how much more

are we as a nation going to put up with?

Baghdad bombings kill more than 170
By Shashank Bengali, Laith Hammoudi and Nancy A. Youssef
McClatchy Newspapers

BAGHDAD, Iraq - At least 173 people died in Baghdad on Wednesday in a series of major explosions, making the day the capital's deadliest since the onset nine weeks ago of a much-touted U.S.-Iraqi security plan.
The violence capped a dreadful seven days that began with a stunning suicide attack in the Iraqi parliament building in the heavily fortified Green Zone, which killed a lawmaker. At least 363 people died in Baghdad in the past week, including 118 whose bodies were found dumped in various parts of the city.

Training Iraqi troops no longer driving force in U.S. policy
By Nancy A. Youssef

WASHINGTON - Military planners have abandoned the idea that standing up Iraqi troops will enable American soldiers to start coming home soon and now believe that U.S. troops will have to defeat the insurgents and secure control of troubled provinces.
Training Iraqi troops, which had been the cornerstone of the Bush administration's Iraq policy since 2005, has dropped in priority, officials in Baghdad and Washington said.
No change has been announced, and a Pentagon spokesman, Col. Gary Keck, said training Iraqis remains important. "We are just adding another leg to our mission," Keck said, referring to the greater U.S. role in establishing security that new troops arriving in Iraq will undertake. ...........