June 19, 2006: Iraqi and American troops have surrounded and moved into Ramadi, a town that has long been a stronghold for Sunni Arab nationalists. Ramadi has become a magnet for terrorists, because of the many pro-terrorist neighborhoods there that will shelter them. Suicide car bombs, and terrorists in general, have been traced back to these Ramadi neighborhoods, and the new operation appears to be directed at shutting down some terrorist cells.

The new leadership of al Qaeda in Iraq is now running a largely Iraqi force. But the al Qaeda strategy has apparently not changed, yet. Sunni Arab death squads and terrorists continue to attack Shia Arabs. But the Shia Arabs who predominate in the police and army are fighting back. There are also more Shia Arab death squads, although some of the Sunni Arabs murdered are still dying at the hands of radical Sunni Arab nationalists trying to terrorize moderate Sunni Arabs into supporting terrorism. Many Iraqi Sunni Arabs are determined to fight to the death, to either regain power, and control of the oil wealth, or die trying.

So far, there have been no videos of the two captured American soldiers, which apparently means the two, and their captors, are still on the run from the massive search effort.

June 18, 2006: Al Qaeda in Iraq apparently has a new leader; Abu Ayyub al Masri (also known as Abu Hamza al Mujaher). Al Masri is an Egyptian radical, who has been running the smuggling operation for al Qaeda, getting money, weapons and men into Iraq from Syria, and other sources. Al Masri is believed to be smarter, and less bloody minded, than Zarqawi, but al Qaeda in Iraq is largely run by Iraqis. The death of Zarqawi exposed many of al Qaeda's middle management to attack in the last week. As a result, there has been a decline in terror attacks. American and Iraqi intelligence are listening hard to find out what changes might emerge from the al Qaeda change of command. Iraqi intelligence, which has an extensive network of street level informants, reports that, so far, the word from al Qaeda is confusion and speculation.

June 16, 2006: Two U.S. soldiers were captured by terrorists south of Baghdad, when the hummer the Americans were riding in was attacked at a checkpoint. These were the first American troops captured since 2004, when a G.I. was captured and apparently killed (via a murky video). The body has not yet been found. This is an extraordinarily low number of POWs. In Vietnam, where about ten times as many U.S. troops were involved, 150 soldiers and marines were captured (most of the 700 POWs of that war were pilots shot down over North Vietnam). This, in turn, was a lower rate of POWs than Korea and World War II. Changes in tactics and technology (mainly better communications) account for most of the steady decline in the POW rate.