AFP Via Yahoo!News

One hundred Americans, who thought they were going to play heroes to the Iraqi people, were killed during the month of October. We have 2 full days to add a few more to that tally.

I still have to find any numbers for the Iraqi citizens that died during the same period; and there is reason to believe hundreds have died during the same period of time. We could even expect many more will die up to the day of the midterms elections.

From Abu Aardvark:

"Al-Qaeda's Scenario During the Coming Weeks" argues that the coming two weeks represent a pivotal moment in al-Qaeda's long-term jihad strategy. Since 9/11 and the Afghan war, al-Qaeda has been pursuing a stage in its long-term strategy which the author calles 'direct combat'. Keeping American in Iraq has been the key to its strategy. America has suffered great losses through this stage, both economic and its people, and many of its allies have already abandoned the fight. The next two weeks (giving a clue as to when it was written) will reveal whether al-Qaeda's leadership believes that this stage of direct combat has served its purpose of weakening America sufficiently. If it does, according to the author, al-Qaeda will remain silent, allowing the Democrats to win the Congressional elections and initiating a new phase of the conflict. If it does not (as the author hopes), it will intervene through a bin Laden tape or an attack on an American ally in order to ensure a Republican victory which will keep the Americans trapped in Iraq longer in order to weaken it more before moving to the next stage.

Read the whole thing. It's chillingly illuminating.