In the latest breakup of Iraq news, the Sunni bloc announced its withdrawal from the government. So much for the grandiose promises by Bush and his minions about "progress" in a country in which its propped up government is unable to function as a unified entity.
The NY Times is reporting
Iraq's largest Sunni Arab political bloc announced its withdrawal from the government Wednesday, undermining efforts to seek reconciliation among the country's rival factions, and two bombing attacks in Baghdad killed at least 67 people.
Rafaa al-Issawi, a leading member of the Front, said at a news conference that the bloc's six Cabinet ministers would submit their resignations later in the day.
Al-Issawi said the decision to pull out from the government followed what he called Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's failure to respond to the Accordance Front. It gave him seven days to meet its demands, and the ultimatum expired Wednesday.
Among the demands: a pardon for security detainees not charged with specific crimes, the disbanding of militias and the participation of all groups represented in the government in dealing with security issues.
''The government is continuing with its arrogance, refusing to change its stand and has slammed shut the door to any meaningful reforms necessary for saving Iraq,'' al-Issawi said.
''We had hoped that the government would respond to these demands or at least acknowledge the failure of its policies, which led Iraq to a level of misery it had not seen in modern history. But its stand did not surprise us at all,'' he said, reading from a prepared statement.
The Accordance Front has 44 of parliament's 275 seats. Its withdrawal from the 14-month-old government is the second such action by a faction of al-Maliki's ''national unity'' coalition.
Five Cabinet ministers loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr quit the government in April to protest al-Maliki's reluctance to announce a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.
So, just as George W. Bush is presiding over an attempted assassination of America's democracy, his friend Maliki is presiding over a rapidly disappearing Iraqi central government. And we were told that the surge was going to put a stop to the destabilizing of this country?
UPDATE
IRAQ DIGEST
Tribune news services
August 1, 2007
COST OF THE WAR: The war in Iraq could ultimately cost well over a trillion dollars, at least double what has already been spent, according to a new government analysis. In a report to lawmakers Tuesday, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that even under the rosiest scenario -- an immediate and substantial reduction of troops -- American taxpayers will feel the financial consequences for at least a decade.
CHENEY PREDICTION: Vice President Dick Cheney said that a pivotal report due in September on the war in Iraq is likely to show "significant progress" -- putting himself ahead of President Bush, who has refused to speculate on what the report will say. Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, and Ambassador Ryan Crocker are required to report to Congress by Sept. 15 on progress in Iraq. "The reports I'm hearing from people whose views I respect indicate that the Petraeus plan is in fact producing results," Cheney told CNN's Larry King on Tuesday night.
NOMINEE CITES DIFFICULTIES: Adm. Michael Mullen, the nominee to head the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Senate panel that the war is taking a heavy toll on the U.S. military, warning that forces are "not unbreakable" and stressing the need to "plan for an eventual drawdown" of troops. Appearing at a confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Mullen acknowledged that the increase in U.S. forces cannot continue past April 2008 under the military's current force structure.
UPDATE 2
Fuel tanker blast kills at least 50 at Baghdad gas station
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A fuel tanker packed with explosives detonated Wednesday at a gas station in western Baghdad, killing at least 50 people and wounding 60 others, the Iraqi Interior Ministry said.
Ten cars were damaged in the early afternoon blast that sent a dark cloud of smoke over the Mansour district of the Iraqi capital.
Footage from the scene showed firefighters trying to extinguish the tanker, which was charred along with nearby cars and gas pumps.
The vehicle bomb was one of five that left dozens dead and wounded in the capital.
Earlier Wednesday, at least 15 people were killed and 20 others were wounded when a suicide car bomb exploded in a busy square in Baghdad's Karrada district, the Interior Ministry said.
The explosion took place near a popular ice cream shop and electronic stores in a commercial area.
Thamir Sami, 33, told The Associated Press he was carrying clothes from his store to his car when the explosion rocked the area.
"Women and children were lining up near the gas station to get fuel," Sami told the AP: "I saw burnt bodies. Other motorists and I helped evacuate the wounded before the ambulances came."
Karrada, on the eastern side of the Tigris River, is usually one of the more stable areas in the capital but has been hit by a string of bombs in the past 10 days.
In the capital's southern district of Dora on Wednesday, another car bomb killed three people and wounded five others, the Interior Ministry said.
The bomb detonated in a market in a predominantly Christian neighborhood frequented by Muslims.
Another car bomb in a commercial area in western Baghdad's Harthiya neighborhood killed one person and wounded seven, the ministry said.
Insurgents also targeted police in two attacks in Baghdad on Wednesday, the Interior Ministry said.
Two police officers were killed in a residential area of Mansour when a roadside bomb detonated near a police patrol. Seven people, including four police officers, were wounded in the explosion.
In southwestern Baghdad, gunmen fatally shot two national police, who were members of a counterterrorism unit, as the officers drove a private car through the Saydiya neighborhood.