Calling Iraq "the most essential foreign policy and national security priority for our nation," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told U.S. diplomats yesterday that she will proceed with plans to order Foreign Service officers to Iraq if vacancies cannot be filled voluntarily.
Soldiers in the 10th Mountain Division returned to Fort Drum, N.Y., after a 15-month tour in Iraq. Their families had been preparing for a period of readjustment.
Turkey stepped up pressure on the United States to help curb attacks by Kurdish rebels from northern Iraq ahead of a conference of Iraq's neighbors and major powers on Saturday seeking to lower cross-border tensions.
As of Friday, Nov. 2, 2007, at least 3,848 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes eight military civilians. At least 3,131 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.
War On Terror: With killings of both U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians down sharply, both al-Qaida and Iran may believe they have lost the Iraq War. Thanks to the surge, our mission just might largely be accomplished.
President Bush said that ?slowly but surely, the people of Iraq are reclaiming a normal society.?
A reopened historic market. A butcher selling more sheep. A parade in Anbar province. Electricity production above the level under Saddam Hussein. President Bush cited such indicators of normal life in Iraq along with evidence of decreased violence to argue Friday that the war is paying dividends.
France and Syria held their first high-level meeting in two years here Friday as foreign ministers from major Western powers and regional countries gathered for talks on ways to stabilise war-torn Iraq.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the U.S. envoy to Baghdad reminded diplomats on Friday of their duty to serve their country amid a revolt among some who are resisting forced assignments to Iraq.
Issuing an upbeat new assessment of an unpopular war in Iraq, President George W. Bush hailed reduced violence and declining U.S. casualties as signs that a troop buildup was working.