News reports show that U.S.-led forces in the Shiite militia stronghold of Sadr City killed 32 suspected militants and detained 12 others in fighting and an airstrike targeting alleged smuggling networks from Iran on Wednesday. The fighting occurred hours before Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki arrived in Tehran, Iran, for his second visit to discuss security issues in less than a year.

I read in the Star Tribune today that Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has ordered a six-month suspension of activities by his Mahdi Army militia and will no longer attack U.S. and coalition troops. Care to comment? Is the troop surge having an effect on militants in Iraq?

A soldier from Moorhead was killed while serving his third tour of duty in Iraq. Army Sgt. Andrew Nelson, 22, died Wednesday with the 82nd Airborne Division based at Fort Bragg, N.C., on patrol outside of Tikrit.

Nelson enlisted in the Army immediately after high school. He also served one tour of duty in Afghanistan. Read the whole story at www.startribune.com.

Democrats in the U.S. Senate and House are trying hard to discredit the upcoming General Patraus report on the progress of the troop surge in Iraq.

Why?

In Australia on Wednesday after making a surprise visit to Iraq, President Bush told Australia's deputy prime minister- "We're kicking ******." 

In other news, members of an Australian TV comedy show, one dressed as Osama bin Laden, drove through two security checkpoints Thursday before being stopped near the Sydney hotel where President Bush is staying.
 
Cast members put together a sham motorcade, hiring two motorcycles and three large cars on which they put Canadian flags. Police waved the motorcade through two checkpoints before pulling it over near the Intercontinental Hotel.

Cast member Chas Licciardello got out of the car dressed in a white tunic and cap and wearing a long fake Osama bin Laden-style beard.
Police arrested 11 cast and crew from the TV program, "The Chaser's War on Everything," and impounded three vehicles, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

Minnesota soldier to be honored with silver star

A Minnesota soldier will be honored for "gallantry in action" Saturday when the Minnesota National Guard presents him with the prestigious Silver Star, the Guard announced Wednesday.

To see the full story, go to http://www.twincities.com

The French Press reported that U.S. military losses in Iraq for September stood at 70 on Sunday, the lowest monthly figure since July last year, based on Pentagon figures.

The figure also marks the fourth consecutive drop in the monthly death toll following a high of 121 in May. June saw 93 deaths, July 82 and August 79. The monthly toll in July 2006 was 53.

Katherine Kersten has a relevant column in today's edition of the Star Tribune.

Read a portion of it below. Find the whole thing at www.startribune.com.

"But in 1973, the United States withdrew nearly all of its troops from Vietnam, and in December 1974 Congress cut off vital military aid. Five months later, Communist forces overran the country."

"Tens of thousands of Iraqis have tied their fate to us as soldiers, police officers, translators, security guards or government officials."

"While North Vietnam’s victory brought fear and privation across the country, South Vietnamese who had worked or cooperated with Americans suffered most. The Hanoi regime imprisoned 1 million people in “re-education camps,” where about 165,000 died of malnutrition, abuse or execution."

Reports are focussing on a retired Lt. General who says the U.S. mission in Iraq is a "nightmare with no end in sight" because of political misjudgments after the fall of Saddam Hussein that continue today. 

He offered a pessimistic view that the current U.S. strategy against extremists may not make lasting gains, but he said a full-scale withdrawal also was not an option.

So what is an option?

While deaths may be decreasing, Iraq is still an unsafe place for media and people who truly seek to know who, what, where, when and why.

"Responding to the mounting death toll of media professionals in Iraq, the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) today condemned the killing of the latest victim: Shehab Mohammad al-Hiti, editor of a new Iraqi weekly, al-Youm."

Read the full story at http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=24480&Cr=Iraq&Cr1=

A U.S. military spokesperson said on Tuesday that the military would soon release nine Iranians being held in Iraq, just days after U.S. officials noted several positive developments in Iran's role in Iraq, according to Reuters.

This, while  the deaths of five more soldiers made 2007 the deadliest year for U.S. troops despite a recent downturn, according to the Associated Press.

At least 852 American military personnel have died in Iraq so far this year, despite a sharp drop in U.S. and Iraqi deaths in recent months, following the 30,000-strong U.S. troop buildup.

Reports claim there were 39 deaths in October, compared to 65 in September and 84 in August.

Security improving in Baghdad

Five months after an extra 30,000 American troops arrived in Iraq, the number of bodies appearing on Baghdad’s streets is reportedly down to about 5 a day, from as many as 35 eight months ago, according to a New York Times report. 

Even suicide bomb attacks are down.

"In the most stable neighborhoods of Baghdad, some secular women are also dressing as they wish," according to the report. "Wedding bands are playing in public again, and at a handful of once shuttered liquor stores customers now line up outside in a collective rebuke to religious vigilantes from the Shiite Mahdi Army."

Be that as it may, Iraq is still a war zone. Only about 20,000 Iraqis have gone back to their Baghdad homes, a fraction of the more than 4 million who fled nationwide, according to a recent Iraqi Red Crescent Society survey.

While violence in the rest of Iraq has decreased, northern Iraq has become more violent as al-Qaida and other militants move there to avoid coalition operations elsewhere, the region's top U.S. commander said.

Torture center found in Iraq

National reports today, Dec. 20, describe mass graves that U.S. soldiers found  north of Baghdad. The graves are next to a torture center where chains were attached to blood-spattered walls and a metal bed frame was still connected to an electrical shock system, according to the military.

The discoveries of the mass graves and torture center near Muqdadiyah, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, came during a Dec. 8-11 operation. U.S. military officials suspect the torture center was run by al-Qaida in Iraq. Graves containing 26 bodies were found nearby.

Soldiers found a total of nine caches containing a surface-to-air missile launcher, sniper rifles, 130 pounds of homemade explosives and numerous mortar tubes and rounds, among other weapons.

U.S. troops in Iraq funded

National media reports state that President Bush has signed a $555 billion bill that funds the Iraq war into 2008 and keeps government agencies running through next September.

The bill reportedly contained nearly 9,800 earmarks that total more than $10 billion.

Do you think earmarks are a problem in the U.S. Congress?

Iraqi government claims much of Al-Qaeda destroyed

According to the French Press, "the Iraqi interior ministry lauded its achievements over the past year."

It claimed that "75 percent of Al-Qaeda's networks in the country had been destroyed in 12 months."

The spokesman "also outlined sharp falls in the numbers of assassinations, kidnappings and death squad murders."

"He told a news conference that increased patrols along the borders with Saudi Arabia and Syria had slowed infiltration by militants and played a key role in Iraq's improved security situation."

Six American soldiers died when they entered a house booby-trapped with explosives Wednesday during an offensive against Sunni insurgents in Diyala province, making it the deadliest day for U.S. troops in Iraq since November, according to reports.

The blast also killed an Iraqi translator and injured four U.S. soldiers. It is part of  a large campaign in Diyala against  al-Qaida in Iraq.

Sunni insurgents have fled to this part of northern Iraq over the past year after being driven out of Baghdad and western Anbar province, said the report. This is part of a larger nationwide campaign against al-Qaida in Iraq sanctuaries.

International news reports from this week state that the U.S. launched an airstrike Monday on a Somali town held by Islamic extremists to go after a group of terrorist suspects, U.S. defense officials said.

The town is four miles from the Kenyan border. According to a witness, no less than two bombs were dropped on targets believed staying to be used regularly by terrorist suspects. Last year, the U.S. shelled suspected al-Qaida targets in Somalia, using gunfire from a U.S. Navy ship off the shore of the east African nation.

A second female soldier since World War II has received the Silver Star, the third-highest medal for valor.

She is a 19-year-old medic from Texas,
Army Spc. Monica Lin Brown, who saved the lives of fellow soldiers after a roadside bomb tore through a convoy of Humvees in Afghanistan's eastern Paktia province in April 2007, the military said.

According to a report in the Pioneer Press, "After the explosion, which wounded five soldiers in her unit, Brown ran through insurgent gunfire and used her body to shield wounded comrades as mortars fell less than 100 yards away, the military said."