The Weekend Roundup

Time's been in short supply lately, so there's a slight backlog in recent developments. Here's a brief rundown:

On Friday, Muqtada al-Sadr officially extended his unilateral ceasefire by another six months. The announcement did not get a lot of play in the mainstream media, which has chosen to pretend that the surge is the only variable worth discussing. Most Americans probably failed to appreciate the importance of Muqtada's August withdrawal, even though the removal of the Mahdi Army gave the surge forces much-needed room to operate. Al-Sadr's extension keeps the recent Iraqi political momentum (okay, it's a relative term) alive, and also keeps al-Sadr's forces intact until the additional US brigades return home. A lot of hard work went into keeping Muqtada on the sidelines, and now the US and the Iraqi government have six more months to convince him that he should bury the AK for good. The real reckoning with Muqtada al-Sadr is a ways off, but at least he has allowed Petraeus to shore up the struggling Sons of Iraq without major Shia interference.

The New York Times Magazine has a devastating piece on the struggle for one of the nastiest corners of Afghanistan. It manages to capture the limitations of even the best COIN operators and emphasizes the strains placed on soldiers at the company level. (Spoiler: the stop-loss program does not win the Army any good-will.)

The underrated story of the day: Pakistan's accidental worldwide shutdown of Youtube. The explanation of how an act of national censorship went global is a rare look at the way countries seek to restrict the internet and how those same techniques can be applied to cyberwarfare.

The AP wire has news of Pentagon force projections for the summer. After the surge brigades leave, the US will still have 140,000 troops in Iraq, up from 132,000 before the surge. Afghanistan, the poor and increasingly ugly stepsister, will have its allotment of forces raised to 32,000. If the gains in Iraq hold up, expect to hear more and more about the backsliding taking place outside the cozy confines of Kabul.

Secretary Gates is busy conducting F-16 diplomacy with Indonesia. Worried about losing a valuable market in a country receiving millions in military aid, the Bush administration is trying to override Congressional concerns about the country's human rights record and kick-start the process of delivering training and equipment. The US only reestablished military ties in 2005, so the Pentagon is eager to curry favor with their Indonesian counterparts.