From the New York Times

Cycle of [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/20/world/middleeast/20revenge.html?ei=5094&en=438b8e8a360603e9&hp=&ex=1164085200&partner=homepage&pagewanted=all|Revenge] Fuels a Pattern of Iraqi Killings
BAGHDAD, Nov. 19 — As Iraq sinks deeper into war, a new pattern of revenge has become the driver of violence in the capital.

A warning was painted on an empty Sunni house in Naariya. A police official said similar warnings were written on approximtely 30 houses in the neighborhood.

In a cycle that has been tracked by the American military since May and June, after months of apparently random sectarian violence the pattern has become one of attack and counterattack, with Sunni militants staging what commanders call “spectacular” strikes and Shiite militias retaliating with abductions and murders of Sunnis.

Militias come to funerals and offer to carry out revenge attacks. Gunmen execute blindfolded people in full public view. Mortars are lobbed between Sunni and Shiite neighborhoods. Sometimes the killers seem to be seeking specific people who were involved in earlier attacks, but many victims lose their lives simply to even out the sectarian toll.

“The problem is that every time there’s a sensational event, that starts the whole sectarian cycle again,” said Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, the chief spokesman for the American command in Iraq. “If we could stop the cyclical nature of this in Baghdad, we could really change the dynamics here.”

 Read more at the NYT
 

from the BBC
Pentagon leak hints at US infighting
By Adam Brookes
BBC News, Washington
Washington is [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6166624.stm|fizzing] with debate over how to proceed in Iraq.
US soldiers unfurl a flag at a US military base in Baghdad, Nov 2006
The military may be trying to make sure its views are heard
That debate has been lent new momentum by the victory of the Democratic Party in mid-term elections and the emboldening of the Democratic leadership that has followed.
Every option for Iraq - from immediate withdrawal, to "phased redeployment", to the strengthening of the American presence there, to regional diplomatic initiatives - is being touted as the wise and prescient course.
And those doing the debating come from across the Washington spectrum.
Quiet debates are taking place behind the scenes in the National Security Council, in the Pentagon and in the intelligence agencies.
Public debates are raging in the think tanks and the media and on the floor of Congress.
And the Iraq Study Group of James Baker and Lee Hamilton has taken on a mythic aura. Washington waits for it to pronounce much as the ancients awaited the oracle at Delphi.
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Gus It is quite interesting to note that all the solutions proposed seem to involve the USA doing this or that... Nothing is done to help the region be itself and grow within its own means... More solutions from the top... Drink your Freedomola or else!
 

From the BBC
Stay in Iraq, says Pentagon panel
Iraqi and US soldiers near Baquba, Iraq
The plan would boost training for Iraqi forces, officials said
A US military review of strategy in Iraq is likely to back a limited troop increase focused on training, officials have told the Washington Post.

Senior defence officials said a review panel appeared to favour an [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6164704.stm|option dubbed "Go Long"], the paper reported.

Other plans - "Go Big" and "Go Home" - were seen as less plausible, the officials said.

Two other reviews are under way, one by the White House, the other by a bipartisan panel of experts.

Continued violence in Iraq was a key factor in the Republican defeat in mid-term polls and US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's resignation.

On Monday, the US military said two more of its servicemen had died in Iraq - a marine who was killed in an attack in Anbar province and a soldier who died in a roadside bombing in south-eastern Baghdad.
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Gus: of course the Pentagon is going to spruik the stay in Iraq solution since it's THE solution for the US to control the space there while they pump. But it is not the right way to endear the Muslim East. Already the Iraqi president is engaging in talks with the president of Iran in regard to find ways to kerb the violence in Iraq. All in all one has to accept that there will be violence in Iraq for a while, but that it can diminish IF the US quits and it can only increase IF the US stays. The US has made plans to stay in Iraq for the next 25 years, thus I do not have to tell you the outcome of any "SOLUTIONOLA"...

From the Washington Post

No Decisions Yet on Iraq Troop Levels, Bush Says

By Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 20, 2006; 1:04 PM

BOGOR, Indonesia, Nov. 20 -- President Bush said Monday that he has [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/20/AR2006112000098_pf.html|made no decisions] about altering the number of U.S. troops in Iraq, and he refused to discuss the pros and cons that would accompany such a decision.

"I haven't made any decisions about troop increases or troop decreases, and won't until I hear from a variety of sources, including our own United States military," Bush said. "They will be bringing forth the suggestions and recommendations to me here as quickly as possible."

Bush made his comments at a time when several ongoing reviews are expected to begin recommending changes in Iraq policy -- a process likely to be encouraged by Democrats who won control of the House and Senate in recent midterm elections.
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Who knows, the little one might surprise us and pull a rabbit out of the hat... But I have the feeling the rabbit will be just another carcass to be fed to the carrion.

From the New York Times

U.N. Reports Deadliest Month in Iraq

By SABRINA TAVERNISE
Published: November 22, 2006
BAGHDAD, Nov. 22 — [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/22/world/middleeast/23iraqcnd.html?hp&ex=1164258000&en=47d1664586a9e6e6&ei=5094&partner=homepage|More Iraqi civilians were killed in October] than in any month since the American invasion in 2003, a report released by the United Nations today said, a rise that underscored the growing cost of Iraq’s deepening sectarian war.

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Gus: Shame on Bush, Blair and Howard for launching into "something" that anyone with a brain knew it was going to be an ongoing bloodbath. There were better paths to follow to achieve peace in the Middle east, but these might not have suited the oil pumpers of the USA. Shame to these liars and forgers, these leaders who pretend to know better but act despicably.

From the Guardian

Curfew imposed after Baghdad blasts kill 157

Thursday November 23, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
 
The Iraqi government today imposed an indefinite curfew in Baghdad after one of the worst days of violence since the US-led invasion.

The interior ministry ordered people and cars off the streets after a series of car bombs exploded in the predominantly Shia district of Sadr City, [http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1955366,00.html|killing 157] people and wounding 257.

 

Update from our ABC:

Baghdad bombings death toll rises

The death toll from a series of car bombs in the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City in the Iraqi capital has risen to 202, with 250 people wounded.

Doctors say many of the wounded have serious injuries and are unlikely to survive.

The violence was the worst since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.