Why Does FactBasedCommunity Hate Freedom

The U.S. military reported the deaths of nine soldiers Monday - including seven killed in a vehicle accident - and Iraq's prime minister said the nation's armed forces were not ready to fight without American help.

The statements - more Pentagon death notices and appeals for more time from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki - echoed some of the key struggles in Washington as lawmakers began long-awaited hearings on U.S. strategies in Iraq.

Among the core issues is whether Iraq's leadership is moving fast enough at political reconciliation and assuming security responsibilities while U.S. troop deaths have risen to at least 3,772 in the 4 1/2-year war.
[ cf 9 GIs Die in Iraq, Military Reports ]

US AMBASSADOR to Iraq Ryan Crocker has spent a lot of his life in the Middle East and he understands in exquisite detail the history of the tensions between Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq.

But as he and the US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, tried to explain why Congress should be heartened by events in Anbar, where Sunni tribal chiefs stopped firing at the American troops and joined them to tackle al-Qaeda, he revealed the weakness in his own assessment of progress on political reconciliation: the long history of dysfunction that the Iraqis must overcome.
[ cf Positive spin on Iraq defies history ]