…Coveted Pollyanna Award is Major General Rick Lynch. The lead story in the first edition of The New York Times today was headlined: More Clashes Shake Iraq; Political Talks Are in Ruins. Sunnis Furious at Shiites, While Both Sides Criticize U.S. — 138 Are Dead.

General Lynch’s take on all this: “We are seeing a confident Iraqi government using capable security forces to calm the storm.”