"We have orders from our leader to fight as one and to help the Sunnis," said Nimaa Fakir, a 27-year-old teacher and foot soldier in the Mahdi Army, a Shiite militia. "We want to increase the fighting, increase the killing and drive the Americans out. To do this, we must combine forces."

This new Shiite-Sunni partnership was flourishing in Baghdad on Thursday. Convoys of pickup trucks with signature black Shiite flags flapping from their bumpers hauled sacks of grain, flour, sugar and rice into Sunni mosques.

The food donations were coming from Shiite families, in many cases from people with little to spare. And they were headed to the besieged residents of Falluja, a city that has now become the icon of the resistance, especially after the bombing on Wednesday of a mosque compound there.

"Sunni, Shia, that doesn't matter anymore," said Sabah Saddam, a 32-year-old government clerk who took the day off to drive one of the supply trucks. "These were artificial distinctions..."

...Many Shiite fighters are streaming into Falluja to help Sunni insurgents repel a punishing assault by United States marines. "Our different battles have turned into one fight, the fight against the Americans," said Ahmed Jumar, a 25-year-old who belongs to a Shiite militia.

American leaders had been concerned that the rival sectarian groups would not find a common cause. Now, it seems, they have found a common enemy. "The danger is we believe there is a linkage that may be occurring at the very lowest levels between the Sunni and the Shia," Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez, commander of the occupation forces, said on Thursday.

== end of NY Times excerpt ==

Thanks, George!

==================

BUSH'S WAR IN IRAQ

TOTAL COST TO AMERICA AS OF 4/09/04

DEAD.................651 (as of 9 a.m. CST; 9 more unconfirmed since I started typing)
WOUNDED ........ 3,178
PRICE TAG.........$200 BILLION (with no end in sight)
WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION FOUND...... 0 (zero, zip, zilch, nada)

Thanks, George!

FROM 9/23/03 FOX interview:

HUME: When things go badly, as many people would feel they have been in Iraq with the continuing casualties and struggles and difficulties, do you ever doubt?

BUSH: I don't think they're going badly. I mean, obviously I think they're going badly for the soldiers who lost their lives, and I weep for that person and their family. But no, I think we're making good progress...

In other words, IT SUCKS TO BE DEAD.

Thanks, George!

=======

A recent survey of Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Germany shows:

* few dislike Americans or the United States
* but most dislike President Bush and his foreign policies.
* Only 13 percent of those surveyed had negative opinions about the American people
* 33 percent had negative views of America
* 70 percent have negative opinions of Bush
* 69 percent have negative opinions of US policies in Iraq
* 62 percent have negative opinions of American foreign policy since 2000, when Bush came to power.

(conducted by Harris Interactive and its European subsidiary HI Europe)

Thanks George!

For Shark's VIETNAM=IRAQ
For Shark's SOLUTION TO IRAQ