Bumped -- GH.

All that's needed is for something to happen to rile the 'mahdi' army and the ceasefire will end, as well as some Iraqi leader to demand "America tear down these Walls!" and the Real Purposes for the 'surge', i.e. Escalation, will be no more!

Political: The 'surge' Working?? Take 1

Iraqi army prepares assault in Diyala as election law vetoed

Found at McClatchy:

Bush wants $600 million for Iraq police; but cuts aid to U.S. cops

— At the same time the Bush administration has been pushing for deep cuts in a popular crime-fighting program for states and cities, the White House has been fighting for approval of $603 million for the Iraqi police.

This promises to be a slightly difficult November, and not only for Republicans: military families are going to be hard-pressed to continue their sacrificing for the dueling quagmires of Iraq and Afghanistan this fall.

From the the Baltimore Sun,

_____

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon has alerted nearly 40,000 active duty and National Guard soldiers that they will be deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan starting this fall, in a sign that it expects hard fighting to continue on both fronts in what Pentagon officials call "the long war."
_____

In light of this, November definitely promises to be an election focused on change.

This is an Open Thread.

Seven veterans under VA's care commit suicide

They served their country honorably but after risking their life in combat abroad, coping with coming home was too much. In the last three months seven servicemen being treated by Spokane's VA Hospital have committed suicide.

What does one say when they have watched others go through All This Before, and having beared witness through these many years!

Iraq

Contractors operate equipment under the crackle of automatic weapon fire and with the protection of M-1 tanks, Stryker vehicles and Apache helicopters. The workers in this case are constructing a series of walls to block certain areas of Sadr City, the vast Shi'ite slum in Baghdad.

Conn Hallinan who is a Foreign Policy In Focus columnist has a writeup over at Foreign Policy in Focus, go figure.

It's titled Basra: Echoes of Vietnam, and while some is about the recent cheney debacle in Basra, and yep he had to have requested the Iraqi action in his resent visit, looks too much like what he's done these past 7plus years, in short it shows the ignorance and failed policy decisions, once again, that this Nation has been subject to as we destroy others.

MAKE MAYDAY A "NO PEACE, NO WORK HOLIDAY"!

The following was written by Jack Heyman a longshoreman who works on the Oakland docks

Longshoremen to close ports on West Coast to protest war

While millions of people worldwide have marched against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and last week's New York Times/CBS News poll indicated that 81 percent believe the country is headed in the wrong direction - key concerns being the war and the economy - the war machine inexorably grinds on.

In an exclusive new index, Foreign Policy and the Center for a New American Security surveyed more than 3,400 active and retired officers at the highest levels of command about the state of the U.S. military. They see a force stretched dangerously thin and a country ill-prepared for the next fight.

A few days ago we get this:

U.S. Wants British 'Surge' In S. Iraq: Paper

And why, because:

It quoted an unnamed senior U.S .military source saying: "Three big militias are currently engaged in a particularly bloody battle in southern Iraq.

And the U.S.

"If they do not have enough troops, then they will be offered U.S .Marines to help out.

Sen. Robert Byrd has a request posted over at Huffington Post, the title is his.

He hasn't Waivered as apparently many in this Country have!

Each brave soul leaves behind devastated loved ones -- sons, daughters, wives, husbands, moms, and dads. Each tragic loss leaves a void -- a missing smile and loving embrace, an empty chair at the family dinner table -- that can never be filled.