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By DAVID HALL
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE
March 24, 2008 6:57 a.m.
The Morning Brief, a look at the day's biggest news, is emailed to subscribers by 7 a.m. every business day. Sign up for the e-mail here.
A roadside bombing that claimed the lives of four U.S. soldiers and pushed the American death toll in Iraq to the 4,000 mark underscores how fragile the situation remains even as the government weighs bringing home some of the reinforcements that were deployed in the surge.
Along with the roadside bombing, the U.S.-protected Green Zone came under fire yesterday as insurgents fired rockets and mortars into the area on a day when at least 57 Iraqis were killed nationwide, the Associated Press reports. Violence in Iraq has flared up in recent weeks after remaining static from November through January, which is the last month for which official figures are available, the New York Times writes. The Bush administration has said that the surge in troops that began last June has helped reduce violence in the country significantly and is now assessing the impact of recent withdrawals of some reinforcements before deciding whether to pull out more troops, the Times says, adding that a decision is expected this week. But the situation is volatile. Shiite leaders recently warned of more bloodshed in retaliation for a suicide bombing near a Shiite shrine in Karbala and clashes between Iraqi forces and Shiite militias in southern part of Iraq are continuing, the Washington Post notes.Furthermore, while Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has reined in his militia with a cease-fire that began last year and was extended last month, splinter groups of the Mahdi Army are thought to be responsible for some of Sunday's shelling, the Times says.
It's unclear what impact, if any, the milestone of 4,000 deaths will have on the U.S. presidential campaign, Reuters writes. Anthony Cordesman, an Iraq analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, tells the news agency that the milestone could trigger more intense debate: "Those who oppose the war will see it as further reason to end it. Those who support it, will point to military progress and say that future casualties will be much lower." But the U.S. military plays down the importance of such death tolls, seeing them as arbitrary markers. "It is artificial in the sense that somehow the 4,000th tragic loss…will be different from the first," U.S. military spokesman Rear Admiral Greg Smith told the agency in a recent interview. And less prominence for the war in the media lately and a focus on reduced violence means the public reaction may be muted, Stephen Biddle, a senior fellow for defense policy at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, tells Reuters. "I doubt the 4,000 milestone will have the impact that the 3,000 did. The conventional wisdom then was that things were going badly," Mr. Biddle says.
No mention of al qaeda just shiites & iraq forces. Shiites have always been in Iraq and always been fighting with sunnies. And whatever the other sect is called.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE
March 24, 2008 6:57 a.m.
The Morning Brief, a look at the day's biggest news, is emailed to subscribers by 7 a.m. every business day. Sign up for the e-mail here.
A roadside bombing that claimed the lives of four U.S. soldiers and pushed the American death toll in Iraq to the 4,000 mark underscores how fragile the situation remains even as the government weighs bringing home some of the reinforcements that were deployed in the surge.
Along with the roadside bombing, the U.S.-protected Green Zone came under fire yesterday as insurgents fired rockets and mortars into the area on a day when at least 57 Iraqis were killed nationwide, the Associated Press reports. Violence in Iraq has flared up in recent weeks after remaining static from November through January, which is the last month for which official figures are available, the New York Times writes. The Bush administration has said that the surge in troops that began last June has helped reduce violence in the country significantly and is now assessing the impact of recent withdrawals of some reinforcements before deciding whether to pull out more troops, the Times says, adding that a decision is expected this week. But the situation is volatile. Shiite leaders recently warned of more bloodshed in retaliation for a suicide bombing near a Shiite shrine in Karbala and clashes between Iraqi forces and Shiite militias in southern part of Iraq are continuing, the Washington Post notes.Furthermore, while Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has reined in his militia with a cease-fire that began last year and was extended last month, splinter groups of the Mahdi Army are thought to be responsible for some of Sunday's shelling, the Times says.
It's unclear what impact, if any, the milestone of 4,000 deaths will have on the U.S. presidential campaign, Reuters writes. Anthony Cordesman, an Iraq analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, tells the news agency that the milestone could trigger more intense debate: "Those who oppose the war will see it as further reason to end it. Those who support it, will point to military progress and say that future casualties will be much lower." But the U.S. military plays down the importance of such death tolls, seeing them as arbitrary markers. "It is artificial in the sense that somehow the 4,000th tragic loss…will be different from the first," U.S. military spokesman Rear Admiral Greg Smith told the agency in a recent interview. And less prominence for the war in the media lately and a focus on reduced violence means the public reaction may be muted, Stephen Biddle, a senior fellow for defense policy at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, tells Reuters. "I doubt the 4,000 milestone will have the impact that the 3,000 did. The conventional wisdom then was that things were going badly," Mr. Biddle says.
No mention of al qaeda just shiites & iraq forces. Shiites have always been in Iraq and always been fighting with sunnies. And whatever the other sect is called.
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