Hearts and minds. posted by Richard Seymour

According to The Times, Iraqi resistance fighters now outnumber occupation troops with approximately 200,000 active insurgents. Note that this is the assessment of "Iraqi intelligence" which is directed by the CIA . It is hard to believe that such an assessment would have been issued without the latter's approval. The assaults on Najaf, Fallujah and Mosul were supposed to put down the resistance, just as the appearance of Ahmed Chalabi among a patsy Shi'ite coalition was supposed to signal the acquiescence of the Iraqi Shia to indefinite occupation.

Some will rush to describe this as an outburst of vengeful Sunni aggression designed to curtail a potentially crippling electoral process. No:

General Shahwani said that there were at least 40,000 hardcore fighters attacking US and Iraqi troops, with the bulk made up of part-time guerrillas and volunteers providing logistical support, information, shelter and money.

“People are fed up after two years without improvement,” he said. “People are fed up with no security, no electricity, people feel they have to do something. The army (dissolved by the American occupation authority) was hundreds of thousands. You’d expect some veterans would join with their relatives, each one has sons and brothers.”

Despair at the occupation and the disasters it has entailed drives this resistance, more or less as common sense would dictate.

But since I mention the elections, the article mentions that they may well have to be delayed - citing the views of the Iraqi defense minister, who I previously reported as saying that only in certain Sunni areas would they be delayed. In Ramadi and Fallujah, where a large, but under-reported demonstration demanded the immediate withdrawal of coalition forces at the weekend, there are neither registered voters nor voter registration stations, according to Knight Ridder .

Finally, don't take a gubernatorial position in Baghdad - two months after the deputy governor was shot dead in his car, the same fate has met the governor of that city.