Iraqi bloggers respond to the faltering, pointless al-Sadr offensive. Zeyad is thinking like I am — that al-Sadr's lust for strife will destroy him, and that this is quite possibly the end of the line. Ays of Iraq at a Glance dismisses al-Sadr as a foreign-fed kid, equally patient for Iraqi authorities to destroy the Mahdi gang. Sam at Hammorabi examines al-Sadr's ties to Tehran's Khomeinists, neatly slicing the Western misconception that "Iraqis" are simply firing RPGs around because they want central air. He also offers a prayer for the recovery of Ayatollah al-Sistani. The demand to kill or incarcerate al-Sadr seems to be a popular one, with Baghdadi of Iraqi American appealing to Iraqi Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi to end the farce.

Finally: a touching post by Ahmed of Life in Baghdad for the Christians murdered in Baghdad, one that speaks of Iraq's pluralist future.

SALAAM: Alaa of the Mesopotamian gives us some classicist outrage — and the apparently unreported observation of tribesmen working to defeat armed thugs in the south.