Return to War?

I haven't seen it on any of the blogs I read and I haven't seen any kind of official announcement either. But this morning on ABC News, the talking head said that a military official in Iraq had confirmed that there were more operations in and around Baghdad last night against units of the "Republican Guard."

I'll try to find out some more about this, but this is something that I don't believe has been stated so baldly before.

In the past it has been Baathists and resistance fighters and foreign fighters and terrorists. But for the administration to let something like this out, seems to me, to be a subtle but important change. There has been talk over the past week that the military might be moving back towards more combat operations, and the attacks and bombings in the Sunni Triangle have sure looked more like what went on before May 1, than after.

An interesting turn of events, no?

[UPDATE]

I also forgot to mention that Central Command is so concerned over the way things are going in Iraq that Gen. John Abizaid is moving his HQ back to Doha, Qatar from Tampa, FL.

[UPDATE 2]

ABC News is now saying that one of the attacks last night was on a former Republican Guard warehouse. Hmmmm... interesting change of words. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

While it is necessary, if our military is going to stay, for them to try and stop these attacks, it cannot be done at the expense of the battle for the "hearts and minds." Otherwise, no matter how badly we defeat the insurgents/resistance, we will lose this war.