A big fight in Iraq, with U.S. and Iraqi government forces crushing a Shiite extremist group. I hope this is a sign of things to come.

The reason I hope we take the fight to the enemy is because, as Robert Kagan writes in the Washington Post, any thought of bringing our troops home and washing our hands of the situation is delusional. Ralph Peter says we face a host of bad choices, not only in Iraq, but in the entire region. The next President, who will almost certainly be a Democrat, may very well wish to withdraw the troops in 2009 but, unless the new tactics and the new commander are successful in 2007 and 2008, such a withdrawal may only be a recipe for even greater chaos.

In the Senate, according to Bob Novak, efforts to pass a resolution condemning the troop surge have hit some snags.

Meanwhile, at Davos in Switzerland, Fareed Zakaria got a taste of what the world would look like without U.S. leadership. It isn't a pretty picture.

The Iranian ambassador to Iraq did an interview with the New York Times, and he revealed that his government would make an effort to become more involved in Iraq, including security issues and reconstruction. It sounds as if they are already planning for our retreat. Here is some speculation about what a nuclear armed Iran would mean for the region.