More bad news:

U.S. soldier death toll passes the 100 mark (up to 105, if you include "unconfirmed") for October, making this the deadliest month since January 2005, and the fourth deadliest since the war started.  Grand total no 2,815.

And the quagmire worsens:

Thousands of weapons the United States has provided Iraqi security forces cannot be accounted for, and spare parts and repair manuals are unavailable for many others, a new report to Congress says.

The inspector general’s office released its report Sunday in a series of three audits finding that:

Nearly one of every 25 weapons the military bought for Iraqi security forces is missing. Many others cannot be repaired because parts or technical manuals are lacking.

"Significant challenges remain that put at risk" the U.S. military’s goal of strengthening Iraqi security forces by transferring all logistics operations to the defense ministry by the end of 2007.

"The unstable security environment in Iraq touches every aspect" of the Provincial Reconstruction Team program, in which U.S. government experts help Iraqis develop regional governmental institutions.

The Pentagon cannot account for 14,030 weapons — almost 4 percent of the semiautomatic pistols, assault rifles, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and other weapons it has been supplying to Iraq since the end of 2003.