sunday

-- iraq prime minister says: We're not in a civil war. Iraq will never be in a civil war," Nouri Al-Maliki said. "The violence is in decrease and our security ability is increasing."
-- 6 u.s. soldiers die (4 in blast north of baghdad, 1 in blast west of baghdad, 1 in gunfire to east).
-- 50 miles north of baghdad, militants kill 12 after opening fire at market.
-- on outskirts of that town, 6 killed by bomb blast.
-- bomb in minibus in baghdad kills 9.
-- two suicide bombs in kirkuk kill 10.
-- motorcycle bomb kills 4 in basra.
-- drive-by shootings kill 2 in mosul, 1 in numaniyah and 3 in dujail.
-- eight dead bodies found in mahmoudiya.

(overall, roughly 60 dead)

monday

-- 40 dead as forces clash in diwaniyah.
-- suicide bomber kills 14 in downtown baghdad, outside interior ministry. among them, at least 8 policemen.
-- roadside bomb in baghdad kills 1 barber.
-- two more u.s. soldiers reported killed.

(overall, roughly 60 dead)

tuesday

-- oil pipeline explodes, killing 34.
-- 48 bullet-riddled bodies found around baghdad.

(overall, roughly 80 dead, if not more)

wednesday

-- 12 people die in blast at iraqi army recruiting center.
-- 34 people die in blast at baghdad's central market.

Copy, paste.

Copy, paste.

Copy, paste.

i just looked at stories from the last three days that i've pulled in and wrote this all out. i definitely missed stuff.

What I meant was that it's the same shit every day, not that you copied and pasted from articles. But that's true too.

-- 3 policemen die in baghdad blast.

it's the same everyday and the wave won't break.

In Buhriz, a former Saddam stronghold about 60 kilometers (35 miles) north of Baghdad, a roadside bomb struck a car carrying a family of five, killing everyone inside and wounding two people who were walking nearby, according to Diyala province police.

Don't forget to include all the good stuff we're doing.

Overthrowing dictatorships.

Installing democracy.

Well, in the PM's defense, the situation in the central part of Iraq had stabilized quite substantially over the course of the entire month of August.

But it just goes to show what I've been saying for a while now. We're in a perpetual state of status quo where nobody is able to make any marked gains. Violence escalates, violence goes down, it's back and forth and back and forth. We beat them back, they regroup, make adjustments, find new soft spots, and exploit them.

No solid headway is gonna occur if we don't do more.

-- 66 total death toll on wednesday.

i wonder if you guys would have a different view of the war in iraq if you were sitting on the news wires all morning as deaths from iraq come in left and right.

Pentagon: Conditions exist for civil war in Iraq
Report says violence is spreading but still can be quelled

Karim Kadim / AP file

MSNBC News Services
Updated: 2 hours, 25 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Conditions that could lead to a civil war exist in Iraq, reflecting the “most complex” security challenges since the U.S. invasion in 2003, the Pentagon said Friday.

The “core conflict” has changed into one pitting Sunni Muslims against Shiites, with the Sunni Arab insurgency overshadowed, it said in a quarterly report to Congress on U.S. efforts to stabilize the country.

The Pentagon said illegal militias have become more entrenched, especially in Baghdad neighborhoods where they are seen as providers of security as well as basic social services.
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The report described a rising tide of sectarian violence, fed in part by interference from neighboring Iran and Syria and driven by a “vocal minority” of religious extremists who oppose the idea of a democratic Iraq.

Death squads targeting mainly Iraqi civilians are a growing problem, heightening the risk of civil war, it said.

“Death squads and terrorists are locked in mutually reinforcing cycles of sectarian strife,” the report said, adding that the Sunni-led insurgency “remains potent and viable” even as it is overshadowed by the sect-on-sect killing.

“Conditions that could lead to civil war exist in Iraq, specifically in and around Baghdad, and concern about civil war within the Iraqi civilian population has increased in recent months,” the report stated.

That assessment, which has been expressed publicly by U.S. military commanders and others in recent weeks, was tempered by a degree of optimism that the Iraqi government — with support from U.S. troops — will succeed in quelling the sectarian strife. Optimism among ordinary Iraqis, however, has declined, the 63-page report said.

Attacks up by 15 percent
The report provided a sober assessment of the situation in Iraq over the past three months, saying attacks increased by 15 percent over the prior three months and casualties among Iraqis surged 51 percent.

Peter Rodman, the assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, told reporters that although there has been progress this summer in reviving the Iraqi economy and raising electricity production, the security conditions have deteriorated even as the number of trained Iraqi troops has increased.

The report covered the period since the Iraqi government led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Malaki was seated May 20.

“The last quarter, as you know has been rough,” Rodman said. “The levels of violence are up and the sectarian quality of the violence is particularly acute and disturbing.”

Rising sectarian fighting between minority Sunnis, who controlled Iraq under Saddam Hussein, and the majority Shiites, who are ascending in power after decades of oppression, defines the emerging nature of violence in Iraq, the report stated.

When asked whether they believe “things will be better” in the future, the percentage of Iraqis responding positively has dropped fairly consistently over the past year — whether they were asked to look ahead six months, one year or five years — according to polling data cited in the report.

The report is the first to Congress since the Iraqi government assembled its full slate of ministers in early June. Since then, sectarian tensions have increased, “manifested in an increasing number of execution-style killings, kidnappings and attacks on civilians” and growing numbers of people forced from their homes, it said.

Spreading outside Baghdad
It said sectarian violence has spread from Baghdad into Diyala and Kirkuk provinces north of the capital. It also cited a rising problem with violence in the predominantly Shiite southern region, especially in the city of Basra.

“The security situation is currently at its most complex state since the initiation of Operation Iraq Freedom,” the report said, using the U.S. military’s name for the war that was launched in March 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein.

Although it acknowledged the risk of civil war, the report said the current violence does not amount to civil war and asserted momentum toward a civil war can be stopped.

“Breaking the cycle of violence is the most pressing goal of coalition and Iraqi operations,” it said.

The release of the report comes as the Bush administration pursues a campaign to bolster sagging U.S. public support, with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and others attacking critics two months before U.S. congressional elections.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

what is wonderful is how, immediately after the war, saddam's capture, etc. when all the supposed justifications of war had been accomplished, the main argument against pulling out was, and is, that chaos within Iraq would emerge and civil war would be inevitable.

I'm particularly struck by the statement that the “core conflict” has changed into one pitting Sunni Muslims against Shiites, with the Sunni Arab insurgency overshadowed, essentially saying that it's not "al Qaeda-type" foreign terrorists attacking Americans who are the problem there, but regular Iraqis fighting each other.

This was not an issue before we were there, or at least there was not violence associated with it.

Interesting daily updates on the full scope of what's going on in Iraq.

What, may I ask, do you suggest we do in regards to this issue, corduroy blazer?

i think we have two options:

-- drop a boatload of troops in iraq and put together a massive offensive.
-- completely pull our troops out.

now, no politician that will be in power enough to make the decision has the balls to do either. so we'll go along with 70 people dying everyday in violence across the nation, and the bush administration will hope that it either quells or that we kill another al qaeda leader soon or the mideast war keeps flaming up so the attention is off the war in iraq.

I think his suggestion is that we not forget this is going on just because the media decides that the anniversary of Katrina or a crazy guy claiming to have killed a little white girl ten years ago is teh story du jour.