What About The Green Zone?

Based on a Charlie Rose interview with John Burns and Dexter Filkins, reporters with the New York Times, Josh has good words to say about the reduction of violence from the "surge". Some readers disagree with him, on how credibly Burns and Filkins should be regarded.

I didn't watch the Rose interview. But here's what I want to know. Is there still a Green Zone behind which most Americans and the Iraqi government congregate behind, and from which most of the American and Iraqi elite can't venture beyond without a parade of humvees and military convoys? And can the U.S. President, Vice President, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State, and Members of Congress, make ANNOUNCED visits to Iraq and to Baghdad?

Until then, anything said about violence in Iraq, or political reconciliation, or elections, is rather beside the point.