From the Washington Post, Aug. 21:.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Sunni Arab insurgents armed with rifles and mortar shells killed 20 pilgrims and wounded 300 others who thronged the capital Sunday for one of Shiite Islam's most important holidays, authorities said.

The parade of denial goes on. US Central Command chief Gen. Abizaid makes headlines by speaking the obvious—his dramatic understatement treated like a splash of cold water, so deep is the degree of self-delusion:

"I believe that the sectarian violence is probably as bad as I've seen it, in Baghdad in particular, and that if not stopped, it is possible that Iraq could move towards civil war," Abizaid told the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday.

This Aug. 7 clip from the London-based Arabic daily al-Hayat was sent by our correspondent Gilbert Achcar, who writes: "There is little chance that you could find something like the news below reported in any language but Arabic. I couldn't resist sharing it with you, and translated it therefore. It needs no comment!"

by Sarkis Pogossian, WW4 REPORT

There have been signs over the past three years, as the debacle in Iraq has gone from bad to worse, that the so-called "neo-cons"—the Pentagon-connected policy wonks with traditional ties to the Israeli right and ultra-ambitious schemes to remake the entire order of the Middle East—have been taken down a peg. With the US actually in danger of losing control of Iraq, the notion of attacking Iran, or even plotting against supposed allies like Saudi Arabia, is starting to look more dangerous than attractive to Washington pragmatists.

Hamas may be rallying around Hezbollah at the moment, but the Sunni-Shi'ite lovefest sure doesn't seem to have extended to Iraq. From AP, July 28:

Rockets strike an upscale Shi'a district, killing dozens
Rockets and mortars rained down an upscale, mostly Shi'a area of Baghdad yesterday, collapsing an apartment house, shattering shops and killing at least 31 people -- part of the rising sectarian violence President Bush has vowed to stop.

We noted in March 2005, when US troop levels in Iraq were boosted to around 150,000 ahead of the elections, that they were up from 123,000 a year earlier, and were supported by some 26,000 more coalition troops. This was also an increase from May 2003, when Bush initially declared "victory" in Iraq. Then the US had 135,000 troops in Iraq, and officially planned to reduce that number by over 100,000 over the next four months. Now, the Washington Post informs us July 28, US troops in Iraq are being raised by 3,000 to 135,000 in response to growing sectarian violence: in other words, the same level they were at when Bush declared "mission accomplished" in May 2003. Is there a light at the end of this tunnel?

BOOK REVIEW:

INSURGENT IRAQ: AL ZARQAWI AND THE NEW GENERATION
by Loretta Napoloeoni
Seven Stories Press, New York, 2005

by Chesley Hicks

Kidnapping workers is the latest tactic of the Iraqi insurgents that some on the supposed left persist in glorfying as the "resistance." On June 25, unidentified gunmen kidnapped 16 employees of a technology institute in Taji, north of Baghdad. Taji was also the site of a kidnapping on June 21 when 64 workers of the Nasr General Company for Heavy Mechanical Industries were abducted by gunmen. Later, 34 of the workers were released, while the corpses of seven others were found. The fate and whereabouts of the remaining 23 missing workers remained uncertain. (DPA, June 25) Days earlier in Baghdad, gunmen stormed a bakery and kidnapped 10 workers. Iraqi police found nine bodies dumped in various parts of the city, all shot in the head with six of them showing signs of torture. Dumped bodies are discovered in the capital almost every day, and they are linked to sectarian violence. (CNN, June 18)