Iraq war created a terrorist flood, American spymasters warn Bush

America's spy agencies have concluded that the invasion of Iraq has created a flood of new Islamic terrorists and increased the danger to US interests to a higher level than at any time since the 9/11 attacks.

[more]

Ethnic civil war rages through Iraq

Civil war is raging through the Iraqi countryside. Sunni insurgents have largely taken control of the province of Diyala, where local leaders believe the insurgents are close to establishing a 'Taleban republic'. Officials in the strategically important, mixed Sunni and Shia province with a Kurdish minority, have no doubt about what is happening. Lt Col Ahmed Ahmed Nuri Hassan, a weary looking commander of the federal police, says: "Now there is an ethnic civil war and it is getting worse every day." At the moment the Sunni seem to be winning it. As the violence has escalated in Iraq over the past three years it has become too dangerous for journalists to find out what is happening in the provinces outside the capital.

[more]

  thanks to Juan Cole

It's not a comma in the sandbox
by Steve Gilliard

When Bush said Iraq was a comma, he was speaking in dog whistle to the fundies. It comes from a saying "Never put a period where God puts a comma".Which means things will get better. Which is, of course, insane. Well, shit, they're now deploying units with no weapons and less training. The Iranians are taking careful notes. Why? Because when the Great Shia uprising takes place, they want to know which units to hit first. Or direct the Shia to attack. The Third ID is going to get to Iraq and use clapped out equipment because they had to leave their equipment in Iraq.Sorry.Oh, and the Iraq auxillaries can't function.

[more]

Iraq at the Gates of Hell
George Bush's Iraq in 21 Questions

How many freelance militias are there in Baghdad? 5,106 people in July and August, according to a recently released United Nations report. The previous, still staggering but significantly lower figure of 3,391 offered for those months relied on body counts only from the city morgue. The UN report also includes deaths at the city's overtaxed hospitals. With the Bush administration bringing thousands of extra U.S. and Iraqi soldiers into the capital in August, death tolls went down somewhat for a few weeks, but began rising again towards month's end. August figures on civilian wounded -- 4,309 -- rose 14% over July's figures and, by late September, suicide bombings were at their highest level since the invasion.

[more]

I should mention that my son-in-law leaves within the next two weeks for his second tour in Iraq.