Sadriya: Car bomb kills at least 115 at market..
Sadr City: Car bomb kills at least 30 at checkpoint..
Karrada: Car bomb near private hospital kills at least 10..
al-Shurja: Minibus bomb kills at least two people..
That's the total so far today in Baghdad..
It leaves one speechless.. the extent one 'faith' will go to, to gain control of..
What, really?
A statement from Prime Minister Nouri Maliki that Iraqi forces will take control of security in all of the country's provinces by the end of the year was also made today.. while his government tries to deal with the loss of a major section of it's coalition..
Although electorally allied to Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's own al-Daawa party and partners in the big Shia coalition which dominates government and parliament, the two sides had been increasingly at odds as the pressures in the country mount...
And the decision by radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr to order his six ministers to quit the Iraqi government was not a surprising development..
However, Mr Sadr's decision to withdraw from the government appears to have been triggered primarily by its failure to heed the big popular demonstration he called in Najaf a week earlier to demand a withdrawal of coalition forces.
Hundreds of thousands of people, mainly Shias, attended the demonstration, waving banners and chanting slogans calling for the Americans to leave...
It passed off peacefully...
This leaves the coalition between a rock, and a hard place..
Can the Americans, in the face of growing political and public opposition to the war, increase their commitment to the point that the back of the supply of arms and money to the terrorists is broken..and does George have enough time to effect a drastic change in Iraq..
Will the British, in the face of similar dissatisfaction with both the cost and the effects.. under Gordon Brown.. maintain the necissary groundforce, and spend the money on equiping them..
Will the British presence in Afghanistan remain constant, and will the much needed airpower continue to be supplied to them..
We're seeing a drastic change in leadership in both of the major players in most of the major conflicts ongoing..
And what is the result if we pull out again.. this time not 40 miles from Baghdad, but 5 years into the city..
Diplomacy...?
I refer the readers to the statistics at the head of this article.