Try to remember a time in September

Three RAF servicemen have been killed in a mortar attack on their Iraqi base, the Ministry of Defence has said.

The men died after the Contingency Operating Base in Basra came under fire yesterday.

-- Three RAF men killed in Basra mortar attack,
July 20, 2007

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The United States surge, the use of the American troop reinforcements to bring violence in Iraq under control, is bloodily failing across northern Iraq. That was proved again yesterday when a suicide bomber detonated a truck packed with explosives in Kirkuk killing at least 85 people and wounding a further 183.

In Baghdad, at least 44 people were killed or found dead across the city, police said. They included the bullet-riddled bodies of 25 people, apparent victims of sectarian death squads.

-- Just another day in Iraq,
July 17, 2007

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Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the No. 2 commander in Iraq, told Pentagon reporters that while he was not asking to delay a mid-September assessment of the new military strategy that Congress has required, it would take "at least until November" to judge with confidence whether the strategy was working.

-- U.S. Generals Seek Patience in Judging Iraq,
July 20, 2007

Because it sure as shit ain't working now.