A lot of meetings in Pakistan this week.

An interesting series of meetings are happening this week in Pakistan.

First, Musarraf is meeting with the ministers of Egypt, Jordan, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Indonesia beginning this last Sunday. These meetings will continue throughout the week. The purpose of these meetings is to lay the groundwork to come up with a solution to the middle east crisis in Israel, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran. From here ministers will head to a summit of their leaders to be hosted in Saudi Arabia by King Abdullah at a later date.

Vice President Cheney made a surprise visit to Pakistan today to discuss these same issues with Musarraf.

The British foreign secretary also is meeting with Musharraf this week to discuss the same issues.

Notably absent from all these meetings is Iran, Syria, and the Palestinian Authority.

Sadr urges Iraqi Security Forces to not work with US Forces

Isn't this rich,

Dawn reports that Moqtada al-Sadr, who fled to Iran prior to the surge, "urged Iraqi security forces not to work with US troops in enforcing a new Baghdad security plan, in a message read to his supporters on Sunday."

It takes a lot of guts to deliver this message to Iraqi Security Forces from Iran. Not!

Although not expressed in this message, but can be read between the lines is the fact that he is also telling the Madhi Army to stand up against Iraqi Security and US Forces.

The next couple of weeks should see an rise in Madhi Army militia confronting Iraqi Security and US Forces.

Given the fact that 426 insurgents (mostly Sunni) have been detained and approximately 400 insurgents (mostly Sunni) have been killed in the last two weeks in Baghdad, we should start seeing Mahdi Army personnel also going to Allah in the next few weeks.