Ending the ceasefire?

And making the casualties go up?

BAGHDAD —

Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr will call on his fighters to maintain a cease-fire against American troops but may lift the order if a planned Iraq-U.S. security agreement lacks a timetable for the withdrawal of American forces, a spokesman said Thursday.

The statement by Sheik Salah al-Obeidi comes as al-Sadr plans to reveal details of a formula to reorganize his Mahdi Army militia by separating it into an unarmed cultural organization and elite fighting cells.

The announcement is expected during weekly Islamic prayer services on Friday.

Several cease-fires by al-Sadr have been key to a sharp decline in violence over the past year, but American officials still consider his militiamen a threat and have backed the Iraqi military in operations to try to oust them from their power bases in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq.

And here:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called off a mass demonstration set for Wednesday in Baghdad and threatened to formally end the seven-month cease-fire of his Mehdi Army militia.

In fighting Tuesday in al-Sadr's Baghdad stronghold of Sadr City, 12 people were killed and 27 wounded. At least 48 people have been killed and 176 wounded since Sunday, an Interior Ministry official said.

Eight of the 11 U.S. troops killed in Iraq on Sunday and Monday died in fighting in Baghdad.

Four U.S. soldiers were killed Monday in the capital, the U.S. military said.

One soldier was killed by a roadside bomb, two by a rocket-propelled grenade and one by small-arms fire after a roadside bomb detonated near his vehicle during a patrol in eastern Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

The deaths bring the U.S. death toll in the Iraq war to 4,024, including eight civilian Defense Department contractors.

[snip]

U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker, speaking Tuesday afternoon to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington, said that "U.S. forces will remain in Iraq beyond December 31, 2008." At that time, he said, the U.N. resolution that allows U.S. troops to operate in Iraq will expire and be replaced by a status of forces agreement, commonly called a SOFA, requested by the Iraqis.

Crocker said it would cover the "basic authorizations and protections" to allow troops to continue operations but will not specify troop levels or establish permanent bases.

"We anticipate that it will expressly forswear them ... and it will not tie the hands of the next administration," he said.

Crocker also said Congress will be "kept fully informed," but he has previously made clear that the administration sees no role for Congress in the agreement's final approval.

Off topic but interesting are the article's number of deaths cited because this is what I get on the Iraq Casualties site:

U.S. Confirmed Deaths
Reported Deaths: 4134
Confirmed Deaths: 4134
Pending Confirmation: 0
DoD Confirmation List

And that's not even listing the defense contractors' deaths.

So what will the Bush administration do?

Bomb Iran probably.

How does it feel?

How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?

How does it feel to be the excuse for Bush to continue the war? How does it feel to keep soldiers in the war zone until they slowly go mad or die? How does it feel to be leg-chained to the worst administration in US history and know your name and face will be forever linked with them in the history books?

How does it feel?



I know how I feel just listening to you two.

crossposted at SteveAudio

Isn't it a bad sign when our ambassador doesn't know

There has been a meeting arranged with Iran?

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- U.S.-Iranian talks about Iraq's security will begin on May 28, Iran's foreign minister said Thursday, keeping up Tehran's call for foreign troops to leave Iraq.

Manouchehr Mottaki said the negotiations would be exclusively about Iraq and that a first meeting in the presence of Iraqi officials would try to set a more detailed agenda.

"Nothing but Iraq is on the agenda," he told reporters in Islamabad, where he has been attending a ministerial meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

In Baghdad, U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker appeared unaware of Mottaki's announcement, saying only that he hoped the talks would take place by the end of the month.

"I'm ready to sit down anytime they like," Crocker, who is to lead the U.S. delegation, told reporters.

With something so important, I'd like to see a bit more involvement by the Bush administration. But then, we all know how much Bush is with diplomacy and having to actually talk to someone rather than shock'n'awe them....