Details on President Obama's plans for Iraq are leaking, and while it is good news that Speaker Pelosi thinks he is planning on too many troops in Iraq after August of 2010, the lack of commitment to the longer term stability of the region is very troubling.

I'll discuss the Obama plan as well as the success of the surge with the Washington Post's Thomas Ricks on today's program.  Ricks' new The Gamble is a very detailed and riveting account of the turnaround in American policy in Iraq from 2006 through the 2008 election.  I will tape two hours with him and play the first this week and the second the week of March 9.

After Ricks I will welcome into the studio longtime religion writer for the Los Angeles Times, William Lobdell, whose new book, Losing My Religion is receiving many great reviews and very strong sales. Though it may discomfit many of the Christians who read it, including me, it is a candid memoir that covers many of the major stories in American religion from the past dozen years.

The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America-and Found Unexpected Peace

If Lobdell's account fills you with dread, be sure to take time throughout Lent to read Mark Roberts' series on the season.  (Roberts, btw, is a friend of Lobdell's.)  For every believer who loses their faith, there are thousands more every day who gain it.  Thank God.