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[LeftNYC]

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/index.html

Is this what Condi means by "quiet political progress"?
As we noted earlier this week, Condoleezza Rice says Americans risk missing the forest for the dead soldiers in Iraq. The insurgency is "losing steam," the secretary of state told Time, but "it's a lot easier to see the violence and suicide bombing than to see the rather quiet political progress that's going on in parallel."

Quiet political progress? Maybe this is what she means. According to the New York Times, gunmen stormed into Baghdad's municipal building Monday, deposed the city's mayor and installed a member of Iraq's most powerful Shiite militia in his place. The deposed mayor is now in hiding, fearing for his life.

It's not exactly a sign of the getting-better-every-day tale the Bush administration would like to tell, but the story probably won't get much attention in the United States anyway: Five more U.S. soldiers were killed in Baghdad Tuesday, bringing August's death toll to 43 just 10 days into the month.