The Peace in Iraq

by Basheert @9:57 AM MDT

Continues to grow. Things are going well, our troops are now safe and the Iraqis are standing up so we can stand down.


HERE

Deployments: The Real Numbers

by Basheert @7:00 pm MDT

Mr. Bush's fuzzy math (must be all that cocaine and booze) regarding the actual deployment numbers for Iraq. When will the military families realize they are being used and abused for purely political reasons?

We need our troops home, now!

ARTICLE

Seven more soldiers killed in Iraq this weekend

By S-Q @ 8:00 AM MDT

After the explosion that killed four U.S. soldiers on Saturday, the unit came under fire and another soldier was wounded. During this month's crackdown in the capital, the battalion had found eight weapons caches and two roadside bombs and helped rescue a kidnap victim, the military said.

An explosion in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad killed another soldier Saturday and injured five. A sixth soldier died Saturday in a non-combat related incident, the military said. A U.S. Marine also was killed Saturday in fighting in Anbar, according to a separate statement.

Saturday's deaths brought to at least 3,217 members of the U.S. military who have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

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Bush will address Iraq, North Korea

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush will hold a brief news conference at 11 a.m. Wednesday at the White House in which he will talk about Iraq and North Korea and take questions, a senior administration official told CNN.

The president will also discuss the resolution being debated in the House this week that expresses disapproval of Bush's plan to send an additional 21,000 troops to Iraq, the official said.

Bush will have talked to his new commander on the ground in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, before Wednesday's news conference, the official said.

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House members joust over Iraq war policy

WASHINGTON - House members fiercely debated Iraq war policy Tuesday in an emotional and historic floor faceoff over a conflict that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record) lambasted as a U.S. commitment with "no end in sight."

The confluence of arguments came as the war nears the four-year point with over 3,100 American deaths, billions spent and lawmakers grappling what position to take on President Bush's decision to send an additional 21,500 troops into battle.

"The American people have lost faith in President Bush's course of action in Iraq and they are demanding a new direction," said Pelosi, a California Democrat who became the first female House speaker after her party took control of both the House and Senate in the fall elections.

A resolution putting the House on record as against Bush's expansion of troop strength was expected to be approved by week's end. It was nonbinding, but nevertheless unmistakable in its message. "No more blank checks for President Bush on Iraq," Pelosi declared.

Countered White House press secretary Tony Snow: "Members of the House and members of the Senate have the freedom to go ahead and write their resolutions, and do what they want with them. The one thing we do expect is, we do expect those who say they're going to support the troops, to support them."

Republicans, now the minority party on the Hill for the time in 12 years, issued impassioned warnings of the consequences of undermining the president's policies in Iraq. "We will embolden terrorists in every corner in the world. We will give Iran free access to the Middle East," said Republican leader John Boehner (news, bio, voting record), R-Ohio. "And who doesn't believe the terrorists will just follow our troops home?"

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