While he invokes 9/11 in every single speech that month, the 'straight talk' on what's going on in Iraq will be quietly released.

Just like today, it was quietly announced that 14 US troops have been killed in the last 36 hours, including 5 today in a truck bomb attack on a US-led convoy.

At this rate, we will count our 4,000th fallen soldier in Iraq before Thanksgiving.

Meanwhile, President Bush continues to wind-down the clock, calling for patience, and incredulously comparing Iraq to Israel, explaining that Israel's democracy functions despite sporadic terrorist bombings.

Um, two things. First, Israel is not being occupied by a foreign army. And second, despite horrific bombings carried-out by Hamas since 1997 and rocket attacks from Hezbollah since the 1980s, Israel is not losing an average of 100 citizens each day to bombings, shootings, executions, and kidnappings. And we don't even have to mention the hundreds of Iraqis who flee their homeland each day as desperate refugees. Bush's comparison, as usual, makes zero sense. Listen, professor, enough of the comparisons of Iraq to other countries (Israel, the USA) or other wars (US Revolution, US Civil War, WWII, Korea). None of them fucking apply.