart, and called snipers. Armed robots will all be snipers. Stone-cold killers, every one of them." Since the deployment of expendable machines will substitute financial costs for American human casualties, Pike suggests that the robo-armies could eradicate genocide by lowering the cost of US armed intervention into such crises. Pike doesn't take up other less cheery implications of lowering the cost of military action as the technology spreads.

Around 1:30 p.m., after lunch, some of the tribal leaders lingered, drinking tea, while others began to leave, said several guests, who would speak only on condition of anonymity because of fear of retaliation.

It was about then that one of the tribe’s members, Amin Ahmed Edan Hasoon, who is well known in the neighborhood, entered the yard without being searched by guards, guests said. Moments later, he detonated an explosive vest he was wearing.

Les Huffman, a commercial developer, walked in one day in late 2006 and was overwhelmed -- by the spirit of the military personnel, by the devotion of the staff and volunteers, and by the obvious need for more space.

...In short order they created a nonprofit organization -- the Returning Heroes Home -- pulled together a board of directors, made a proffer to the Army, and started raising money. They sought input from the wounded soldiers, staff, doctors and rehabilitation specialists for the design.

The nonprofit raised $3.6 million in cash contributions and another $1.5 million worth of in-kind contributions that included 275 tons of limestone, computers, audio-visual equipment and more. More than 5,000 individuals, businesses and foundations donated in one way or another.

The war in Iraq is indeed over, at least the conflict as it was understood during its first five years: insurgency, communal cleansing, gangland turf battles and an anarchic, often futile quest to survive. In other words, civil war -- though civil war was always too tidy a term for it. The entropy, for now at least, has run its course. So have many of the forces the United States so dangerously unleashed with its 2003 invasion, turning Iraq into an atomized, fractured land seized by a paroxysm of brutality. In that Iraq, the Americans were the final arbiter and, as a result, deprived anything they left behind of legitimacy.

This war's end feels more truce than treaty, more respite than reconciliation. There is no revival or renaissance, no celebration. It manifests itself most in the simple lifting of a siege.

The handover of the Green Zone from U.S. to Iraqi control Thursday presented such a powerful symbol of the waning American presence in Iraq that it would have been nearly impossible for both sides not to mark it with a formal ceremony. They did, but the ceremony wasn't much. A podium was set up in the middle of a dirty street. Five small balloons and some tinsel decorated a seating area. The American ambassador and the top commander of U.S. troops didn't show up. Neither did Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Focusing attention on soldiers charged with killings is a shift for the military, which since the start of the war in Iraq has largely deflected any suggestion that combat could be a factor in violent behavior among some returning service members. Maj. Gen. Mark Graham, the Fort Carson commander, said, “If they had a good manner of performance before they deployed, then they get back and they get into trouble, instead of saying we will discipline you for trouble, the leadership has to say, Why did that occur, what happened, what is causing this difference in behavior?”

The inquiry, the general added, is “looking for a trend, something that happened through their life cycle that might have contributed to this, something we could have seen coming.”

While most soldiers returning from war adjust with minor difficulties, military leaders acknowledges that multiple deployments strain soldiers and families, and can increase the likelihood of problems like excessive drinking, marital strife and post-traumatic stress disorder.

When the clock struck midnight on Wednesday, the U.S. returned the palace to the Iraqi government and relinquished formal control over the Green Zone, a heavily fortified six-square-mile enclave on the Tigris River where key U.S. and Iraqi bureaucracies are situated. The handover is a sign of the shrinking footprint and influence of the United States in a country where it has lost thousands of lives and spent billions of dollars. For many Iraqis, the handover represents a significant step forward in their gradual reassertion of dominion over their own affairs.

U.S. officials said they will try to make their presence in the Green Zone less conspicuous in coming days. But they will remain in charge of issuing badges that grant varying levels of access into the area. They said they will not immediately dismantle a vast security apparatus that includes hundreds of Peruvian and Ugandan guards, body-scanning machines, bomb-sniffing dogs and surveillance cameras.

Several committees have been set up, consisting of both Iraqi and American officials, to study and administer these matters, though it appears that little will be done immediately.

...So while Iraqi soldiers now stand at checkpoints, Americans are still watching from nearby, and intelligence about a possible terrorist attack has made the checkpoints more stringent than usual this week, an Iraqi military spokesman said.

Plans to shrink the zone or open major thoroughfares, which could go a long way toward reducing Baghdad’s strangling traffic, are promised but could be months away. Americans have been moving out of buildings since 2006, though it has not been decided in many cases who is taking their place.

The same 35 foreign companies that qualified to take part in the first round are involved in this one, said Ahmed al-Shammar, a deputy minister, but it is possible that more companies could be added. Mr. Shahristani said he hoped the contracts in the second round would be signed by the end of 2009. He also said the ministry was planning to announce more licensing auctions in the future.