“A suicide truck bomber struck a market in a predominantly Shiite area of Baghdad on Saturday, killing at least 102 people among the crowd buying food for evening meals, the most devastating strike in the capital in more than two months.”

“Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA) has told an interfaith group that he’d accept an invitation to attend a Muslim gathering. The Virginia Republican caused a national stir in December when he wrote in a letter to constituents that immigration rules should be tightened before ‘many more Muslims’ are elected to office.” An account of the interfaith group’s meeting with Goode is here.

Kenneth Adelman, “a lifelong neocon activist and Pentagon insider who served on the Defense Policy Board until 2005,” was a prominent advocate of the Iraq war. He famously claimed in a February 2002 Washington Post op-ed, “I believe demolishing Hussein’s military power and liberating Iraq would be a cakewalk.”

Two months ago, Adelman delivered a mea culpa in an interview with Vanity Fair. “I just presumed that what I considered to be the most competent national-security team since Truman was indeed going to be competent. They turned out to be among the most incompetent teams in the post-war era. Not only did each of them, individually, have enormous flaws, but together they were deadly, dysfunctional.”

This week, at a Denver City Club luncheon, Adelman said he sees the light at the end of the tunnel:

Adelman is not optimistic of a positive outcome to the American occupation of Iraq. … He said if by July 4th there is no progress made, “then I will say it is hopeless.”

Nevertheless, Adelman said President Bush’s escalation strategy is “worth a try,” even though its “chances of it succeeding are very low.” He also refused to express regret for promoting the war. “I expected an apology from you today,” said one attendee “who identified himself as a former intelligence officer for the United States Army during the Vietnam War.”