U.S. forces in Iraq suffered one of their worst days on Wednesday, with 11 soldiers reported killed as a high-level panel in Washington said training of Iraqi forces should speed up so that U.S. troops can withdraw.
Confirming the 11 deaths, U.S. military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Garver said on Thursday five soldiers had been killed in a single roadside bomb blast in Kirkuk province. Details of the other six deaths were not immediately available.
The deaths, an unusually high daily toll, brought to 30 the number of U.S. soldiers killed since the start of the month and underlined the human cost of the U.S. deployment in Iraq, where rampant violence kills scores of Iraqis every day.
The above is from Reuters and not from the 'daily paper' the New York Times. The 'daily paper' is more interested in a circle jerk of bad writing and op-eds passing for 'reporting.' The only thing that leaves the obvious this morning is Edward Wong and Abdul Razzaq Al-Saidi's "In Iraq, Reaction to Report Runs From Relief to Anger:"
They gathered Wednesday evening inside an office in the fortified Green Zone, the Iraqi prime minister and a handful of senior officials, awaiting word of the report that could shape American policy toward their embattled country.
[. . .]
The prime minister had been pleased, Mr. Askari said, because the report seemed to affirm an argument that Mr. Maliki and other Shiite leaders had been making to President Bush -- give the Iraqi government more control over the security forces, and the war could be won. Mr. Maliki was also glad, Mr. Askari said, that Mr. Baker had insisted on a regional dialogue and not a full-blown international conference, which Mr. Maliki fears could lead to undue interference here by foreign powers.
[. . .]
Not all Iraqi politicians were as optimistic. Reaction to the bipartisan commission's recommendations on how to salvage the American enterprise varied among Iraqi politicians, who expressed appreciation, anger and ambivalence at sections of the report. Much depended on whether the study's 79 points seemed to support their ethnic or sectarian group’s interests.
Rebecca's "cindy sheehan on trial means we're all on trial" addresses the trial Cindy Sheehan, Medea Benjamin, Missy Comley Beattie and Patti Ackerman are currently facing. That's news as well, even if the Times doesn't think so. (Or possibly, especially since the Times doesn't think so.)
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
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