we just can't be doing this

we can't. we shouldn't be there. we NEVER should have been there. iraq NEVER attacked us nor were they going to. (i agree saddam had to go, he was an evil despot as are a TON of others). we CANNOT and MUST not torture NOR must we kill innocents. we're doing both

U.S. Strike Kills 8 Iraqi Civilians, Police Say

By REUTERS

BAIJI, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi police said on Thursday a U.S. helicopter airstrike killed eight civilians, including two children, but U.S. forces said the six adults killed were militants suspected of links to a bombing network.

News of Wednesday's incident north of Baghdad broke on a day when the top U.S. commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, said he expected to make further troop cuts by September.

The U.S. Senate approved a further $165 billion to wage war in Iraq and Afghanistan for another year after rejecting proposed timetables for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq.

The speed of drawing down the 155,000 U.S. troops in Iraq is a central issue in the November U.S. presidential election.

An Iraqi television station accused U.S. troops of shooting dead one of its cameramen as he walked to his Baghdad home. The U.S. military denied it had killed any civilians in the area.

The body of a second journalist, a reporter for al-Sharq newspaper, was found dumped in a field with nine other corpses in Diyala province, police and colleagues said...........

In Iraq, a Surge in U.S. Airstrikes

Military Says Attacks Save Troops' Lives, but Civilian Casualties Elicit Criticism

By Ernesto Londoño and Amit R. Paley

Washington Post Foreign Service

CAMP TAJI, Iraq -- From an Apache helicopter, Capt. Ben Katzenberger's battlefield resembles a vast mosaic of tiny brown boxes.

"The city looks like a bucket of Legos dumped out on the ground," the 26-year-old pilot said. "It's brown Legos, no color. It's really dense and hard to pick things out because everything looks the same."

He uses a powerful lens to zoom in on tiny silhouettes, trying to identify people with "hostile intent" among hundreds of ordinary citizens in Baghdad.

In recent weeks, Katzenberger and other pilots have dramatically increased their use of helicopter-fired missiles against enemy fighters, often in densely populated areas. Since late March, the military has fired more than 200 Hellfire missiles in the capital, compared with just six missiles fired in the previous three months.

The military says the tactic has saved the lives of ground troops and prevented attacks, but the strikes have also killed and wounded civilians, provoking criticism from Iraqis....

(NOTE: we wouldn't have to worry about our ground troops OR ANY OTHER OF OUR TROOPS in iraq IF THEY WEREN'T IN IRAQ TO BEGIN WITH)

i guess this is an example

of things getting better in iraq??? nothing is getting better in iraq. the people that are still there, are living in fear. they're living without amenities. what have we done?

Gunmen in Iraq Kidnap Eleven Tribal Leaders Allied With U.S.

By Amit R. Paley Washington Post Foreign Service
BAGHDAD, Oct. 28 -- Eleven tribal leaders who had banded with U.S. troops to fight the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq were kidnapped Sunday morning, the latest in a string of such attacks, fellow tribesmen said.
The Shiite and Sunni sheiks, members of the al-Salam Support Council, a group fighting al-Qaeda in Iraq in volatile Diyala province, were taken from their cars by gunmen as they were returning home from a meeting in Baghdad with a government official, the tribesmen said. ..........

september is even closer now

than it was when i mentioned it last week.

five more cabinet ministers have quit. more children are dead. the country is in ruins. the water is hard to come by as is electricity. people have been forced (those still alive that is) to become refugees. oh and we've lost more of OUR troops as well.

and why?

i don't know. i can't answer that (except to say king george, big dick and the rest of the cabint have big wood over this war)

Iraqi Crisis Deepens as 5 More Ministers Quit Cabinet Meetings


By Sudarsan Raghavan Washington Post Foreign Service
BAGHDAD, Aug. 6 -- Iraq's political crisis deepened Monday as five more ministers withdrew from cabinet meetings, delivering a major blow to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's fractured unity government and efforts to reconcile Iraq's warring parties.
Hours earlier, a truck bomb in a Shiite village near the northern city of Tall Afar killed 31 people and wounded scores more, striking an area that was once hailed by President Bush and U.S. military commanders as an oasis of stability, following U.S. operations against insurgents there. Six children were among the dead, police said.
The U.S. military also announced the deaths of six American soldiers, including four killed in an explosion Monday in volatile Diyala province, where U.S. forces are engaged in a major offensive against Sunni insurgents. The blast injured 12 other U.S. soldiers, the military said in a statement. One soldier was killed by a sophisticated roadside bomb in west Baghdad on Monday, and another was killed during combat in eastern Baghdad on Sunday, the military said...........

14 more funerals

king george will NOT be attending. he sent them off into harm's way FOR NO REASON. yet he has not attended ONE funeral. how many more mornings are we going to wake up to news of more deaths?

one more morning is too many

Attacks Kill 14 U.S. Soldiers in Iraq
Dozens Sickened by Gaseous Cloud in Bombing Outside American Base


By Joshua Partlow Washington Post Foreign Service Monday, June 4, 2007; Page A08
BAGHDAD, June 3 -- A car bomb attack outside a major U.S. military base in Iraq discharged a gaseous cloud that sickened dozens of people Sunday, punctuating a flurry of violence that left 14 American soldiers dead over the past three days.
The bomb exploded near the main gate of Forward Operating Base Warhorse, the largest U.S. military facility in Diyala province, a restive territory north of Baghdad. An Iraqi employee on the base said the bomb unleashed chlorine gas. The U.S. military cited an "unconfirmed report of off-color smoke" that caused soldiers to complain of "minor respiratory irritations and watery eyes," according to a statement. Soldiers were rushed to the clinic on base for treatment, but there were no deaths...............

and of course the understatement of the day:

.........."This is going to get harder before it gets easier".............