Black as the devil, hot as hell, pure as an angel, sweet as love. ~ Talleyrand

You may have noticed that there wasn’t a First Cup post yesterday. Well, here’s the deal. Many bloggers take the weekend off. And while they start up again on Monday, it’s usually later than the early morning hours when I’m looking around my blogrolls for posts to highlight.

I stopped posting a First Cup on Sundays quite a while ago for that same reason. Starting this week I am going to eliminate that post on Monday’s as well.

I’ve found that I get so wrapped up in looking for good FC posts that I don’t spend the time reading, researching, and writing my own posts.

But, it’s not Monday anymore. So here we go.

Captain’s Quarters (Ed Morrissey) Diyala’s Turn

The expansion of the effort against AQI and the other insurgencies comes as a result of General David Petraeus getting the final brigade of the surge within the last few days. It took over four months for the necessary troops to arrive in Anbar and Baghdad, and even so, the new strategy and tactics have worked to reduce violence in those areas. However, the new, aggressive tactics have ended up acting like a game of whack-a-mole, with insurgents adjusting to the deployment by setting up shop elsewhere, as in Diyala.

Macsmind (Macranger) Let the real Surge begin

The tactic – although the MSM will miss this – IS to “migrate” them or rather scatter them and keep them on the run, unsettled and disorganized. If you can’t “pitch your tent”, you can’t establish operations.

Also, be sure to read Major Surge Op Underway in Diyala at Confederate Yankee. Bob discusses the TOM coverage this could receive, and reminds us to, “read smart”.