A brilliant piece in the Post, from Sudarsan Raghavan, that sums up perfectly the insanity of the war in Iraq. It describes the chaos of the battle front in a large area south of Baghdad, near Iskandiriya:

"We are in the middle of it," [Col. Michael] Garrett said, indicating the center of his area of operations, which is the size of Rhode Island. "I'm not fighting one sect or the other. I'm fighting both. And not only am I fighting both, but at certain points I have to put my forces in between the Sunni and Shia groups to protect the populace."

Here's the best part:

A series of tit-for-tat mosque attacks had put the town on edge. Then Shiite militiamen based in one mosque attacked a Sunni shrine down the street.

As a unit from the 1st Battalion rolled into the battle zone, not far from Khafaji's factory, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades suddenly targeted them, according to a military report.

"Both sides stopped shooting at each other, and both opened up on our men," Whiteside said. The Americans had to fight their way out.

And this sums it all up, from Sgt. Josh Claeson: "Our basic mission here is to drive around and get blown up."