Iraq

(AP) A second massacre as Sunni extremists rampage through the small village killing "dozens." (This is the second of these in a week.)

(Iraqslogger) The US launches a new 8,000 soldier offensive, "Marne Avalanche" southwest of Baghdad targeting Sunni extremists. (Notice in these new operations there's no longer any pretense of fighting "side by side" with the Iraqi forces.)

(LATimes) NCO's are leaving the Army at a troubling pace.

(WaPo) Sadr ends his parliamentary boycott. (But is getting the votes back worth it when Sadr stands opposed to the oil law and other "benchmarks?")

(CBS/AP) UN Chief Ban Ki-moon weighs in on US Iraq policy. (Can you imagine the anti-UN Republican outcry if he wasn't speaking in support of the President's position?)

And, from a USAToday editorial regarding MRAPs

It has become routine to criticize the Bush administration for bad planning, denial and a lack of imagination in failing to anticipate the difficulty of the Iraq mission. That certainly applies here. When President Bush told troops' families in December 2004 that "we're doing everything we possibly can to protect your loved ones," it simply wasn't true.

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