I will be honest this time. This is bad news from Iraq.

The intense wave of killings and bombings that have swept Iraq this week comes as a shock awakening, or hangover, following the unrealistically high expectations and self-congratulations in the administration that surrounded the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections and their immediate aftermath.

The decision of the Sunni Muslim insurgents in central Iraq to largely restrain their forces during the election campaign and the voting period could easily be misconstrued as a weakening of will or loss of morale on their part. But, as was clear even at the time, it was no such thing. Like the Irish Republican Army of two decades ago, the insurgents had not forsaken the bullet for the ballot box. Instead, in the manner of sophisticated -- and all too often, successful -- insurgencies throughout the 20th century, they were following a sophisticated strategy of bullets and ballots.

Nor did the ballot box fail them. On the contrary, it was the failure of the dominant "5-5'5" Shiite coalition that now dominates Iraq with U.S. support, backed by its Kurdish allies in the north of the country, to seek to include the Sunnis in political power that played into the hands of the insurgents.

I know that the administration is really pissed that the MSM keeps covering the bad news but what else is there? I have heard some soldiers comments that nobody is reporting on the schools that have been built and the gratitude of some of the Iraqi locals. But, with all due respect to our brave soldiers, those stories only reflect small accomplishments sandwiched between horrific deaths and a crumbling facade of progress.

I think that if the Bush administration had their way that the only news we would hear would be of how much good we are doing and how bright the outlook is amongst the Iraqi people. But this would not accurately reflect what is really happening. I want to hear the facts. Both good and bad. Then let me decide what my take on all of this is.

By the way, my take is bad! I just know that surprised you.