It's that time of the week again. Yep, that's right it's Conservative Blogger Briefing time.

This week was all about Iraq. With some sub-prime mortgages and online petitions thrown in for fun.

Kirk Johnson, Ambassador Crocker's "chief statistician" who recently returned from a year in Iraq, and Jim Phillips from the Heritage Foundation came by to talk to us about the surge and General Pertraus and Ambassador Crocker's testimony to Congress this week.

To sum up everything, Phillips had two good quotes.

There may be a hard road ahead, but it would be even harder if we were to leave.

and

Dealing with the Iraqis is like trying to herd cats.

I asked Johnson and Phillip about the role Iran is playing in Iraq and whether or not Iran could be persuaded to stop destabilizing Iraq.

They answered that in the short-term Iran wants to destabilize Iraq and force the US out of the country. Then in the long-term Iraq will able to step into the power vacuum and set up a regime sympathetic to Iranian interests.

In the ensuing discussion, the point was made that the biggest story that isn't getting out, although that's now starting to change, is Iran's meddling in Iraq.

Phillips conjectured that the Administration itself has been soft-pedaling Iran's role in Iraq, because, "If we start exposing it, we'd have to do something."

Here's some video of Kirk Johnson from today courtesy of Robert Bluey.

There's more video of Johnson talking here.

If you want to read more, Johnson has a article up that talks about the points he covered today. There's also a good YouTube video of him talking about this week's hearings.

Subprime Mortages
Elizabeth Terrell from National Taxpayers Union called in to talk about the subprime mortgage issue and mentioned a recent paper from NTU on the subject.

Victory Caucus
Lastly, N.Z. Bear at the Victory Caucus gave us an update about the petition to support the troops. You can download the petition or host it on your blog and show your support for General Petraeus and the surge.

Contact N.Z. Bear for more info at nz (at) victorycaucus.org.