4000

Yes, the surge is working fabulously, as George W. Bush would say. So fabulously that yesterday we reached the grim and depressing milestone of 4000 American soldiers killed in a war without reason, a war based on lies, a war without end, a war about which far too many Americans have forgotten or about which they no longer care.

After all, Bush isn't going to get us out of there, and there's college basketball to watch.

And this is in the Green Zone, which is supposed to be "safe":

Rockets and mortars pounded the U.S.-protected Green Zone, underscoring the fragile security situation and the resilience of both Sunni and Shiite extremist groups despite an overall lull in violence.

The attacks on the Green Zone probably stemmed from rising tensions between rival Shiite groups and were the most sustained assault in months against the nerve center of the U.S. mission.

The soldiers with Multi-National Division — Baghdad were on a patrol when their vehicle was struck at about 10 p.m. in southern Baghdad, the military said. Another soldier was wounded in the attack — less than a week after the fifth anniversary of the conflict

Identities of those killed were withheld pending notification of relatives.

Navy Lt. Patrick Evans, a military spokesman, expressed condolences to all the families who have lost a loved one in Iraq, saying each death is "equally tragic."

"There have been some significant gains. However, this enemy is resilient and will not give up, nor will we," he said. "There's still a lot of work to be done."

The deadliest attack of the day was in Mosul when a suicide driver slammed his vehicle through a security checkpoint in a hail of gunfire and detonated his explosives in front of an Iraqi headquarters building, killing 13 Iraqi soldiers and injuring 42 other people, police said.

Iraqi guards opened fire on the vehicle but couldn't stop it because the windshield had been bulletproofed, said an Iraqi army officer. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not supposed to release the information.

Mosul, Iraq's third largest city about 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, has been described as the last major urban area where the Sunni extremist al-Qaida group maintains a significant presence.

In Baghdad, rockets and mortars began slamming into the Green Zone about sunrise, and scattered attacks persisted throughout the day, sending plumes of smoke rising over the heavily guarded district in the heart of the capital.

A U.S. public address system in the Green Zone warned people to "duck and cover" and to stay away from windows.

At least five people were injured in the Green Zone, a U.S. Embassy statement said without specifying nationalities. The zone includes the U.S. and British embassies as well as major Iraqi government offices.

A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to release the information, said those injured included an American and four third-country nationals, meaning they were not American, British or Iraqi.

Iraqi police said 10 civilians were killed and more than 20 were injured in rocket or mortar blasts in scattered areas of eastern Baghdad — some of them probably due to misfired rounds.

Also in the capital, seven people were killed and 14 wounded in a suicide car bombing Sunday in the Shiite area of Shula in the capital, police reported. Such attacks are the hallmark of Sunni religious extremists.

Gunmen opened fire on passengers waiting for buses in a predominantly Shiite area in southeastern Baghdad, killing at least seven men and wounding 16 people, including women and children, according to police.

Police also found the bullet-riddled bodies of 12 people — six in Baghdad, four in Mosul and two in Kut, scene of clashes between government troops and Shiite militiamen.

No group claimed responsibility for the Green Zone attacks, but suspicion fell on Shiite extremists based on the areas from which the weapons were fired.

Right now John McCain is ahead and national polls. He's ahead because Hillary Clinton is getting into the gutter as she tries to hang on to a nomination she assumed would be a cakewalk for her and because Joe Scarborough, the talking heads of Faux Noise, and the Fox-wannabes at CNN have decided that the angry rantings of Barack Obama's now-retired pastor are the most important factor on which to evaluate a presidential candidate (sort of like the way George H.W. Bush's 1988 campaign convinced Americans that the Pledge of Allegiance was a major campaign issue). John McCain promised not just more of the same in Iraq for the next 100 years, but also bomb-bomb Iran. Where do people think he's going to get the skin to fight for another 100 years? Is this so-called war hero who understands the military going to send today's soldiers on fifth and sixth and seventh and eighth tours of duty? Or once he's safely ensconced in his likely one term, is he going to institute a draft, so that the children of all those people paying more attention to the Tarheels and Dancing with the Stars end up spilling blood for this folly?