Iraq Confuses Me. How About You?

Things just seem to be deteriorating:

October became the deadliest month for U.S. soldiers in Iraq in nearly two years on Saturday with the announcement of the death of a U.S. Marine in the western Anbar province.

A brief military statement said the Marine died from wounds sustained in an attack on Friday in Anbar, the heartland of Iraq's Sunni Muslim insurgency.

It brought the number of U.S. forces killed so far this month to 98, the highest since January 2005 when 107 were killed, capping a difficult week over Iraq for U.S. President George W. Bush ahead of the November 7 congressional elections.

The violence is even harder on Iraqis. The U.S. commander in Iraq said this week 300 Iraqi security forces were killed during the holy month of Ramadan which has just ended.

Gunmen kidnapped 11 Iraqi soldiers at a fake checkpoint north of Baghdad on Saturday, officials said.

That incident drove home the difficulties of building an effective Iraqi security force, a key plank in Bush's plans for an eventual withdrawal of 140,000 U.S. troops.

But Rummy doesn't seem to think so.

Cheney then pointed to various news items to paint a positive picture of conditions in Iraq and concluded, "If you look at the general overall situation, they're doing remarkably well."

Maybe he just forgot to identify who "they" are.