Two interesting stories here

I've got two interesting stories here that I would like to post on. Actually, it is more of a contradiction of these two stories. Here's the first one, titled Bush Decries Sectarian Violence in Iraq, from Yahoo News:

WASHINGTON - President Bush on Tuesday decried the latest surge in sectarian violence in Iraq and declared that for Iraqis "the choice is chaos or unity."

Five attacks rocked Baghdad on Tuesday, killing more than 40 people, continuing a recent surge of violence.

Bush spoke after an Oval Office meeting with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. He left several hours later on a five-day trip to India and Pakistan, and possibly an unannounced stop in Afghanistan.

U.S. President George W. Bush (R) hosts a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in the Oval Office of the White House February 28, 2006. REUTERS/Larry Downing


For his part, Berlusconi said that he would stand by plans to withdraw all of Italy's 3,000 troops from Iraq by the end of the year.

"This plan has been agreed upon by our allies and the Iraqi government," said Berlusconi, one of the strongest U.S. allies on Iraq, who is facing a tough re-election campaign at home. He said that Italy's troops had helped train 10,000 Iraqi security officers.

Nothing really special here--Bush states his call for reducing the violence in Iraq, giving the Iraqis a stark choice of chaos or unity. I will say that it is interesting that Berlusconi is now withdrawing Italy's 3,000 troops from Iraq--another country leaving the "coalition of the willing" here. I'd say that Berlusconi is having his own domestic troubles, with Italians now opposing the Berlusconi government's role in this war. And Berlusconi's role has been documented through the La Repubblica expose regarding Italian intelligence operatives selling forged documents of Iraqi purchases of Nigerian uranium to the Bush White House.

Now we come to this little story, titled Multiple Bombings in Baghdad Kill 66, also from Yahoo News:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A series of suicide attacks, car bombs and mortar barrages rocked Baghdad on Tuesday, killing at least 66 people and wounding scores as
Iraq teetered on the brink of sectarian civil war.

Iraqi firefighters douse a car that exploded in the northern city of Kirkuk. Four civilians were wounded in the blast that targeted a senior police officer. Attacks on Iraq's Shiite majority, including a car bombing at a mosque, claimed the lives of 58 people and wounded 180 others, raising fears of a new round of sectarian violence across Iraq.(AFP/Marwan Ibrahim)

Iraqis suffered through days of reprisal killings and attacks on Sunni mosques after bombers blew apart the gold dome of a Shiite Muslim shrine north of Baghdad on Wednesday.

Fears were complicated by the continuing struggle among Iraqi politicians to form a government based on parliamentary elections nearly three months ago.

National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie traveled to the Shiite holy city of Najaf on Tuesday to meet with Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, the Shiite community's most revered leader. Al-Rubaie emerged to tell reporters "the way to forming the government is difficult and planted with political bombs. We ask the Iraqi people to be patient, and we expect forming the government will take a few months."

"The (United Iraqi) Alliance has chosen (Prime Minister Ibrahim) al-Jaafari and will not give up this choice. We expect that our partners in this country will respect this choice ... taking into consideration the election results" which gave the Shiite bloc a majority, but not enough seats to rule alone.

Al-Jaafari, now serving as interim Prime Minister, is a controversial figure even among some Shiite politicians.

An Iraqi resident douses burning cars with water after a car bomb attack in Baghdad February 28, 2006. Ten people were killed in one of the bombs that exploded in Karrada district, a witness said. REUTERS/Thaier al-Sudani

In the south Tuesday, two British soldiers were killed in Amarah, 290 kilometers (180 miles) from Baghdad, the Defense Ministry reported in London, but gave no other details. A witness said a car bomb targeted a British patrol and helicopters were seen taking away casualties.

And north of Baghdad, a blast badly damaged a Sunni mosque where the father of
Saddam Hussein was buried in the family's ancestral hometown, Tikrit. The deposed leader's trial resumed in Baghdad with his defense team ending their monthlong boycott of the proceedings.

The Iraqi Islamic Party reported the Sunni Thou Nitaqain mosque in Baghdad's northern al-Hurriyah neighborhood was destroyed in an explosion Tuesday morning. Police said three people were killed and 11 injured in the blast. The Sunni organization blamed the Shiite-dominated government that, it said, "cooperates with the criminal hands that sabotaged God's houses and lighted the fires of sedition."

Also Tuesday, gunmen in two speeding cars opened fire on the Sunni al-Salam mosque in the western Baghdad's Mansour district, killing the guard, said police Lt. Maitham Abdul-Razaq.

That night, explosions hit two Shiite targets in northern Baghdad. A car bomb hit the Abdel Hadi Chalabi mosque in Hurriyah, killing 23 and wounding 55, police said. Mortar fire at the Shiite Imam Kadhim shrine in the Kazimiyah neighborhood on the opposite side of the Tigris River killed one and wounded 10, police said.

The Baghdad filling station blast killed 23 and wounded 51 in the mostly Shiite New Baghdad neighborhood, said Interior Ministry official Maj. Falah al-Mohammedawi.

The attacker joined a line of people waiting to buy kerosene before detonating the explosives strapped to his body, police and witnesses said. The charred remains of metal carts used by customers to transport kerosene drums littered the scene.

In the same neighborhood, a car bomb targeting a police patrol killed five people and wounded 15 — many of them construction workers who gather there to look for work — the Interior Ministry said.

Another car bomb hit a small market opposite the Shiite Timimi mosque in the mostly Shiite Karradah neighborhood, killing six people and injuring 16, the Interior Ministry said. Distraught residents rushed to the scene, as fire fighters fought back flames from burning cars.

A roadside bomb targeting the convoy of a defense ministry adviser killed five soldiers and injured seven others in the eastern Zaiyona neighborhood, ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari said. The adviser, Lt. Gen. Daham Radhi al-Assal, escaped unharmed, he said.

A fifth blast, believed to have been a mortar round, landed in an open area not far from the National Theater, officials said. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Doctors look at the bodies of shooting victims outside a hospital in Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad February 28, 2006. Nine bodies of shooting victims were found just south of the city of Baquba on Tuesday, the army said. The corpses were found in wastelands in the hamlet of Tarfaya, the officials said. REUTERS/Helmiy al-Azawi

Mr. President--I'd say that Iraqis have made their choice. They want chaos. They want American forces to get out of Iraq. And Iraq will descend into a civil, tribal and religous war, pitting the Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds against each other to carve up Iraq between themselves. The country is going break apart between these three groups. To stay in Iraq, means continued violence--both against the different factions, and against the current U.S. occupation forces.

What are you going to do about it?