Joe Katzman saved me a great deal of surfing...I'll plop his post into mine and you can hop on over to Winds Of Change for the links.
As you're all aware, sovereignty was formally handed over to the interim Iraqi government yesterday, a couple days ahead of schedule (But do you know that a blogger scooped CNN et. al.?).
My take: A brilliant fake-out. In one stroke, much of the value inherent in any planned attacks on June 30th just evaporated - indeed, it turns such attacks into strong negatives. Things aren't even close to over in Iraq, but the Iraqis have their country back now and this was a good move. With elections gearing up for January, I expect there will be a lot of political jockeying as the celebration dies down and the political "hangover" begins. It will look confusing and chaotic, and that will be a good thing - because Iraqi politics is exactly where all that real confusion and sorting-out process needs to be channeled.
Of course our brave media is pissing as fast as they can on the sparks of Iraqi freedom...the word of the day is "secret"... delivered sotto voce. Judy Woodruff was close to tears as she delivered the bad news. Howard Fineman struggles to grasp at whatever anti-Bush straws he can find by suggesting the "secret" handover was an attempt to head off Michael Moore's criticism.
Gah! *SPIT* Bad Kool-Aid. *SPIT*
These people are shameless. No "Sadat" style parade eh? Bremer fails to take an open car to the airport. A lack of opportunity to disrupt and kill is seen as a negative to our wacked out media.
Oh...and to John "I voted for the war, before I vote against it" Kerry whining about not enough funds being spent in Iraq: shut the fuck up.