Iraq progress seen after stepping close to "abyss"

[Barrett808]

Source: Reuters

Iraq progress seen after stepping close to "abyss"
By Paul Tait

BAGHDAD, May 17 (Reuters) - Iraq stepped close to "the edge of the abyss" but is showing signs it can meet political benchmarks set as vital steps towards reconciliation, Washington's top official in Iraq said on Thursday.

Progress was being made on a revenue-sharing oil law, legislation to allow former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party to take up public posts and on constitutional reform, the three key milestones Washington has set Baghdad's leaders.

U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker said he was encouraged Iraq had not slipped back into the widespread sectarian violence of a year ago, despite the continued provocation of horrific car bombings, but conceded patience was not "limitless".

"If I had to evaluate today, and looking purely at the security situation, as devastating as the al Qaeda-led chain of suicide vehicle attacks is, that does not in my mind suggest the failing of the state or of society," Crocker told reporters.

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L17735911.htm

[Demeter]

1. Tell It To The Marines! Wear Your Flak Jacket, Though

I wouldn't want to push their tolerance of fools too far....

[NanceGreggs]

2. Sounds to me like a Crocker shit ... n/t

[Tempest]

3. Street battles in Iraqi cities point to dire security status

Sprawling street battles between militia gunmen and Iraqi security forces erupted in three cities on Wednesday on a day of wide-ranging violence that underscored the grave security situation across much of Iraq.

In the northern city of Mosul, more than 200 Sunni Arab insurgents carried out a sophisticated attack on several targets using suicide car bombers, rocket-propelled grenades, assault rifles and improvised bombs, said Major General Watheq al-Hamdani, the top police commander in Mosul.

Four police officers died in the fighting, while 14 others were wounded along with 16 civilians, Hamdani said.

The attack began at dusk when gunmen tried to storm the main provincial jail, the commander said. When police forces responded, the insurgents attacked them with six suicide car bombs, and 14 bombs planted on surrounding roads exploded.

As the police and insurgents fought near the prison, gunmen also attacked the houses of Hamdani and Khasro Goran, deputy governor of Mosul Province and one of the senior members of a leading Kurdish political party, the police commander said. Neither man was wounded.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/17/africa/17iraq.php

[louis-t]

4. "I SEE PROGRESS, I SEE PROGRESS!!!!1!1!11!1"

I still say they're doing this fully knowing how bad it is. They know they're doomed in '08 and are ready to blame the next (Dem) president. "Things were going great until the Dems took over."

[daleo]

5. What a load

These people are so full of it.

[damntexdem]

6. Turnin' another corner over there.

Yep, still running around in circles next to that abyss. Who dare call it a death spiral?

[tabasco]

7. Alright! Iraq is not in the abyss! Yayahh! Woohoo! Victory against the abyss!!

Yeeehah! No doubt the abyss is full of them Al Kader types!

Yeeeeehaaah!!

It ain't the abyss so it must be progress!!

They will put up a statue of Bush one day for keeping them out of the abyss!

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAH!!