More Airstrikes, Troop Deployments in Iraq.

This was predicted by Seymour Hersh months ago. (Knight Ridder)

BAGHDAD, Iraq - American forces have dramatically increased airstrikes in Iraq during the past five months, a change of tactics that may foreshadow how the United States plans to battle a still-strong insurgency while reducing the number of U.S. ground troops serving here.....

The numbers also show that U.S. forces dropped bombs on more cities during the last five months than they did during the same period a year ago.

But the problem is, it leads to this,

ISAHAQI, Iraq - Eleven people — most of them women and children — were killed when U.S. forces bombed a house during a raid north of Baghdad early Wednesday, police and relatives said....

The U.S. military acknowledged the raid and said it captured one insurgent.

Eleven dead, women and children, to capture one insurgent. And if you think the locals are lying, as is often the allegation, here's an AP photo of some of the dead children. They look three or four years old. (WARNING GRAPHIC)

Rumsfeld said that there may be a slight US troop increase in Iraq around the upcoming Shiite pilgrimmage.

The same article also points out that Gen. Pace refused to confirm Rumsfeld's half assed allegations that the government of Iran is shipping personnel or explosives into Iraq.

And the Iraqis claim to have disrupted some major actions by Al Qaeda in Iraq that were so out there even Rumsfeld wouldn't support them. (of course he wants Iran to be the villian right now, not Al Qaeda.)

Iraq's Interior Minister Bayan Jabr, meanwhile, told The Associated Press security officials had foiled a plot that would have put hundreds of al-Qaida men at critical guard posts around Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, home to the U.S. and other foreign embassies, as well as the Iraqi government.

A senior Defense Ministry official said the 421 al-Qaida fighters were recruited to storm the U.S. and British embassies and take hostages. Several ranking Defense Ministry officials have been jailed in the plot, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday that he had not received anything definitive on the report, but cautioned that earlier accounts are often adjusted later on.

Lastly,

MOBILE, Ala. -- Hurricane victims and war veterans set out Tuesday on a march to New Orleans to protest the war in Iraq and what they view as a lack of relief aid for storm victims.