April 9, 2008
Wednesday: 7 US Soldiers, 40 Iraqis Killed; 107 Iraqis Wounded
http://www.antiwar.com/updates/?articleid=12664

Senate hearings

Petraeus: progress in Iraq has been “significant and uneven.”...“We haven’t turned any corners. We haven’t seen any lights at the end of the tunnel.” It's partly Iran's fault and partly Al-qaeda's fault...the war is far from a foreseeable end."

McCain: “We’re no longer staring into the abyss of defeat, and we can now look ahead to the genuine prospect of success.” ...“reckless and irresponsible” calls for rapid withdrawal from Iraq.

Obama: the war in Iraq has been a “massive strategic blunder.”

Ambassador Crocker: notable progress toward both security and political stability.

Senator Boxer: Why isn't the Iraqi government covering more of the financial burden of reconstruction itself...After all we have done, the Iraqi government kisses the Iranian leader.... Our president has to sneak into the country.”

Senator Feingold: “Are we winning or losing in the global fight against Al Qaeda? Do you think Al Qaeda is our top threat?” The general agreed.

Senator Lugar: “What if we were to withdraw?” he said. “What are the dire circumstances? … Who comes to the rescue?” Petraeus: possible resurgence of Al Qaeda, a return of ethnosectarian violence, an intensification of Iranian influence and a shift in regional stability, which would reverberate in the global economy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/09/washington/09petraeus.html?bl&ex=1207886400&en=7e0160acf86c54ad&ei=5087%0A
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/watching-the-iraq-hearings-with-petraeus-and-crocker/

Posted : Friday Apr 4, 2008 12:45:38 EDT
Retired Army Maj. Gen. Robert Scales Jr., testifying before the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee about U.S. military strategy in Iraq, said he has no doubt that a major withdrawal of combat forces is coming because the U.S. has “run out of military options” and cannot indefinitely sustain troop levels.
<snip>
Scales testified along with two other retired Army generals, Gen. Barry McCaffrey and Lt. Gen. William Odom, who also agreed a withdrawal of U.S. combat troops early in the next president’s administration is inevitable.
“We face a deteriorating political situation with an over-extended Army,” said Odom, who served as director of the National Security Agency in the Reagan administration.
“The only sensible strategy is to withdraw rapidly but in good order,” Odom said. “Only that step can break the paralysis now gripping U.S. strategy in the region.”
McCaffrey, a former chief of U.S. Southern Command and commander of the 24th Infantry Division in the 1991 Gulf War, predicted a withdrawal of U.S. forces within three years or less because there is “no U.S. political will to continue” and because allies “have abandoned us.”
“It is over,” McCaffrey said.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/04/military_iraqwithdrawal_040208w/



http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00314/Cartoon_314866a.jpg

http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/steve_bell/2008/04/10/bell512.jpg

Thank you, people of iraq, for outsourcing our civil war against the evil minions
of the bush fascists and their corporate criminal army. May you break them in to
itty bitty little pieces and send them home bankrupt. This outsourcing is a painful
policy, but our economic system demands we dump the externalities somewhere.

Sorry, and Thank You for keeping the evil pricks pinned down.

Sincerely,
Thomas Jefferson and the Framers

By ROBERT H. REID – 2 hours ago

BAGHDAD (AP) — A roadside bomb killed an American soldier in Baghdad on Saturday, capping the bloodiest week for U.S. troops in Iraq this year. Clashes persisted in Shiite areas, even as the biggest Shiite militia sought to rein in its fighters.

At least 13 Shiite militants were killed in the latest clashes in Baghdad's militia stronghold of Sadr City, the U.S. military said. Iraqi police said seven civilians also died in fighting, which erupted Friday night and tapered off Saturday.

The U.S. military said the American soldier was killed in a blast Saturday morning in northwestern Baghdad but did not say whether Shiite militiamen were responsible.

The death raised to at least 19 the number of American troopers killed in Iraq since last Sunday.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gkx-3oYeFwuWKCusr2jrojs98w8wD900MITG1