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Informed Comment: Al-Bayyinah al-Jadidah carries on the front page a 350-word report citing Al-Sadr Trend member Hazim al-A'raji calling for a national reconciliation inside the parliament. He held parliament members responsible for the blood shed in Iraq.

[AntiWar.com] Monday: 6 GIs, 69 Iraqis Killed; 39 Iraqis Wounded - Antiwar.com: Ministers loyal to Moqtada al-Sadr were ordered by the Shi'ite cleric to quit the alliance government in protest over Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's refusal to set a U.S. troop withdrawal timetable. During a raid in Ramadi, U.S. troops came under attack.

[The Agonist - thoughtful, global, timely] Iraq and Afganistan: Dual Fronts, March 15-22 | The Agonist: The gloomy assessment at a conference in America last week came as senior US and Iraqi officials sat down yesterday with officials from Iran, Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia in Baghdad to persuade Iraq's neighbours to help seal its borders against fighters, arms and money flowing in. During the conference the US, Iranian and Syrian delegations were reported to have had a 'lively exchange'.

[Sweetness & Light] NYT: Suddenly Sunnis Love US Big Time | Sweetness & Light: Investigations into possible wrongdoing by American troops in two major cases - the deaths of 24 civilians in Haditha last November, and the rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl and the killing of her family in Mahmudiya in March - have ignited anger among Sunnis, but not nearly to the degree as they might have in 2004, when the Abu Ghraib prisoner scandal emerged. But back then, Iraq had not crept to the brink of full-scale civil war.

[Truck and Barter] Truck and Barter: Iraqi Dinar Discussion: December 14, 2006 ...: May God, judging by His word, not allow these sniping voices to twist this sacrifice of love which helps the Iraqi people to obtain peace and prosperity into their false argument that it is not legitimate for the ox to eat from the grain he has worked so hard to harvest for the masters of the vineyard (the Iraqis - who ultimately owe the vineyard and its fruit to God). And may we seek the blessings on our labor (which is represented in the money we obtain from it) only from God's good hand of blessing - for surely He can never be deceived by the false arguments when His word is plain in saying the blessing is legitimate on the ox which treads out the grain.

[War Report] Success or Failure? Iraq's Insurgency and Civil Violence and US ...: In any case, the Iraqi government under Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki failed to meet the Bush administration's benchmarks for reversing de-Ba'athification and administering provincial elections through the end of June 2007. ...

[LBN E-Lert] LBN E-Lert » 7.15.07: “By Him, in Whose hand Mohammed’s soul is, I would’ve liked to raid and be killed, then raid and be killed, then raid and be killed,” bin Laden says.

Informed Comment: (Despite the denials of Bush administration officials such as Condi Rice, the Arab and Islamic opposition to US presence in Iraq has at least something to do with local perceptions that the US invaded Iraq on behalf of Israel, and Iraqis often refer to US troops as "al-Yahud," "the Jews." This is conspiracy theory thinking and wrong-headed, but it is the reality on the ground. Even the notorious attack on the four mercenaries in Falluja was done in the name of the murdered Palestinian leader Sheikh Yassin.

['Just World News' with Helena Cobban] 'Just World News' with Helena Cobban: Gulf of Tonkin redux, redux: The capture of Zarqawi by Sunni insurgents would not end the terrorist-haven problem by itself, but that offer appears to shorthand for a broader proposal to attack and eliminate the foreign terrorist bases of operation in Iraq. U.S. intelligence has long been aware of a sharp rivalry and even occasional armed clashes between Sunni insurgent organizations and the foreign terrorists under Zarqawi's leadership, despite their military cooperation against the occupation.

[Political Punch] White House Accidentally E-Mails to Reporters Story That Maliki ...: We face a well-organized Al Qaeda because Bush back-peddled on his promise when we had them on the run - they were too interested in the war-for-profit in Iraq to settle real national security issues that could have effectively mitigated the "war on terror." Now we have to do it over again, with higher American casualties, to finish an operation that was picture-perfect until American forces decided to allow the Afghanistan forces to handle the Mop-up in Tora Bora - and they let Al Qaeda and the Taliban escape into Pakistan, and the mistake was 100% ours.I'm a Liberal/Progressive, however I believe that we need to finish-off Afghanistan and follow through in Pakistan and deal a death-blow to Al Qaeda and the Taliban. This was our supposed battele-plan, but we let Musharraf step-in and play both sides against the middle.

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