Wow, this from Col, fave site. the NY Times. Al Qaeda and local Iraqi guerrilla groups are having trouble getting along. They seem to be having little wars of their own thru out Iraq. There have been reports that some eIraqi guerrilla groups are actually trying to remove and sometimes even kill Al Qaeda forces from some of the towns in Iraq. The four men interviewed are, by all accounts, ordinary Iraqis. One worked as a trash collector. Another was a part-time mechanic in an ice factory....

"WASHINGTON, Jan. 25, 2006 – The number of U.S. troops serving in Iraq has decreased to around 138,000, which was the level deployed there last summer, a Defense Department military spokesman said here today. "We have come back down to the troop level that we were at back in the summer of '05," said Army Lt. Col. Barry Venable. U.S. troop levels in Iraq were temporarily boosted last year from around 138,000 to about 160,000 troops to provide extra security for the Oct. 15 constitutional refere...

"WASHINGTON, Jan. 25, 2006 – American troops are an "essential stabilizing tool" in Iraq and their presence is needed for "Iraq to emerge as a responsible nation in a tough neighborhood and to keep the terrorists out," the commander of U.S. troops in the Middle East said today. Army Gen. John Abizaid, head of U.S. Central Command, discussed stabilization efforts and U.S. troop levels in Iraq during an interview with radio host Laura Ingraham via telephone from Qatar. Abizaid spoke on how Sunni...