Iraq

The violence continues. Eight US soldiers killed in two days.

(Reuters) "Growing suspicions among leaders of Iraq's Shi'ite majority that the United States is shifting its favor toward once dominant Sunnis are fuelling the tensions that have broken into the open between Baghdad and Washington."

(AP) The Maliki cabinet reshuffle should happen in a few weeks. This will certainly aggrieve some parties. Will he keep the same sectarian balance?

(Time) Unbelievable. One of the soldiers convicted in Abu Ghraib is being sent back to Iraq.

(NYTimes) "Presidential candidate" Duncan Hunter has officially killed the auditor who has been so effective in Iraq. Does that favor for his military contractor friends go on the campaign posters?

(Reuters) A senior U.S. general compared Iraq on Thursday to a "work of art" in progress, saying it was too soon to judge the outcome.... "A lump of clay can become a sculpture, blobs of paint become paintings which inspire," Major General William Caldwell, chief military spokesman, told his weekly Baghdad news briefing. (I don't know art, but I know what I don't like.)

And, I've been wondering about this. Regarding the search for the kidnapped US soldier Taie,

"The manhunt has angered some American troops in Iraq, who have privately complained that the military should not expend any additional resources, or put any troops at further risk, to search for a soldier who had violated military rules and exposed himself to danger by leaving his post without military protection."