While Skull and Bones Argue Over Who's the Toughest on Terror

Aljazeera reports that U.S. troops have surrounded the home of Shia Muslim leader Muqtada al-Sadr in Najaf.

US armoured vehicles, backed by Iraqi security forces, cordoned off the Al-Zahra neighbourhood, where Sadr's home is located in the eastern part of the city.

Smoke was seen rising from the area amid the sound of heavy gunfire, mortar fire and rocket-propelled grenade explosions.

No further details of the US occupation military action are immediately available and it's not clear if al-Sadr is at home.

The AFP correspondent also reports that clashes broke out on Monday between militia loyal to al-Sadr, and US troops and Iraqi security forces in Najaf.

The cynical me (is there another?) thinks that they'll eventually storm the house. This time they'll capture Uday and Qusay alive. The realist me suggests that if they capture, or worse kill, Muqtada al-Sadr, then the feces will really hit the fan. What happens after that is unclear, since there's probably no electricity to run the fan. Most likely, however, would be that what few Iraqi cops and soldiers have been recruited so far would quickly desert and join the "insurgents," and Vietnam II ("This time we shoulda known better") will be fully underway. As I said earlier, it will then be up to John Kerry to decide whether he'd rather be like Eisenhower and call an end to the madness as soon as he takes office, or be like Nixon and keep it going for four more years. Every indication so far is that Kerry's a Nixon man.

Aljazeera also reports on the American commitment to freedom of the press in Iraq, most recently expressed by the arrest of an Iraqi newspaper editor.