The Way Forward

Here are three news stories: All three are about Iraq and were published today,

"Death Squads Roam Baghdad's Hospitals" is a London Times article about a doctor in a Baghdad hospital who was approached by a Shiite paramilitary ("Ali") and offered $300 for every Sunni patient he identified.

Jawad realised that he was being invited to pass death sentences on patients at the Medical City hospital in return for swift and surreptitious payments.

"You can make a fortune," Ali told him calmly. "Doctor, if you have those patients in the future just tell me and I will give you $300 just for that information . . . and do not tell anyone about this little talk."

"Nine U.S. Troops Killed in Iraq" is posted at CNN's website. With these deaths, 2,900 U.S. troops have died in Iraq.

And the third article: "Bush Aide: 'We Have Not Failed in Iraq'," by AP writer Ben Feller, quotes Stephen Hadley, Bush's national security adviser:

While President Bush acknowledges the need for major changes in Iraq, he will not use this week's Iraq Study Group report as political cover for bringing troops home, his national security adviser said Sunday.

"We have not failed in Iraq,"Stephen Hadley said as he made the talk show rounds. "We will fail in Iraq if we pull out our troops before we're in a position to help the Iraqis succeed."

But he added: "The president understands that we need to have a way forward in Iraq that is more successful."

I'm betting that Ali's way "forward" in Iraq will be more successful than the president's.