McQ from Q and O responds:
...those who read this blog regularly know I support the war and effort in Iraq. But I can't help, given the points raised by both Ulph and Brown, to have a healthy sense of skepticism concerning this letter. If true, it wonderfully outlines the fact that we're winning. But it is the neatness and completeness of that admission which has me hearing alarm bells. The world just doesn't work that way. It's just to pat. And then, given the greeting, the dates and the mention of the daughter's name, there's enough to turn that alarm into skepticism.
Speculation, of course, is rampant from it being an American disinformation effort to a David Ignatius claim (from Juan Cole), of it being an Iranian operation. I'm not ready to buy into any of that.
I'm not ready to buy into it either, nor am I willing to buy into the "its too good to be true" theory. Still, though, Ulph and Brown raise some good questions that are worthy of considering.