A very good interview with Gen John Abizaid on tonight's NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. Gen Abizaid is the commander of the Central Command, which includes all U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The General talked a lot of why he feels the situation in Iraq is improving. And by, "situation in Iraq" he really means "in the areas where we've applied military forces. The overall numbers show a slight decrease [in violence]; I wouldn't say [the decrease in violence is] substantial."

... ... well that sure is good to know. He did discuss trying to turn over more and more responsiblity to the Iraqi's, though he ducked a question about how many resources the US is spending on training new Iraqi solders to kill the new insurgents as opposed to cutting out the middle man and doing that ourselves.

There was one thing that certainly shocked me, especially that such a high ranking general made such a point calling our attention to it.

And then the final thing I'd say is it's hugely important for us to keep in mind that the flow of oil and the flow of natural resources through the Straits of Hormuz, the Bab-el-Mandeb, and the Suez Canal have got to continue. And that falls to the United States Armed Forces, which is why we currently have about 215,000 Americans serving in my region.

I'm not such a crazy lefty that I don't realize that Oil is a strategic resource and we want to protect our resources (especially when "our" resources are in other country's borders), but when the General in charge of all military operations in the Middle East says that safe guarding the flow of oil is "why" we have almost a 1/4 million troops there is a little shocking.

NewsHour: Interview with Gen. John Abizaid