WARNING: Loud noise, strong language, G.I.s voicing anti-war sentiments
BAGHDAD – Nine U.S. soldiers and Marines were killed in Iraq on Tuesday, U.S. officials said yesterday, and the military reportedly identified the body of a man found in the Euphrates River early yesterday as that of an American soldier abducted during a deadly ambush south of Baghdad almost two weeks ago. Also yesterday, about 100 Iraqis were killed and 130 injured in mortar strikes, suicide attacks, car bombings, drive-by shootings and other violence nationwide, according to law-enforcement authorities and news-agency accounts. [via WASHINGTON POST]
ASSOCIATED PRESS: In the soldiers’ hometowns, the discovery of the body cast a pall after days of optimism that all the soldiers might be found alive. Still missing are Pvt. Byron Fouty, 19, of Waterford, Mich. and Spc. Alex Jimenez, 25, of Lawrence, Mass. The three U.S. soldiers were members of 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment of the 10th Mountain Division’s 2nd Brigade combat team. The 10th Mountain Division, based in Fort Drum, N.Y., has spearheaded a search that has included 4,000 U.S. troops and 2,000 Iraqis. Two soldiers, not yet identified, have died in the search. If the soldiers were taken alive, it would be the single biggest abduction of U.S. soldiers in Iraq since Pvt. Jessica Lynch and six others were captured on March 23, 2003.
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Democrats in Congress face a tough decision on a bill funding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that does not include a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops. Vote “yes,” and they are certain to face the wrath of anti-war forces in their political base. Anti-war groups are furious at the decision of Democratic leaders to remove the timetables. MoveOn.org released a statement saying it would consider recruiting primary challengers to lawmakers who support the bill, as well as advertising against them in their districts or states. [via CNN]
OLBERMANN: “You, the men and women elected with the simplest of directions — Stop The War — have traded your strength, your bargaining position, and the uniform support of those who elected you… for a handful of magic beans. You may trot out every political cliche from the soft-soap, inside-the-beltway dictionary of boilerplate sound bites, about how this is the ‘beginning of the end’ of Mr. Bush’s ‘carte blanche’ in Iraq, about how this is a ‘first step.’ Well, Senator Reid, the only end at its beginning… is our collective hope that you and your colleagues would do what is right, what is essential, what you were each elected and re-elected to do.” [CROOKS & LIARS]
