Little security

The LA Times surveys Baghdad residents on how the "surge" -- what one Iraqi dubbed the "the traffic-jam plan" -- is working out for them.

For the most part, it's turned the city into something akin to the Palestinian occupied territories, with a myriad of checkpoints and funneled passageways that bring more inconvenience than security. Worse, in some respects, it's created ample targets for suicide attacks by pooling people together in larger numbers waiting to get to location XYZ.