Iraq

An agreement has been reached on the sharing of oil revenues? If this is true, it would be a huge step towards lessening future violence in Iraq, but I haven't seen this confirmed anywhere else.

Undermanned in Ramadi. Trying to retake Ramadi with half the troops of the Fallujah operation.

4 more soldiers deaths announced on Tuesday.

The violence is continuing across the country and in Baghdad. The BBC has the bottom line,

"The Baghdad blasts come amid a joint US-Iraqi security clampdown that officials insist is working. It probably does not feel that way to Baghdad 's citizens, says the BBC's world affairs correspondent Nick Childs."

To confirm this, McClatchy has an article describing territorial Sunni-Shia street battles for neighborhoods (plural) in Baghdad. (That's a civil war, by the way.)

Fighting between armed groups of Shiites and Sunnis isn't uncommon in Baghdad, but the extent of Tuesday's fighting was unprecedented, and it raised troubling questions about the U.S. and Iraqi government effort to bring order to the capital.

Different self promoting versions from both sides, but "Both sides agreed it was a battle for control of the neighborhoods."

The WaPo has this awful piece on the sectarian killings that even reach the wounded in their hospital beds.

(Angus Reid - Do you believe the United States’ policies in the Middle East are helping or hurting the war on terrorism? 56% hurting, 29% helping.)

(And, I'm beginning to think that Rumsfeld's wingnut diatribe yesterday was an effort to look tough before the Democrats push their "no confidence" vote in September. It will be a recitation of all his weaknesses, so maybe he's trying to preemptively shape the debate away from specifics.)