Official: Bush to announce troop withdrawal  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Bush is expected to announce plans to withdraw roughly 30,000 U.S. troops from Iraq by next summer, following a recommendation by the top American commander there, a senior administration official said Tuesday.

The real lessons of 9/11  —  Six years ago, Islamist terrorists attacked the United States, killing almost 3,000 people.  President Bush used the attacks to justify his 2003 invasion of Iraq.  And he has been using 9/11 ever since to scare Americans into supporting his "war on terror."

GOP centrists get boost  —  The bloc of Senate GOP centrists whose votes are key to any effective push to leave Iraq may gain even more influence on war policy in the wake of Gen. David Petraeus's watershed Tuesday testimony.  —  Republicans were breathing easy as Petraeus …

Hearts, flowers just aren't enough  —  If only Osama bin Laden had been hugged more as a child.  —  If only the 19 wild-eyed jihadists who hijacked our airplanes and murdered 3,000 of our brothers and sisters six years ago had some kind of "human understanding" of the people they set out to systematically torture and kill.