I don't want your freedom, I don't need to play around

Bush: Iraq Must Know It Won't Be Abandoned

President Bush, reminding listeners of his surprise trip to Baghdad, said Saturday it was important for the Iraqi people to know after three years of war that "America will not abandon them after we have come this far."

Bush spoke in his weekly radio address as Republicans and Democrats jockeyed for political position on the war with an eye toward the November elections. Following the lead of the Senate, the House on Friday rejected a timetable for pulling U.S. forces out of Iraq after a ferociously partisan debate.

GOP leaders in both the House and Senate sought to put lawmakers on record about the war and tried to draw attention to deep Democratic divisions on the issue.

With a U.S. death toll of 2,500 and a price tag of $320 billion, Iraq weighs heavily on Bush. Approval of Bush's handling of Iraq has dipped to 33 percent, a new low, and his overall job approval rating was 35 percent in a new AP-Ipsos Poll.

Right.

10 Workers at Baghdad Bakery Kidnapped

Gunmen seized 10 workers from a bakery Sunday in a predominantly Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad, while police found the bodies of 11 other people shot elsewhere in Iraq.

The gunmen arrived in two cars, broke into the bakery in the northern suburb of Kazimiyah and abducted the 10 workers, police Lt. Mohammed Khayoun said. The kidnappings came a day after a mortar shell hit a well-known market in same neighborhood, killing four people and wounding 13.

It was one of a series of attacks that killed more than two dozen people Saturday despite heightened security, dealing a blow to the Iraqi government's pledge to bring peace to the capital.

On Sunday, police found the bullet-riddled bodies of 10 men who apparently had been tortured in several areas of Baghdad, said Lt. Thaer Mahmoud.

The body of a man in his 20s was found in Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad, health authorities said. He had been shot in the head, and his body showed signs of torture.

A mortar shell hit the al-Sadiq University for Islamic Studies on Palestine Street, one of the capital's main thoroughfares, wounding five students and a teacher, police Lt. Ahmed Qasim said.

Right. Here's George:

The terrorists are fighting freedom with all their cunning and cruelty because freedom is their greatest fear -- and they should be afraid, because freedom is on the march.