Two reports on Iraq from very different angles, neither very encouraging.

This one, by Susan Watkins in something called the New Left Review, looks at the nature of the insurgency. Stripped of its cant about millionaires in the White House, it's still pretty depressing.

And this, about the strategy for Iraq after military conquest: "There was no adequate operational plan for stability operations and support operations." Not enough troops, and a basic misunderstanding of the kind of war we're now fighting, also hinder US efforts. The author: Maj. Isaiah Wilson III, an official Army historian of the Iraq campaign and former war planner in Iraq.