There's a Swirl

Key US ally in fight against Qaeda in Iraq assassinated - 13 Sep 2007 at 2:47pm - BAGHDAD (AFP) - Top Sunni sheikh Abdul Sattar Abu Reesha, who spearheaded a fight against Al-Qaeda, was killed by a bomb on Thursday, just 10 days after US President George W. Bush shook his hand when he visited Iraq.

The handshake of death.

U.S. military starts freeing Iraqis for Ramadan - 13 Sep 2007 at 8:17am - BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The U.S. military began releasing Iraqi detainees on Thursday to mark the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, Iraqi and U.S. officials said.

Iraq Qaeda says has video on "missing" U.S. airman - 13 Sep 2007 at 3:11pm - DUBAI (Reuters) - A group led by al Qaeda in Iraq said it would soon post a video about a "missing" U.S. military man, according to a statement posted on the Internet on Thursday.

Bush agrees to reduce U.S. troops in Iraq: official - 13 Sep 2007 at 3:02pm - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush will announce plans on Thursday to pull 5,700 troops out of Iraq by December, accepting recommendations by the top U.S. commander and diplomat in Iraq, a senior administration official said.

Bush prepares to ask Americans for patience in Iraq - 13 Sep 2007 at 3:18pm - In a prime-time speech to the nation, Bush was expected to cast his plan for a gradual, limited troop withdrawal as a way to bring a divided America together - even as he resists demands from Democrats and a few Republicans who want him to move much faster.... "This forward strategy is going to be watched everywhere," said Senator John Warner of Virginia, who first warned last year that progress in Iraq seemed to have stalled. "It is then going into the jaws of the presidential elections, a drumbeat of people in the United States who are saying to themselves, 'We're sacrificing all of these things, our sons, our daughters, our money, and the Iraqis aren't performing as the president said on Jan. 10.' I mean, there's a swirl into which this new strategy goes."

New strategy? There's a new strategy?

Thought for the day:
After I'm dead I'd rather have people ask why I have no monument than why I have one. -Cato the Elder (234 BC - 149 BC)