The AP reports:

Bernard Kerik, New York City's former top cop now trying to bring civil order to Iraq, sees continuing violence against U.S. troops as evidence of progress, according to a published report.

What the attacks really mean is that people in "pockets of resistance" are rebelling against their own loss of power, and "that's a clear sign of a free Iraq," Kerik told Time magazine.

"It gives me the sense that the rule of law is taking hold and the freeing up of Iraqi society is taking hold," Kerik says in Time's June 9 issue, out Monday.

So, continual attacks on US troops are a sign of progress. And if people weren't attacking our soldiers... well, that would be bad.

Meanwhile, in his first Guardian column, Salam Pax presents an Iraqi view on the problems of life in Baghdad these days. There's the looting. The carjacking. (The gangs were using a parking lot in the center of Baghdad as an impromptu clearinghouse for stolen vehicles). The lack of a legal system. The US-sponsored TV station broadcasting Japanese cartoons about a post-apocalyptic future where chaos reigns the earth. The Muslim fanatics filling the power vacuum. (His friend G is trying to convince him that "reasonable Imams in Hawza" is not an oxymoron). And then, there's this:

... the BBC World Service killed in one move a favourite Iraqi pastime: searching for perfect reception. The BBC Arabic service started broadcasting on FM here and it is just not the same when you don't hear the static.