Please Stop!

From the Associated Press via Yahoo News:

The US military on Tuesday announced the deaths of five troops in a series of bombings as blasts in Baghdad killed 10 people and a female suicide bomber slaughtered six Iraqis north of the capital.

Further news from the Associated Press:

A top American general urged radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Wednesday to rein in his fighters as a U.S. soldier was killed during a gunbattle in a militia stronghold in Baghdad.
....

The American military said 21 suspected gunmen were killed in the two neighborhoods late Tuesday. Iraqi officials said 15 civilians were among the dead, including two women.

The American general believes that al-Sadr could stop the attacks, if he would. The general wants him to "choose the road of peace and responsibility". Perhaps al-Sadr could stop the fighters, or perhaps not. They may be beyond his control.

What about the discrepancy in the count of the number of gunmen v. civilians who were killed? Whom are we to believe?

Is the surge working? We still have 160,000 troops in Iraq putting great strain on our military. The present troop numbers are unsustainable.

Note: I believe that the soldier mentioned in the second article is included in the five who were mentioned in the first. The total number of troops killed in the 24 days of this month is 38, the highest number since September 2007.

That's not counting the number of Iraqis killed.

Lord, have mercy.