[forestal]

Just a Normal Saturday in Iraq...

Proud Iraqis demonstrate the 'breathing room' that 4000 dead American soldiers who gave their lives up for a better world, and a magnified U.S. presence has given them in their road to peaceful co-existence with each other.

maybe I'm missing the 'big picture'. All I see is dead Americans, Dead Iraqis, and total chaos. It was a good thing that we went to war in Iraq, I can't imagine how awful the world would be today if we didn't.

At least 40 Iraqi national police in Baghdad have deserted and joined the Mehdi Army militia led by Muqtada al-Sadr, taking their U.S.-supplied weapons with them, according to an Iraqi Interior Ministry official.
The radical Shiite cleric rejected Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's call for the Mehdi Army to lay down its arms, a top al-Sadr aide told CNN on Saturday.
"Muqtada al-Sadr has told us not to surrender our arms except to a state that can throw out the [American] occupation," Salah al-Obaidi said.
Mortar and rocket attacks were directed Saturday at Baghdad's fortified International Zone -- also known as the Green Zone -- where Iraqi government buildings and embassies are located. No injuries were reported, a U.S. Embassy spokesman said.

Nassar al-Rubaie, a Shiite member of parliament affiliated with the Sadr bloc, criticized the strikes against Shiite areas.
"We condemn U.S. airstrikes against Sadr City, Shula neighborhood and other areas," al-Rubaie said at a news conference. "We condemn the government asking occupation forces to carry out airstrikes against our people. We say Iraq sovereignty will not be achieved through military operation against Iraqis, as Bush claimed, but it can be achieved through throwing the occupation forces out of Iraq."
Another lawmaker accused al-Maliki of violating the constitution by deploying forces to attack Basra without notifying the city's local council. Falah Shenshil threatened to sue top government officials.