THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

In the WaPo today, we learn that, after all their glorious promises, the Bushoviks are now telling us not to expect very much of anything in Iraq.

The Bush administration is significantly lowering expectations of what can be achieved in Iraq, recognizing that the United States will have to settle for far less progress than originally envisioned during the transition due to end in four months, according to U.S. officials in Washington and Baghdad.

The United States no longer expects to see a model new democracy, a self-supporting oil industry or a society in which the majority of people are free from serious security or economic challenges, U.S. officials say.

"What we expected to achieve was never realistic given the timetable or what unfolded on the ground,"

No! Really?

But don't worry. Our Dear Leader says we can validate the 1800+ killed so far by getting more killed.

Killings of members of the Iraqi security force have tripled since January. Iraq's ministry of health estimates that bombings and other attacks have killed 4,000 civilians in Baghdad since Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari's interim government took office April 28.

Last week was the fourth-worst week of the whole war for U.S. military deaths in combat, and August already is the worst month for deaths of members of the National Guard and Reserve.

And just today in Bushsylvania we have these numbers to add to the total.

the U.S. military said three soldiers were killed and one other wounded in a roadside bombing late Saturday near Tuz Khormato, 95 miles north of Baghdad.

One soldier on a patrol was killed Sunday and three others wounded in a blast east of Rutbah, 250 miles west of Baghdad, the military said. In another roadside bombing, one soldier was killed Saturday and another wounded in western Baghdad.

On Friday a U.S. commander said the number of roadside bomb attacks against American convoys in Iraq had doubled in the past year to about 30 per week. Dozens of bombings, usually detonated by remote control, target U.S. and Iraqi patrols each day.

The military said in a brief statement from Baghdad that one soldier was found dead Friday of a gunshot wound. The military said an investigation was underway and did not say where the soldier was found or if an attack was suspected in the soldier's death.

The beheaded body of an unidentified woman was found in the violent southern neighborhood of Dora, police 1st Lt. Thaer Mahmoud said. Two bodies, including one that was beheaded, were found in eastern Mosul, 360 kilometers (225 miles) northwest of Baghdad, police and hospital officials said.

A roadside bomb along a highway killed one civilian Sunday and injured another in Mahmoudiya, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) south of Baghdad, police Capt. Saad al-Samaraei said.

Shootings, a mortar attack and a bombing also wounded another 10 people across the capital, police said, and a senior Iraqi Central Bank official, Haseeb Kadum, was kidnapped outside his home.

Elsewhere, a police officer was killed and two others injured in a drive-by shooting in Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad, police Col. Farhad Talabani said. Gunmen also killed one border guard and injured three others near the northeast town of Khanaqin close to the Iranian border, police said.

I guess there is one expectation that won't be lowered.

If you have any doubts of this, a must read is Dexter Filkins NYT article from Baghdad.