It's Getting Uglier By The Day

WaPo:

An Army helicopter crashed Friday into a riverbank near Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, killing six U.S. soldiers, the military said. It probably was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, an officer said.
...
Separately, guerrillas attacked a convoy in the eastern part of Mosul, 250 miles north of Baghdad, with rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire Friday morning. The military said one U.S. soldier died and six others were wounded in the clash.

Three others were injured later in the day when a roadside bomb exploded near the downtown Mosul Hotel, which is now used as a military barracks, the military said. A military statement released Friday said that a soldier died the day before near Mosul when a homemade bomb exploded.

The latest confirmed U.S. military fatalities bring to at least 31 the number of American troops killed action in the first week of November. Two American civilian contractors working for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and a Polish officer also died in attacks over the past seven days.

It's not just US troops dying. It's not just fighting in Baghdad. And I'm betting it's not just "dead enders" resisting. This thing was simmering for months, has now reached a slow boil, and is going to bubble over into an even bigger mess the longer we're there.

ntodd  ¶ 8:36 AM