Iraq

Certainly the headline item is the UN report that Iraqis are now dying at more than a hundred a day. (Two notes, first, this is compiled only from the morgues, so if a body didn't make it to the morgue, it's not counted. Second, "In July, for example, the Health Ministry reported no people killed in Anbar.")

ABCNews is reporting a "confidential Pentagon assessment" that finds that 75% of Iraq's Sunnis now support the insurgency. In 2003, it was 14%. (Loose math puts that at about 1 million fighting age males, although "support" and "engaging in" are different things.)

Two US soldier deaths were reported.

Two different versions of this story (LATimes, AP) discussing the trouble the military is having finding troops to deploy to Iraq. (Perhaps this is why the "commanders on the ground" aren't asking for more troops.)

(AFP) Bush issues the dreaded vote of confidence in Maliki.

(Dahr Jamail) The extensive home searches of Operation Forward Together (53,ooo buildings, 54 mosques, only 1,200 weapons) are generating resentment.

(Reuters) Despite every bit of reporting, "The United States military said on Wednesday it had found no evidence that the Iraqi government and its police were behind Shi'ite sectarian death squads murdering Sunnis in Baghdad." (This is another of those "big lies" intended to tamp down sectarian tensions. The Iraqis won't believe this one either.)

Last, a gripping "day in the life" account from an LATimes reporter in Baghdad.