Iraq News (2 July)

The Good:

• The Benchmarks are a bit dated of a way to measure progress in Iraq, since everything changes so fast for the young democracy, but the U.S. Embassy cites Iraq meeting 15 of 18 benchmarks in a response to a Congressional request
• Foreign Minister Zebari is urging Iraqi Parliament to accept the Status of Forces Agreement to allow U.S. troops to stay beyond the U.N. mandate, which expires at the end of this year
• The largest Sunni political bloc, Tawafuq, may be set to rejoin the Iraqi government and provide ministers (we've heard this one before, don't get excited yet)
• Hezbollah trainers in southern Iraq have fled to Iran reports the AP
  

The Bad:

• U.S. casualties were up from last month
• A Sahwa member near Mosul was killed by a truck bomb
• The Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights reports that 2,334 women have been killed by militia extremists from 2005 to 2007! This is an abomination, and hopefully recent operations in Shi'ite-dominated cities like Basra and Amarah hampers this atrocity

The Ugly:

• The imbecile liberal that won't go away, Noam Chomsky, calls the U.S. invasion of Iraq worse than the Mongols to an international media outlet, Al-Jazeera...what an asshole
• A prominent Shi'ite cleric, Yaqobbi, blasts the Iraqi government for holding up provincial elections
• A Renton, WA man is being sued for his work at Abu Ghraib. This truly is the issue that won't die in the media
  
• Like the rest of the country, the Pentagon is going broke from the high fuel costs
  

Iraqi Women targeted by militia thugs