As McCain told us, Iraq's situation gets better

[Mass]

Lawmaker: Blast kills 2 in Iraqi parliament building
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Two people were killed -- including an Iraqi lawmaker -- and 10 others wounded on Thursday when a blast struck a cafeteria inside Iraq's parliament building in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, an Iraqi parliament member at the site of the blast told CNN.
...


Truck bomb brings down bridge

A suicide truck bomb exploded on a major bridge in northern Baghdad Thursday morning, sending cars into the Tigris River and killing at least 10 people and wounding 26 others, according to an Iraqi Interior Ministry official..

Video of the scene showed two large sections in the middle of al-Sarafiya bridge collapsed into the river.

...
The Pentagon announced Wednesday that the standard yearlong tour of duty for U.S. Army soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan has been extended to 15 months to meet targets for troop buildup. (Full story)

I do not want to know what it would like if it was getting worse.

[cmd]

1. Turning corners is hard work. n/t

[rpannier]

2. McCain's news is old.

He needs to get up to date with his information.
I don't expect him to give us the truth through his republikkan filter.
I understand you can walk down the streets of the Green Zone in a flak jacket, with full body armor, a personal security unit and attack helicopters and still become a target.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

3. and 59 bodies found around the streets, 3 US soldiers killed.

yeah, that smells like success.

[NewJeffCT]

4. It's a sign of how desparate the insurgents are

wasn't that Bush's logic a few years ago - the more attacks there are, the more desperate the insurgents have become.

Personally, I thought the insurgents would lay low for a while. If they are being this bold during a "surge" - it shows to me that things are really much worse than just about everybody says it is...

[Kagemusha]

5. Let's say for a moment it is a sort of desperation. It's strategic brilliance.

Petraus' plan is to shut various parts of Bagdhad off into little Gaza Strips, imprisoning the civilian population with a system of walls, gates, ID cards etc, and trying to root out insurgents from the population and provide a safe environment for reconstruction. There'd be visitor cards etc. and surely Americans would have their contractor driven supply trucks get through unimpeded. So, the use of these bridges to Iraqis themselves stands to dip tremendously anyway. Destroying this bridge could therefore be seen as a pre-emptive strike to damage the US military's ability to resupply itself by the ground. That's a scary thought for US forces in need of supplies that are trucked in from Kuwait.

So even if it is desperation... that doesn't mean it's a bad move for the enemy, and a painful move for "our side."

[saltpoint]

6. Republican strategists wake up every morning to similar news from

Iraq, from the war that not only won't go away but which is escalating in scope and severity, and they try to project their best instincts on the 2008 re-election campaigns for their clients.

If Bush digs in further and longer, the 2008 electoral map is going to be a lot bluer than it's been in a long time.

[Mass]

7. Tom Tomorrow on McCain...