Word: baghdad
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...weeks ago was largely overlooked, but it is stunning. He called the level of violence in Iraq "satanic." He said that as the violence increases, "the center disappears, and normal people acting not irrationally end up acting like extremists." In other words, if you're a resident of Baghdad, the most rational response is to seek protection from one of the militias-al-Qaeda if you're Sunni, the Mahdi Army if you're Shi'ite-or to get out of town. "It's impossible to get your teeth fixed in Baghdad," a U.S. intelligence official told me recently...
...share Bush's hope that Iraq is still salvageable. I spoke with several senior officials involved in or familiar with the Pentagon's Iraq review process last week, and they were unanimous in suggesting the need for more troops, at least in the short term, in order to secure Baghdad. They also suggested more and better U.S. advisory teams working with Iraqi military units. "And then we need to be patient," a senior military intelligence official told me. "It could be years before we see any real progress...
...locals called it Body Street, the place in Washash, a Baghdad slum on the western side of the Tigris, where the corpses would pile up. That was a few months ago. Now every road in Washash is a body street. One of the bodies appeared near the home of Ahmed Mansur. He was standing there one morning when he heard about the corpse. He joined a group of people walking together to have a look. "He was very handsome," Mansur says. "He was wearing a gold necklace and a gold ring. There was a bullet wound in his forehead...
...this week's announcement that President Bush is to meet Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in the capital of neighboring Jordan raised eyebrows, by Friday it was abundantly clear why the meeting couldn't be held in Baghdad - the Iraqi capital is under siege. After a day of open sectarian warfare on the streets had claimed more than 200 lives, the city's airport is closed and its residents are forced to remain indoors under a curfew...
...House and Congress to sift through the commission's findings and get to the same place. Congress will push for the full range of the group's proposals - starting up a regional security group; a restart of the Middle East peace talks; some basket of carrots and sticks on Baghdad. And the White House will have its own internal fight between those who want to get on board this train and the "we-get-to-decide-these-things" crowd that resists outside authority of any kind. My bet is that Vice President Dick Cheney hasn't fought his last battle...