Top Two

Iraqi Army Plans for Wider Role in Security of Baghdad (NY Times)
Saudis Give a Grim What If Should U.S. Opt to Leave Iraq (NY Times)
White House to Delay Shift on Iraq Until ’07 (NY Times)
Army, Marine Corps To Ask for More Troops (WaPo)

These are the main 4 pieces of news coming out of Iraq today.

I'd say the likely direction things are going to take is for the Iraqis to continually call for more autonomy and control, and the Americans to become hesitant about it. Eventually, it could come to a vote in Iraqi parliament that sets its own timeline for American troop withdrawl and handing over of duties. That would give us few, if any options, and we might seriously consider clandestinly supporting a coup d'état. At least, I wouldn't rule it out given the new fault line that's being drawn even between this Iraqi government and the Americans. Imagine what happens if they have an internal power shift.

BBC also has a story today on the increasing exodus from Iraq. It isn't good news that we could *easily* see massive destabilization at this point in not only Iraq, but Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon, especially considering the prospects of Saudi, Turkish and Iranian involvement in Iraq. This is starting to redefine what would constitute "spiraling out of control."

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As for Taiwan, two great stories today: the first is about a dog that has been taught to sell betlenuts.
檳榔伯訓犬 母狗當西施 (自由)
Man teaches dog how to sell betel nuts (Liberty Times)

And the second story is that Liberty Times had such an accurate poll in Kaohsiung when everyone else was 10-20% off, the pan-blue media that had such bad polls is wanting to know their methodology and hinting that it's some kind of voter fraud.

真的這麼準？自由時報應公布民調方法 (中時)