WAR

The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee charged Saturday that President Bush has no plan for pacifying Iraq in his last nine months in office, and intends to "muddle through and hand the problem off to his successor." Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, who this week will preside over a long-awaited hearing on Iraq, said in the Democrats' weekly radio address that because Bush's year-old troop increase has not led Iraqi groups to settle their differences, it has been a failure.

Love is in the air in Yousif Mohammed's shop. So is death, but that's OK, because Mohammed's business is selling flowers, and in Baghdad, where bouquets rarely top shopping lists these days, weddings and funerals are his mainstay. It wasn't always like this. Before the war, Iraqis loved buying fresh flowers to brighten up their homes and offices, or to present with a flourish to the objects of their affection.

Abu Hassan took deep breaths of joy as he crossed the double-decker bridge spanning the Tigris River. The water below may have stunk of sewage. The air may have been choked with traffic fumes. It didn't matter to Abu Hassan. He was free after nearly a year hidden inside his house, the only place he had felt safe from the gunmen and killers who had taken over his neighborhood in south Baghdad.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates says he is working to prepare the Pentagon for the first wartime presidential transition since Vietnam and has asked civilian officials to be prepared to stay on at the request of the next president. Gates, who has served in seven presidential administrations, said transitions had become slower over 25 years, with more and more senior civilian positions remaining vacant for long periods.

With the sound of helicopters hovering overhead, Samir hunched behind a pile of sandbags and sank his teeth into a hamburger. The thirtysomething Beirut resident was not a warrior taking a moment of respite on the battlefield. He was a regular customer dining with his black-veiled wife and little son at Buns and Guns, a new, war-themed restaurant where every detail, from the menu and decor to the names of sandwiches, is inspired by the military world.

In a sunny courtyard in Culver City, Kim Roy was laughing at the role reversal. For the 15 months that her husband, Army Capt. Justin Roy, was serving in Afghanistan, Kim Roy was the parent-in-chief, juggling chores and taking care of their two boys in Yelm, Wash. Now with Mom in California, Dad was in charge and discovering the joys of being a single parent."Danny wouldn't take a nap today," Kim Roy said, rolling her eyes. "Niiice." The 28-year-old Army wife had just arrived at the offices of Brave New Foundation for a screening of "In Their Boots," an Internet-based show that will feature the Roys in one of its episodes.

The blast of insecticide jolted me awake. A Mexicana flight attendant had just doused me with a chemical cloud while her colleague explained over the intercom that the Cuban Health Ministry requires arriving aircraft to be fumigated. "The substance isn't harmful to humans," we were assured, amid a chorus of coughing. Ah, the glamorous life of a foreign correspondent. Nights spent in war-zone villages without heat or indoor plumbing.

The total cost of the Iraq war is approaching the Vietnam War's expense, a congressional report estimates, while spending for military operations after 9/11 has exceeded it. The new report by the Congressional Research Service estimates the U.S. has spent $648 billion on Iraq war operations, putting it in range of the $686 billion, in 2008 dollars, spent on the Vietnam War -- the second most expensive war behind World War II. Since the 2001 terrorist...