The juxtaposition couldn’t be more startling. The president and the Republican House leadership (when it isn’t attacking John Murtha) continue to talk about staying the course until somehow they “pacify” the country.

And, on the other hand, the violence increases:

Mosque Attacks Kill 70 in Iraq; Hotel Is Hit, Too

By EDWARD WONG

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Nov. 18 –

As worshipers gathered for Friday Prayer, a pair of suicide bombers wearing explosive belts demolished two Shiite mosques in the northern Kurdish town of Khanaqin, killing at least 70 people and wounding more than 100.

Hours earlier, two suicide truck bombs struck a hotel in downtown Baghdad that houses many foreign journalists, killing at least 6 Iraqis and wounding more than 40. A neighboring apartment building crumbled to the ground in a plume of dust.

The assault at the Hamra Hotel, perhaps the most heavily populated residence for foreigners outside the fortified Green Zone, was the latest strike in a growing jihadist campaign against virtually any foreign presence here. At least two dozen major Western news organizations have offices at the Hamra.

The attack closely resembled one on two other prominent hotels last month, and shattered any notion that journalists might have had about holding a protected or neutral status in the war.

The collapse of the nearby apartment building sent a mushroom cloud above the Baghdad skyline. Throughout the morning, firefighters and Iraqi soldiers struggled to extract people buried in a mound of rubble from the collapsed building, picking away at the debris with their hands. Women in black robes sat weeping along the metal-strewn street, surrounded by the charred hulks of cars that had burst into flame. Deep pools of water from ruptured mains covered the area.

American Apache attack helicopters circled overhead.

The Iraqis drove in a bulldozer to help clear away the debris, and American soldiers brought in an armored tank recovery vehicle to lift away slabs of concrete. Rescuers pulled out a boy and a Sudanese man. An American colonel said at least five people were still trapped in the rubble at 10:30 a.m., more than two hours after the attack….”

What planet do these people live on?