Feed Editor 24 May 2007 14:15:02 GMT This website aims to give people the chance to have their opposition heard. http://www.ourworldoursay.org/iraq_resources.php http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss en Over at the Washington Independent, Spencer Ackerman continues his enlightening "Rise of the Counterinsurgents" series with "A Counterinsurgency Guide for Politicos." The Indy has obtained a copy of a forthcoming manual on counterinsurgency strategy written by David Kilcullen, a "former Australian Army officer who is now an adviser to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice." The handbook seeks to provide a framework for considering whether Washington should intervene in foreign countries' counterinsurgency operations, raising difficult questions about whether such nations deserve U.S. support; under what conditions that support should occur, and whether success is possible at acceptable cost. No systematic approach to strategic-level questions in counterinsurgency currently exists for senior U.S. government officials. 29 Jul 2008 13:50:29 GMT http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/28/rice-adviser-iraq-invasio_n_115398.html Jason Linkins 41ADA315-70A8-4F63-978D-E61D2288A9D9 Huffington Post Tens of thousands of Irbil's residents are demonstrating Tuesday against the elections' law approved by the Iraqi Parliament last Tuesday. On Monday, Kirkuk witnessed a similar demonstration which ended in a bloody manner when a female suicide bomber blew her self up killing and injuring more than 200 civilians. The parliament approved the elections' law with 127 out of 140 attending members' support, despite the withdrawal of the Kurdistan Coalition bloc from the session. 29 Jul 2008 13:47:44 GMT http://www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenciesPublicSite/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=1927915&Language=en A68F8EC4-7567-4A75-AEF0-89C935182828 KUNA While everyone's looking at Iraq's effect on American politics -- and whether or not John McCain and Barack Obama are converging on a policy that combines a flexible timetable with a vague, and long-lasting, residual force -- let's take a look instead at Iraqi politics. The picture isn't pretty. Despite the Optimism of the Neocons, which has pushed mainstream media coverage to be increasingly flowery about Iraq's political progress, in fact the country is poised to explode. Even before the November election. And for McCain and Obama, the problem is that Iran has many of the cards in its hands. Depending on its choosing, between now and November Iran can help stabilize the war in Iraq -- mostly by urging the Iraqi Shiites to behave themselves -- or it can make things a lot more violent. 29 Jul 2008 13:46:00 GMT http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20080727/cm_thenation/1096339676 Robert Dreyfuss 2AC05495-72C8-421E-8BFA-178793691172 Yahoo News/The Nation Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Friday that any US troop withdrawal would have to satisfy both parties and protect Iraq's sovereignty. Maliki, who earlier this month suggested that a timetable may be set for the departure of US troops, would not be drawn on any specific dates when asked by reporters after meeting Pope Benedict at the Pontiff's summer residence. “There is a dialogue between us and the multinational forces, and we hope that we can reach results that satisfy both parties and protect the achievements made in Iraq and protect the sovereignty of Iraq," Maliki said. US troop levels are a key battleground in November's US presidential election and Democratic contender Barack Obama has pledged to remove US troops within 16 months of taking office should he win the election. 29 Jul 2008 13:44:44 GMT http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\07\26\story_26-7-2008_pg4_11 F873754F-6001-4036-9B8A-FA06A16E9B87 Daily Times/Reuters Politicians on both sides of the Atlantic are beginning to look, tentatively, at the world after Iraq. A timetable for US troop withdrawal has been the hottest issue in the US presidential election campaign in the past week. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic candidate, has stuck to his 16-month withdrawal plan. Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq's prime minister, seems to think it a good idea. John McCain, the expected Republican candidate, has said it could all be over by 2013. Even President George W.?Bush has talked of agreeing a “general time horizon" for troops to leave Iraq. Meanwhile, Gordon Brown hinted, not for the first time, that most UK troops could be out in a year. All this has been encouraged by the sharp improvement in Iraqi security over the past 12 months. In the Sunni Arab heartlands, the US troop surge, a shift in US tactics and, most importantly, a repudiation by Sunni tribes of the religious extremism of al-Qaeda, has led to a sharp drop in violence. In the south, whose main city, Basra, the UK had abandoned to Shia militia groups late last year, a risky Iraqi-led operation has restored government control of the streets of the second city. 29 Jul 2008 13:43:22 GMT http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1badfc30-58e6-11dd-a093-000077b07658.html 18D788E8-0CA4-4235-84A2-68AD1B30748B Financial Times A German magazine quoted Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki as saying that he backed a proposal by presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq within 16 months. Nuri al-Maliki told Der Spiegel that he favors a "limited" tenure for coalition troops in Iraq. "U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months," he said in an interview with Der Spiegel that was released Saturday. "That, we think, would be the right time frame for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes," he said. But a spokesman for al-Maliki said his remarks "were misunderstood, mistranslated and not conveyed accurately." Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the possibility of troop withdrawal was based on the continuance of security improvements, echoing statements that the White House made Friday after a meeting between al-Maliki and U.S. President Bush. 29 Jul 2008 13:35:19 GMT http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/07/19/almaliki.obama/index.html 2FACAA2B-D48A-4334-816F-BD3EFA042DB8 CNN Gordon Brown yesterday claimed Iraq had made "enormous progress" over the past few months and singled out the contribution made by UK troops. But despite saying he favoured a troop reduction, he insisted, as he has done before, there are no plans for an "artificial timetable" that would lead to UK troops being brought home. Brown made his comments during an unannounced visit to Basra in southern Iraq, after holding talks in Baghdad with Iraqi officials and senior US military officials. The prime minister flew by Hercules military transport plane from Baghdad to the main British base at Basra Air Station. 29 Jul 2008 13:31:20 GMT http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.2403708.0.brown_in_baghdad_no_timescale_for_troops_pullout.php James Cusick 28462275-220D-434C-872D-4F79A49AB3A8 Sunday Herald Iraqis want the U.S. military presence to end. But when that occurs -- and whether a timetable should be set for troops to leave -- is something ordinary Iraqis, security officials and politicians cannot agree on. The differing views of two dozen people interviewed across the country reflect the dramatic changes in the past few months in Iraq, where violence is at a four-year low. Iraqi security forces, with U.S. military backing, have cracked down on Shi'ite and Sunni Arab militants in several large-scale operations across the country. That has given many Iraqis more faith in their own forces. Others insist the army and police cannot go it alone and that a premature withdrawal of U.S. troops could open the door to the sort of violence that nearly tore Iraq apart not so long ago. 29 Jul 2008 13:25:57 GMT http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=5397290 Dean Yates and Khalid al-Ansary BE6F80F5-11C3-44BB-B28E-0ECB9B05B7FC ABC News/Reuters * Air chief marshal says UK to withdraw soldiers to help ease strains on Britain's military * Spike in violence has caused delays to earlier planned withdrawals Britain plans to substantially scale back its troop numbers in Iraq during 2009, the head of the country's armed forces said on Sunday. Air Chief Marshal Jock Stirrup said that the UK would withdraw soldiers to help ease major strains on Britain's military, which has been stretched by deployments in both Afghanistan and southern Iraq. Britain had planned to cut its number of troops in Iraq from 4,000 to 2,500 earlier this year, but postponed the withdrawal in March amid a spike in militia violence. "I would expect us to see further substantial progress towards a more sustainable tempo in the course of the next year," Stirrup told British Broadcasting Corporation television, referring to lowering troop numbers in Iraq. 29 Jul 2008 13:24:48 GMT http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\07\14\story_14-7-2008_pg7_42 AA8D361B-057F-4142-B37D-EBBCAC13B893 The Daily Times * Iranian president says alliance officials took photographs with him * Signals support for opening US mission in Tehran Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he met two military commanders from US-led forces on his trip to Iraq in March and that they even took souvenir pictures to commemorate the encounter. His claims were published on Saturday in reformist newspapers and the conservative Jomhouri Eslami, which said the comments came in a speech he made over a month ago that was first broadcast by state television late Wednesday. There was no immediate confirmation of the comments from the Iranian presidency or any further reaction on Sunday. 29 Jul 2008 13:23:08 GMT http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\07\14\story_14-7-2008_pg4_13 F0CF6780-EE8C-4BBA-A8FE-144ED7668454 The Daily Times The White House on Sunday said it remained hopeful of striking a deal with the Iraqi government over the future status of US forces in the country but failed to deny reports it had abandoned efforts to negotiate a long-term agreement. The Bush administration had been aiming to complete a formal status-of-forces agreement with Baghdad by the end of this month, securing Iraqi consent for a long-term US military presence. But the two sides have struggled to agree terms and recently scaled down their ambitions to a more limited short-term deal, according to the Washington Post. 29 Jul 2008 13:14:48 GMT http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f9fd4ed4-5128-11dd-b751-000077b07658,dwp_uuid=17aab8bc-6e47-11da-9544-0000779e2340.html?nclick_check=1 Andrew Ward 6E9187EE-BD6C-437F-BC4C-F2EF0112D926 Financial Times Iraqi ground forces should become proficient by mid-2009, a US Army general told Congress yesterday. The assessment by Lt Gen James Dubik suggests that US troops could start stepping back around that time from ground combat missions. Dubik, who for the past year led efforts to train Iraq's security forces, said his estimate depended on several factors and did not take into account when other components of Iraq's security forces would become more independent. 29 Jul 2008 13:13:37 GMT http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/foreign/display.var.2388029.0.Iraqi_forces_will_be_ready_mid2009.php Anne Flaherty 01529AF3-A0E8-4802-B924-A0794AA0B2C4 The Herald Iraqi security forces will largely be able to fight on their own without combat help from U.S. ground forces by the middle of 2009, the senior U.S. Army officer in charge of training Iraqi forces said on Wednesday. "The ground forces will mostly be done by the middle of next year," Army Lt. Gen. James Dubik told the U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee. That could be between April and August, Dubik said. 29 Jul 2008 13:10:38 GMT http://www.postchronicle.com/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi?archive=79&num=157280 Andy Sullivan 7A1632E7-F9B7-4645-A54D-03EF522642C5 Post Chronicle/Reuters Oh, no, they told us, Iraq isn't a war about oil. That's cynical and simplistic, they said. It's about terror and al Qaeda and toppling a dictator and spreading democracy and protecting ourselves from weapons of mass destruction. But one by one, these concocted rationales went up in smoke, fire and ashes. And now the bottom line turns out to be....the bottom line. It is about oil. Alan Greenspan said so last fall. The former chairman of the Federal Reserve, safely out of office, confessed in his memoir, “.Everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil." He elaborated in an interview with the Washington Post's Bob Woodward, "If Saddam Hussein had been head of Iraq and there was no oil under those sands, our response to him would not have been as strong as it was in the first Gulf War." Remember, also, that soon after the invasion, Donald Rumsfeld's deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, told the press that war was our only strategic choice. “We had virtually no economic options with Iraq," he explained, “because the country floats on a sea of oil." 29 Jul 2008 13:09:24 GMT http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/oil/2008/0706cynical.htm Bill Moyers B88B35F1-C391-43AC-93B1-DF1C43F68F0C al-Jazeera/Global Policy Forum raq's prime minister said Monday his country wants some type of timetable for a withdrawal of American troops included in the deal the two countries are negotiating. It was the first time that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has explicitly and publicly called for a withdrawal timetable _ an idea opposed by President Bush. 29 Jul 2008 13:07:46 GMT http://www.washtimes.com/news/2008/jul/08/iraq-raises-idea-of-timetable-for-us-withdrawal-1/ Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Sebastian Abbot 0E18A756-C44D-47FF-BEC2-FC7810499400 Washiington Times/AP U.S. TROOP LEVELS: October 2007: 170,000 at peak of troop buildup. June 2008: 145,000. CASUALTIES: Confirmed U.S. military deaths as of June 30, 2008: At least 4,113. Confirmed U.S. military wounded (hostile) as of June 30, 2008: 30,314. Confirmed U.S. military wounded (non-hostile, using medical air transport) as of May 31, 2008: 32,637. U.S. military deaths for June 2008: 29. Deaths of civilian employees of U.S. government contractors as of March 31, 2008: 1,181. Iraqi deaths in May from war-related violence: At least 554 Iraqis were killed or found dead in June in war-related violence, according to figures compiled by The Associated Press. That was a slight increase over the May figure of 515, according to the AP tally. Assassinated Iraqi academics: 374. Journalists killed on assignment as of June 30, 2008: 129. COST: Over $533 billion so far, according to the National Priorities Project 28 Jul 2008 17:00:15 GMT http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080701/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_by_the_numbers C94EAFE7-1825-4A89-BF19-B58749FD21F3 Yahoo/AP Iraqi Government Officials Criticized the American Military for Two Recent Attacks in Which Soldiers Killed People Who The Government Said Were Civilians. One death occurred during a raid by American soldiers on Friday near Karbala; two days earlier, three people described by the Interior Ministry as bank employees on their way to work were shot and killed near the Baghdad airport when they tried to pass an American convoy. . An Iraqi government statement demanded that the soldiers be held accountable in Iraq. The issue is particularly delicate now because the two countries are negotiating a long-term security agreement and among the chief points of disagreement are whether the American military will be free to conduct operations and detain suspects and whether, if its soldiers kill civilians, they will have immunity from Iraqi law. 28 Jul 2008 16:58:48 GMT http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/mortality/2008/0630troops.htm Alissa J. Rubin 8DE6C38F-4F6C-4DB7-9468-D0ED4095A11B Global Policy/New York Times Gordon Brown meeting Britain's oil chiefs to discuss higher North Sea output to bring down prices is prompted by oil prices hitting a record high of $135 a barrel, twice as high as a year ago and a staggering 12 times higher than a decade ago. The well-sourced website petrolprices.com is now predicting that petrol will reach £1.50 a litre by September, just 4 months away. Jeff Rubin of CIBC World Markets is forecasting “oil prices almost doubling over the next five years". That would mean $270 a barrel by 2013. It perhaps explains why the government is now strongly backing BP to get a big new slice of the oil drilling licences soon to be issued in Iraq, and - astonishingly - has now also made clear it intends to annex a third of a million square miles of the seabed off Antarctica to pre-empt any rights to the oil it may contain. The fight for oil has begun in earnest. 28 Jul 2008 16:57:14 GMT http://www.ukwatch.net/article/the_era_of_oil_wars Michael Meacher 6349DBF6-27D1-4DA4-869B-3D82CDD1D483 UK Watch/The Guardian The Senate overwhelmingly passed a $162 billion emergency spending bill late Thursday to continue funding the occupation of Iraq and the war in Afghanistan well into 2009, without a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops. The bill, approved 92-6, was engineered over the past two months by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, and brings the total cost for the conflicts to about $650 billion-more than $400 billion for Iraq alone. The legislation also includes tens of billions of dollars in domestic spending, including an $8 billion extension of unemployment insurance, $63 billion in funding for a new GI Bill for Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, $5.8 billion to rebuild levees in Louisiana, $4.6 billion to refurbish veterans hospitals, and billions to fund other projects. The combined total to fund the wars and the domestic initiatives is $258 billion. 28 Jul 2008 16:56:01 GMT http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0806/S00393.htm Jason Leopold 0005C62D-3D5C-4F86-9F49-3D6054AE87DB Scoop/The Public Record President Bush has admitted to The Times that his gun-slinging rhetoric made the world believe that he was a “guy really anxious for war" in Iraq. He said that his aim now was to leave his successor a legacy of international diplomacy for tackling Iran. In an exclusive interview, he expressed regret at the bitter divisions over the war and said that he was troubled about how his country had been misunderstood. “I think that in retrospect I could have used a different tone, a different rhetoric." 29 Jul 2008 13:55:13 GMT http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article4107327.ece?&EMC-Bltn=LLT949 Tom Baldwin and Gerard Baker C86FD715-EEE1-49D8-8BEE-B177515BC734 The Times Soon after American forces toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003, Gen. Tommy R. Franks surprised senior Army officers by revamping the Baghdad-based military command. The decision reflected the assumption by General Franks, the top American commander for the Iraq invasion, that the major fighting was over. But according to an Army history that is to be made public on Monday, the move put the military effort in the hands of a short-staffed headquarters led by a newly promoted three-star general, and was made over the objections of the Army's vice chief of staff. "The move was sudden and caught most of the senior commanders in Iraq unaware," states the history, which adds that the new headquarters "was not configured for the types of responsibilities it received." 28 Jul 2008 16:54:39 GMT http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/28/armys-official-history-of_n_109781.html Michael Gordon 4243E994-2844-4235-B4E3-D3EA18C7C51E Huffington Post/New York Times Turkish Kurd rebel chief Murat Karayilan yesterday urged Turkey to hold talks with his guerrilla group rather than forming an anti-Kurdish alliance with Iran and Syria. Karayilan, who heads the armed wing of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), said that Turkey would not be "stable or democratic unless it solves the Kurdish issue." 28 Jul 2008 16:53:21 GMT http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&subsection=Gulf%2C+Middle+East+%26+Africa&month=June2008&file=World_News2008062911543.xml 89E91990-F9C4-4FBF-A547-819B4B60770C The Peninsula Qatar The Pentagon is preparing to order roughly 30,000 troops to Iraq early next year in a move that would allow the U.S. to maintain 15 combat brigades in the country through 2009, The Associated Press has learned. The deployments would replace troops currently there. But the decisions could change depending on whether Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, decides in the fall to further reduce troop levels in Iraq. 28 Jul 2008 16:52:31 GMT http://rinf.com/alt-news/war-terrorism/30000-troops-heading-to-iraq-in-2009/3994/ F71AD2DC-6832-4E7C-A3F9-0D4BE4595136 RINF/AP The former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Mahathir Mohamad, has echoed calls for Western leaders to be charged with war crimes over the invasion of Iraq. Speaking at Imperial College in London Mahathir, who was in office from 1981 to 2003, singled out US President George Bush, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Australia's former prime minister John Howard as he wants to see them tried in absence for war crimes committed in Iraq. The event was organised by the Ramadhan Foundation which is a leading British Muslim youth organisation working for peaceful co-existence and dialogue between communities. Mohammed Shafiq, spokesman for the group said: It was an opportunity for students to put a range of questions about war crimes and the international situation. He said that people have to stop killing each other and use arbitration, negotiation and discussion as an alternative to violence, war and killing. Speaking about the Iraq war, Mahathir focused on the thousands dying, the economic war, the power of oil and how we could utilise some of these tools to have a leverage against the people who commit countries to war, Shafiq said. 29 Apr 2008 13:16:58 GMT http://rinf.com/alt-news/contributions/western-leaders-are-war-criminals/3188/ Mick Meaney 3027B1C1-A4CB-4A94-BBBF-7243216B2904 RINF The General Staff said in a statement posted on its website that the strike targeted a group of PKK rebels in Zap, Avashin and Khakurk regions of northern Iraq who were trying to infiltrate Turkey to carry out attacks. "All planes returned to base safely after successfully executing their mission," added the statement. Also on Wednesday, Turkish jets hit PKK targets in the Hakurk region of northern Iraq. The Turkish military has periodically bombed and shelled suspected PKK positions in northern Iraq during the past few months. In February it launched an eight-day ground incursion into Iraq. 29 Apr 2008 13:16:07 GMT http://www.mathaba.net/rss/?x=590255 42DBA9AC-172D-43FA-BB96-3834AAF3B008 Mathaba The Bush administration's new strategy in Iraq has helped reduce violence. But the surge is not linked to any sustainable plan for building a viable Iraqi state and may even have made such an outcome less likely -- by stoking the revanchist fantasies of Sunni tribes and pitting them against the central government. The recent short-term gains have thus come at the expense of the long-term goal of a stable, unitary Iraq. 29 Apr 2008 13:14:22 GMT http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20080501faessay87305/steven-simon/the-price-of-the-surge.html Steven Simon 51C45F2D-A359-4837-9475-9EADF78C58DB Foreign Affairs Iran accused US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of Iranophobia on Sunday for trying to blame Tehran for Iraq's security problems. Rice said last week she would press Iraq's Arab neighbours at a meeting on Tuesday in Kuwait to do more to support Baghdad's government and shield it from Iran's nefarious influences. Iran, as a neighbour of Iraq, will also attend the gathering. Regarding Rice's statements, these statements are not something new. 29 Apr 2008 13:11:46 GMT http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\04\21\story_21-4-2008_pg4_17 A94E4971-6ABA-4268-9C14-8DC3A8C085A1 Daily Times Anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr gave a "final warning" to the government Saturday to halt a U.S.-Iraqi crackdown against his followers or he would declare "open war until liberation." A full-blown uprising by al-Sadr, who led two rebellions against U.S.-led forces in 2004, could lead to a dramatic increase in violence in Iraq at a time when the Sunni extremist group al-Qaida in Iraq appears poised for new attacks after suffering severe blows last year. Al-Sadr's warning appeared on his Web site as Iraq's Shiite-dominated government claimed success in a new push against Shiite militants in the southern city of Basra. Fighting claimed 14 more lives in Sadr City, the Baghdad stronghold of al-Sadr's Mahdi Army. 29 Apr 2008 13:10:43 GMT http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24216134/ 99D41551-A48F-4F11-8A09-BBD50252D479 MSNBC/AP About 300,000 US troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan suffer symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder or depression, but about half receive no care, an independent study said yesterday. The study by the RAND Corp also estimated that another 320,000 troops have sustained a possible traumatic brain injury during deployment. But researchers could not say how many of those cases were serious or required treatment. Billed as the first large-scale nongovernmental survey of its kind, the study found that stress disorder and depression afflict 18.5 percent of the more than 1.5 million US forces who have deployed to the two war zones 29 Apr 2008 13:09:26 GMT http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&subsection=Americas&month=April2008&file=World_News2008041811933.xml A60CBF2F-2C5E-4CF8-BFC7-A5277333D0C8 The Peninsula Qatar/Reuters The Iraqi army has sacked 1,300 troops for failing in their duty in the recent offensive against the al-Mahdi Army and its offshoots in the country's south. The move comes as the government announced plans to crack down on armed groups controlling petrol stations and oil distribution to cut off the resources of groups such as the al-Mahdi Army. During the fighting that started on March 25, some soldiers laid down their weapons in a show of allegiance to Muqtada al-Sadr, a populist Shia leader and part of a bloc within the government. 29 Apr 2008 13:07:51 GMT http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/95095C15-5879-4C5A-B76C-F7F6CF6797D5.htm 005BAC63-E3A7-4C03-8772-466F1FD7BC42 Aljazeera Analysts and media op-ed writers have spent the past couple of days dissecting and digesting the Iraq War Report Card presented by the US military commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, and his State Department sidekick Ambassador Ryan Crocker. Perhaps the two most significant points that those who watched the testimony will remember are (1) no plans for a troop withdrawal for the time being, and (2) Iran is to blame for everything that has gone wrong. 29 Apr 2008 12:55:31 GMT http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?menu=f10600&no=382313&rel_no=1 Chris Gelken 718D1FD9-73DE-44E3-BC2E-0776E0A85D40 Ohmy News Officials in Iran confirmed for the first time Saturday that the country played an important role in brokering a recent truce between the Iraqi government and anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Iran's Shiite government helped end the clashes between Iraqi government troops and al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia for the sake of Shiite unity, said a senior Iranian official who deals with Iraq. 29 Apr 2008 12:52:30 GMT http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/05/iran-confirms-role-in-bro_n_95242.html Ali Akbar Dareini AB16F69A-BFA8-431F-A789-033D7925B4F1 Huffington Post The US should withdraw its troops from Iraq within the next year and convince Iraq's neighbours to prevent it from becoming a failed state By any objective measure, the costs of the invasion and occupation of Iraq far outweigh the benefits. That is why nearly two-thirds of Americans think the war was not worth fighting. Similarly, the costs of remaining in Iraq indefinitely and in large numbers also outweighs the potential benefits. Therefore, the US should begin a phased and responsible strategic redeployment of its forces and undertake a diplomatic surge immediately. 3 Apr 2008 15:09:32 GMT http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lawrence_korb/2008/03/the_iraq_legacy_a_diplomatic_s.html Lawrence Korb 654F4563-0D7C-4DC5-968A-950E79733D77 The Guardian Top U.S. military leaders have presented Defense Secretary Robert Gates with their strategy for future force levels in Iraq, including expected recommendations for a pause in troop cuts for as much as six weeks at midyear. The presentations was Thursday during an hourlong videoconference. And the discussions mark the start of what will be a series of meetings, presentations and congressional testimony during the next two weeks, that will assess the military, political and economic progress in Iraq. Thursday morning, Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, who is chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, heard from the top commander in the Middle East, Adm. William Fallon, and the U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus. 3 Apr 2008 15:08:21 GMT http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/03/20/america/NA-GEN-US-Iraq.php E9629477-EB9B-41A0-8E50-3654440970A0 International Herald Tribune/AP The invasion had one clear purpose - the removal of a tyrant. But the consequences have been far more complex, throwing up a new regional power, intensifying Sunni-Shia divisions, and prompting a painful US rethink 3 Apr 2008 15:07:13 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2008/mar/16/iraqandiran?gusrc=rss&feed=fromtheobserver Jason Burke 81C6F8E6-F641-488F-9C2C-B21CAAEF30DD The Observer The battle of Basra may be virtually over. But nobody's talking about the invisible Battle of Mosul. President George W Bush's self-described "defining moment" in Iraq amounted to this: General Qassem Suleimani, the head of the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) , brokered a deal in Qom, Iran, between Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's envoys and Hadi al-Amri, the head of the Badr Organization and number two to Adbul Aziz al-Hakim, the head of the the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC) and a key player of the government in Baghdad. That sealed the end of the battle of Basra 3 Apr 2008 15:05:27 GMT http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JD03Ak01.html Pepe Escobar 78C8A164-5E2A-45D7-B286-6C3C79764CC4 Asia Times After a long and grim period in which weddings and parties have generally been outnumbered by funerals, bookings are finally on the up again for Haider Salah, one of Baghdad's liveliest and loudest mobile disc jockeys. Last Thursday, at a private club overlooking the Tigris, his huge outdoor speakers were booming Arab pop music across the riverbanks - where, five years ago this week, an even heavier baseline resounded as the opening salvoes of Operation Shock and Awe, the coalition bombing campaign to remove Saddam Hussein, got under way. The club's various guests - two groups of students holding graduation celebrations, and a wedding party - were not the only ones in a good mood. Thanks to the progress of the year-long US "troop surge" in reining in Baghdad's warring religious militants, the man behind the decks no longer has to worry about being killed for the sin of encouraging music and dancing. 3 Apr 2008 15:03:50 GMT http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/15/wiraq115.xml Colin Freeman D55E06BD-BF30-4B40-B14E-FB8EF14C4C73 The Daily Telegraph The United Nations on Saturday called on the Iraqi government and the United States to take advantage of a period of reduced attacks to address the human rights problems that plague Iraq, including violence against civilians, abuse of detainees, persecution of women and ethnic minorities, and a lack of food and shelter for displaced people. In a new human rights report, the United Nations noted some progress, including “a marked decrease in violent attacks involving mass casualties" from July to December, the period covered in the report. It applauded the Iraqi government's decision to ratify the United Nations convention against torture and the government's efforts to alleviate overcrowding in prisons, and it took note of new judicial safeguards for detainees. 3 Apr 2008 15:01:59 GMT http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/16/world/middleeast/16iraq.html?ex=1363320000&en=2253490241bf68a8&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss Erica Goode 4DD83790-1DFA-403A-8DEF-F18231862F1B New York Times It was the party of the Baghdad summer season of 2003. A dustier, hotter version of the bar on the Titanic. Assembled on the lawn of the Ottoman-era British embassy, sipping cocktails, exchanging gossip and self-consciously keeping a stiff upper lip, le tout Baghdad assembled as the rest of the Iraqi capital dissolved into chaos. Soldiers in combat uniform, neo-conservative advisers in suits and boots, portly Iraqi exiles and diplomats from the “coalition of the willing" gathered for what they believed would be the first of many such receptions, as life inevitably returned to normal in post-invasion Iraq. Five years on and memories of that spectacle on the banks of the Tigris seem more surreal than ever. Many of those who attended the garden party have now retired, some in disgrace. Others never made it out of the country alive. 3 Apr 2008 15:00:24 GMT http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article3517320.ece Tom Whipple 848C1A02-D74E-4763-874A-D40ECDFEC081 The Times The Government has been accused of years of under-funding military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan following the disclosure that the costs have almost doubled over the past 12 months to more than £3bn. Ministers said that the increased costs reflected the need to purchase new defensive equipment to protect troops against the constantly changing insurgent threat. But the Tories said the decision to pour in extra cash amounted to a belated recognition by ministers that for years operations in the two countries were not properly funded. The Commons Defence Committee, which revealed the increases, expressed "surprise" that the cost of operations in Iraq was rising at a time when British troop numbers there were falling. 3 Apr 2008 14:59:07 GMT http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/latest-national-news/Military-missions-39underfunded39.3861310.jp Press Association 61375B33-AD38-494C-83B6-7A5D70BD1F58 Yorkshire Evening Post The commander of US forces in Iraq has told Sky News the war in Iraq is "a very noble cause". General David Petraeus gave an exclusive interview to political editor Adam Boulton on Sunday Live. He said coalition forces had given "the greatest gift" to the Iraqi people - freedom from the tyrannical reign of Saddam Hussein. Asked about the sectarian violence that continues to claim lives - 160 people were killed in February alone - he said that deaths overall had dropped over the last eight months. "That is not to say that anyone is doing victory dances in the end zone because we're not," he said. 3 Apr 2008 14:57:53 GMT http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91211-1308604,00.html?f=rss Adam Boulton D2C59ECF-0369-45EB-8558-CBE172A0ECB2 Sky News As the US presidential race intensifies, it is becoming clear that the campaigns of the leading candidates are largely defined by two absences: the absence of a fundamentally different Democratic approach to the war from that of the Bush administration, and the absence of the Iraq war and its Iraqi victims. To be sure, the three leading candidates in the US presidential campaign - the Republican John McCain, and the two democratic contenders Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama, have talked about Iraq. 3 Apr 2008 14:56:39 GMT http://www.gulfnews.com/opinion/columns/region/10196217.html Adel Safty EFCC55C0-1753-40BB-8930-AF013888CD71 Gulf News Central to the Bush-Petraeus Iraq strategy is to pacify and confuse American public opinion during the 2008 elections, an approach Gen. Petraeus calls "slowing down the American clock" to gain time for the counterinsurgency to continue. This week's events in Basra suggest that US strategy is collapsing amidst its own contradictions. This is the most important opportunity for critics to question the "surge" since it began last year. Here is what is happening. To quell the Sunni insurgency and create an image of gradual progress, the US has insisted provincial elections be held in Iraq this October, one month before the American elections. The expectation is that disenfranchised groups who boycotted the 2005 elections will gain significant representation in the Iraqi parliament, a prospect that threatens the sectarian coalition of Shi'a and Kurdish parties now controlling the regime. The Shi'a bloc includes Maliki's Dawa and the former Supreme Command of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq [SCIRI]. Their rivals are the impoverished Shi'a followers of Moktada al-Sadr of Sadr City and many towns in the South, whose military forces are known as the Mahdi Army. 3 Jan 2008 15:10:50 GMT http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20080329/cm_huffpost/094037;_ylt=A0WTcXd7b_BHNAMA5wL9wxIF Tom Hayden 2CFCCFC4-BD1E-4B19-BAE0-FC3870F52785 Yahoo News Al-Maliki's decision to send troops into Basra and root out the "criminal gangs" that controlled the city was praised by the White House as a bold move to assert the Iraqi government's sovereignty. In reality, though, it looked more like an attempt to boost al-Maliki's political standing by dealing a blow to the Mahdi Army -- the biggest and most powerful Shiite militia -- and its leader, the cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Iraqi forces launched their offensive and were immediately met by what al-Maliki's defense minister called unexpectedly strong resistance. In other words, they ran into a buzz saw. Al-Maliki went to Basra to personally oversee military operations. History will not confuse him with Napoleon. 3 Apr 2008 14:54:39 GMT http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/editorials/stories/2008/04/02/robi02.ART_ART_04-02-08_A9_OO9Q983.html?sid=101 Eugene Robinson 1027608A-CF63-495E-B2F8-784FAF9DAE8C Colombus Dispatch The Defence Secretary today announced the abandonment of a planned withdrawal of 1,500 British troops from Iraq amid a dramatic upsurge in violence in the southern city of Basra. Des Browne announced that the Prime Minister's pledge, made last October, of bringing the troops home would not be fulfilled because the Iraqi Army required surveillance and logistical support to bring Shia militia affiliated to the radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr under control. He added, however, that even before last week's escalation in fighting, military assessments had concluded that Mr Brown's pledge was untenable and that planned redeployments would have to be slowed down. 3 Apr 2008 14:38:03 GMT http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article3661435.ece David Byers B125431D-3CA1-489C-841D-29A53369371C The Times Five years ago, as we hurtled unstoppably towards war with Iraq, I was busy with an alternative weekly column called "Weapon of the Week." At the time journalists were being fed - and in general, were happily eating - a stream of marketing for the weapons and ideas that would make the coming war neat and painless. Well, we know how the main event turned out - but whatever became of the pin-ups? And of the mindset and the people who promoted them? They weren't hard to track 3 Apr 2008 14:36:48 GMT http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/29/moab_pain_ray_remembered/ George Smith, Dick Destiny A5B69EAF-97F3-4A2D-9E0B-60ACB33D41D8 The Register They come to Britain fearing for their lives back home, hoping for a new beginning. But for thousands of Iraqi asylum seekers there is no welcome and instead they face misery and destitution before they are deported. Hannah Godfrey hears their stories 3 Apr 2008 14:35:20 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/20/iraq.immigration Hannah Godfrey C171C093-6E85-45BA-9720-B587B2E0FFF4 The Guardian President Bush marked five years since ordering the invasion of Iraq by proclaiming yesterday that American troops had achieved “undeniable" success and predicted that the war “will end in victory". Osama bin Laden was also planning to commemorate the event, according to an Islamist website. A five-minute audio message attributed to bin Laden was posted on a militant website and was accompanied by a still image of the al-Qaeda leader brandishing an AK47. 3 Apr 2008 14:34:18 GMT http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article3587063.ece?&EMC-Bltn=JOYFR8 Tom Baldwin 789D291B-FBB2-439C-B8A3-1FDBC80144F7 The Times An exhaustive review of more than 600,000 Iraqi documents that were captured after the 2003 U.S. invasion has found no evidence that Saddam Hussein's regime had any operational links with Osama bin Laden's al Qaida terrorist network. The Pentagon-sponsored study, scheduled for release later this week, did confirm that Saddam's regime provided some support to other terrorist groups, particularly in the Middle East, U.S. officials told McClatchy. However, his security services were directed primarily against Iraqi exiles, Shiite Muslims, Kurds and others he considered enemies of his regime. 3 Apr 2008 14:33:08 GMT http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/29959.html Warren P. Strobel C9F31F76-C78B-479A-A532-EF0F2E35F7AD McClatchy Newspapers The costs of military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq this year are likely to almost double to £3.297bn, a committee of MPs has warned. The Commons defence committee said operational costs for this financial year were now forecast to reach £3.297bn - a 94% increase on last year. This included a 72% rise in spending on Iraq to £1.648bn, despite ongoing falls in troop numbers. The government says the money is needed for force protection. Last year's total spending on the two conflicts was £1.698bn. 3 Apr 2008 14:32:01 GMT http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7287525.stm EB1C27E0-8A0B-4410-8391-FAB2CF74657A BBC A lot of Iraq is not functioning well, but all around you today are encouraging signs It is the last day of my month in Baghdad and one of the Times drivers is bringing his children to meet me in my hotel. Nowhere else in the world would that be noteworthy, but in Iraq it is remarkable. I had not seen his family since November 2003, a few months after the US invasion, when I visited their house in western Baghdad. Shortly after that, Iraq began its slide into mayhem. Westerners faced kidnapping and execution. Our driver and his family were forced from their home by sectarian death threats. They returned when the US troop “surge" finally restored a modicum of order last summer, but even then the children were locked inside the house. As I await their arrival, I reflect that in five years of visiting Iraq this is the first time I have left feeling anything but deeply pessimistic. Even ardent opponents of the US invasion - myself included - could not deny that daily life for most Iraqis is now better, or at least markedly less awful, than it was. 4 Mar 2008 18:03:58 GMT http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article3478865.ece Martin Fletcher 10211A07-B755-4BA1-860D-BB5616B9C5C5 The Times The complete withdrawal of foreign troops is the only solution to Iraq's intractable problems, the Guardian's senior foreign correspondent, Jonathan Steele believes. In a lecture Iraq: The Way Out, organised by the London Middle East Institute at London University's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) Steele described the invasion of Iraq as Britain's worst foreign policy blunder since Suez. He pointed out that terrorist car bombs are given prominent media coverage since most take place in Baghdad where photographers and reporters have immediate access to the scenes of carnage. As a result, readers and TV viewers have the impression that car bombs are the main danger for Iraqis. In fact, away from the cameras in the smaller towns and the countryside the Americans are taking more lives. 4 Mar 2008 18:02:12 GMT http://www.mathaba.net/rss/?x=583923 Jonathan Steele 324F7607-F385-4B58-ADA5-7C4C60D4D2A4 Mathaba.net/The Guardian Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Iraq on Sunday for a two-day visit - the first such trip by an Iranian president. Although he was invited by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, it is a controversial and potentially divisive state visit, as well as a security challenge. Many Sunni Arabs find it deeply objectionable that Iraqi hospitality is being offered to a man they suspect of covertly helping to finance and arm Shia militia groups. Those groups have killed hundreds of Iraqis in gruesome attacks that often involve torture with electric drills. One Sunni tribal leader believes the Iranian president is coming here "to organise more terrorist operations in Iraq". 4 Mar 2008 18:01:27 GMT http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7273284.stm Hugh Sykes 556780C8-89A0-49F0-9855-BABF30F29882 BBC It's one of the most controversial questions today: How many Iraqis have died since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion? That there is no definitive answer should not come as a surprise, given the chaotic situation in Iraq. Still, it's an important question to ask, for obvious humanitarian, moral and political reasons. Theoretically, the public health surveys and polls that have been conducted in Iraq -- at great risk to the people involved -- should help inform and further the debate. But the data is complicated by different research approaches and their attendant caveats. The matter has been further confused by anemic reporting, with news articles usually framed as a "he said / she said" story, instead of an exploration and interpretation of research findings. 4 Mar 2008 18:00:13 GMT Diane Farsetta 849AE18C-3552-493A-85E2-B2890B9187CA CMD The United States expects to have about 140,000 troops in Iraq even after completing a planned drawdown of combat forces in July, the Pentagon said on Monday. The forecast, which prompted swift criticism from Democrats, means there will still be 8,000 more U.S. troops in Iraq than when President George W. Bush ordered a surge of extra forces in January 2007 to curb violence. Army Lt. Gen. Carter Ham, director of operations for the U.S. military's Joint Staff, also said it was too soon to predict if troop numbers could go below the pre-surge level of 132,000 any time this year. 4 Mar 2008 17:51:11 GMT http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKN2527205420080226?rpc=401&feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&rpc=401 Andrew Gray 9822051E-5677-4359-B651-E5CF726F34F2 Reuters Turkish troops and Kurdish PKK rebels fought battles in northern Iraq on Sunday that left scores dead on the fourth day of a major ground offensive Baghdad and Washington fear could further destabilise Iraq. Iraq's government said Turkey should withdraw its troops as soon as possible and urged Ankara to sit down with Baghdad for talks to resolve the crisis over the PKK. Ankara launched the land offensive on Thursday after months of aerial bombardment of PKK targets in the remote, mountainous region. It accuses rebels of using northern Iraq as a base to stage attacks inside Turkey. 4 Mar 2008 17:49:19 GMT http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/latest/2008/02/24/talks-urged-as-turkey-and-pkk-clash-in-n-iraq-89520-20329039/ Shamal Aqrawi AADB1D40-20EF-47B0-91D7-D640FC285220 The Mirror/Reuters Iraq's Arbil-based regional government says United States responsible for Turkish attacks. Iraq's Kurdish region, usually one of Washington's closest friends in the region, on Saturday attacked the United States for green-lighting a Turkish incursion onto its territory. "We place responsibility for the military operations on the US government because without its consent Turkey would not be allowed to violate the land and air sovereignty of Iraq," said regional government spokesman Falah Mustafa. "The regional government condemns these military operations and the air bombing targeting infrastructure," he said. 4 Mar 2008 17:47:59 GMT http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=24493 B93FFDEF-E4A7-49C1-B2D3-113FA0ABD090 Middle East Online The Arab League General Secretary Amr Mussa expressed concern Saturday over Turkey's military operations in northern Iraq, according to an official Arab League statement. Mussa called for Iraqi sovereignty to be respected, and urged Turkey and Iraq to abide by all treaties signed over the issue. He emphasised the importance of resolving the situation peacefully, saying the Iraqi government should act against all terrorist activities aimed at destablising either country. 4 Mar 2008 17:46:18 GMT http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/news/article_1392576.php/Arab_League_chief_expresses_concern_over_Turkish_action_in_Iraq F8E2FD3F-702C-4AF9-9A3F-0F962F9D9642 Monsters and Critics Thousands of Turkish troops have crossed into northern Iraq and thousands more are at the border ready to join them in their hunt for Kurdish PKK guerrillas, a senior military source said today. Turkey's military said the land offensive - the first major incursion in a decade - had fighter aircraft in support, and Turkish television reported that 10,000 troops had entered Iraq. "The Turkish Armed Forces, which attach great importance to Iraq's territorial integrity and stability, will return home in the shortest time possible after its goals have been achieved," the General Staff said in a statement posted on its website. The military source based in southeast Turkey told Reuters: "Thousands of troops have crossed the border and thousands more are waiting at the border to join them if necessary." 4 Mar 2008 17:45:03 GMT http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKL2162682720080221?rpc=401&feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&rpc=481 F183D7E8-518A-4A4B-949C-D23161B83B20 The Independent/Reuters An early draft of a pre-war British weapons dossier on Iraq included concerns over Israel's nuclear capability, but the government fought to suppress the reference before publication, The Guardian reported on Thursday. The newspaper said the Foreign Office convinced a tribunal to keep secret the handwritten mention of Israel in the margin of the dossier, which was drawn up to justify going to war in Iraq. The reference, suggesting Israel had disregarded the will of the United Nations like Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, was removed before the draft was released this week under Britain's Freedom of Information Act. 4 Mar 2008 13:20:05 GMT http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKL2162682720080221?rpc=401&feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&rpc=481 43162AA6-8CB9-410F-88CE-539F8305CE3B Reuters Battle expected in Congress over Bush's long-term Iraq stay The online activism group MoveOn.org has launched an Iraq/Recession campaign, aiming to make sure that politicians and pundits understand what voters already know: As long as we keep pouring that money down the drain in Iraq, we won't have the money we need to solve our economic woes. With the war costing Americans more than $338 million a day, MoveOn says, The tradeoffs are stark: Bombs or unemployment insurance for people laid off as the economy slows? Billions for Halliburton and Blackwater, or help for people on the verge of losing their homes because of the subprime meltdown? Urging people to raise the issue in letters to their local newspapers, MoveOn says, More and more Americans are making the connection between the billions we've spent over there and the crumbling economy here at home. 4 Mar 2008 13:17:51 GMT http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/12537/1/411 Susan Webb 694CBE11-B515-45CC-AC82-1D13E523A30C People's Weekly World Newspaper 4 Mar 2008 12:52:11 GMT http://www.peacerights.org/documents/WAR%20POWERS%20RESPONSE.pdf 16279E6F-CD83-40E2-8DCF-1DF9B580ADE2 Peacerights The cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts have grown to staggering proportions The Bush Administration was wrong about the benefits of the war and it was wrong about the costs of the war. The president and his advisers expected a quick, inexpensive conflict. Instead, we have a war that is costing more than anyone could have imagined. The cost of direct US military operations - not even including long-term costs such as taking care of wounded veterans - already exceeds the cost of the 12-year war in Vietnam and is more than double the cost of the Korean War. And, even in the best case scenario, these costs are projected to be almost ten times the cost of the first Gulf War, almost a third more than the cost of the Vietnam War, and twice that of the First World War. The only war in our history which cost more was the Second World War, when 16.3 million U.S. troops fought in a campaign lasting four years, at a total cost (in 2007 dollars, after adjusting for inflation) of about $5 trillion (that's $5 million million, or £2.5 million million). With virtually the entire armed forces committed to fighting the Germans and Japanese, the cost per troop (in today's dollars) was less than $100,000 in 2007 dollars. By contrast, the Iraq war is costing upward of $400,000 per troop. Most Americans have yet to feel these costs. The price in blood has been paid by our voluntary military and by hired contractors. The price in treasure has, in a sense, been financed entirely by borrowing. Taxes have not been raised to pay for it - in fact, taxes on the rich have actually fallen. Deficit spending gives the illusion that the laws of economics can be repealed, that we can have both guns and butter. But of course the laws are not repealed. The costs of the war are real even if they have been deferred, possibly to another generation. 4 Mar 2008 12:51:00 GMT http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article3419840.ece?openComment=true Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes 1C544B01-ACEC-4146-A814-13A0EA5F6155 The Times General David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq, is drawing up plans to pull more troops out of the country after July on the back of a sharp drop in attacks and long-awaited progress on the political front. The suggestions, which will depend upon conditions on the ground, are due to be presented as part of a new report on Iraq to George Bush, the US President, towards the end of next month, which will be put before Congress by early April. All aboard for hope on the Basra express We have been tasked to provide input to the Central Command, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the [Defence] Secretary and the President on the way ahead, obviously on recommendations with respect to further draw-downs beyond those that will be complete by July, General Petraeus told The Times. 4 Mar 2008 12:49:24 GMT http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article3406008.ece?&EMC-Bltn=OKTGN8 Deborah Haynes D78D6F6F-4879-4CF4-A8DD-4ED76DEFF7C7 The Times. he Turkish military said it is setting the ground work for a large-scale ground invasion into northern Iraq targeting the Kurdistan Workers' Party. The military said the ground operation is the final strike against the Kurdistan Workers' Party, known by its Kurdish language initials of PKK. The operation follows airstrikes on the group in late 2007 and military officials said the operation is scheduled for mid-March, the English language Turkish daily, Today's Zaman said Monday. 20 Feb 2008 11:09:26 GMT http://www.postchronicle.com/news/breakingnews/article_212131225.shtml 9625ED4E-A0B4-4E2C-B94F-BCB31C42D6B0 Post Chronicle Reported on Fatehoon, the commander of Mosul's campaign personally contacted the Baath Party military Bureau asking for help to mediates for the return of former army officers to fight al-Qaeda in the province. The news site reported that the commander gave assurances to those who are undecided that they will not be followed by the government after the campaign. 20 Feb 2008 11:02:59 GMT http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m41272&hd=&size=1&l=e 48786224-739B-4E04-9E11-901570B8584E uruknet.info The Iraq war has strained the US military to the extent that America could not fight another large-scale war today, according to a new survey of military officers. Nine in 10 officers said the war had stretched the ­military “dangerously thin". However, 56 per cent disagreed with the suggestion that the conflict had “broken" the armed services, while 64 per cent said morale was high. More than 3,400 current and retired officers, including more than 200 generals and admirals, participated in the survey by Foreign Policy magazine and the Center for a New American Security, a centrist think-tank. The results underscore the concerns of officers about the strain that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have placed on the military. Of respondents, 60 per cent said the military was weaker today than five years ago. 20 Feb 2008 11:01:47 GMT http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/eb734b9e-de59-11dc-9de3-0000779fd2ac,dwp_uuid=17aab8bc-6e47-11da-9544-0000779e2340.html?nclick_check=1 Demetri Sevastopulo DA3B34AF-5EC7-4340-BF44-60B86C58CF6A FT The United States will probably have more troops in Iraq this summer than it did before pouring in forces last year - even after a planned drawdown, a US general said on Friday. There were some 132,000 US troops in Iraq before Bush ordered a surge of about 30,000 more to curb rampant violence that threatened to plunge the country into all-out civil war. “It's likely that... the (total) number will be a little bit larger than the 132,000 or so that was the number of personnel on the ground pre-surge," said Army Lt. Gen. Carter Ham, director of operations on the Pentagon's Joint Staff. Sattler said he could not be more precise yet as commanders had still to complete their plans, but a Pentagon source said the number could be as high as 140,000. reuters 20 Feb 2008 10:58:55 GMT http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\02\17\story_17-2-2008_pg4_6 53F2B560-E078-463C-B477-5894BDB6A1B0 Daily Times The US "surge" is likely to end in July with more troops in Iraq than the 132,000 that were there before five extra combat brigades were sent in more than a year ago, a senior Pentagon official said. Lieutenant General Carter Ham said that support forces and trainers that went in with the surge will still be needed to back up Iraq's expanding security forces after the last of the extra combat brigades leaves. "It's likely that the number will be a little bit larger than the 132,000 or so that was the number of personnel on the ground pre-surge," said Ham, who is the operations director of the Joint Staff. About 8,000 support troops were deployed to Iraq as part of the surge. Ham would not say whether 140,000 troops would be the upper limit of the post-surge US force. 20 Feb 2008 10:57:46 GMT http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080216/pl_afp/usiraqmilitary_080216225954;_ylt=A9G_Rnm_HrpHI28AVAVsbEwB AFP 0FBF632D-A3AB-4D3A-A3FD-6E097E62A2DC Yahoo! News Iraqi and US officials said on Thursday that Tehran had asked for a delay in talks expected this week in Baghdad between the United States and Iran on the future of Iraq, while the Iraqi government later said that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would come to Baghdad on March 2 for the first visit ever by an Iranian president to the country. "The Iranian president will be visiting for two days, from March 2. He will be meeting with President Jalal Talabani and with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki," government spokes-man Ali al-Dabbagh told AFP. "He will be accompanied by a number of ministers." 20 Feb 2008 10:56:19 GMT http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=88991 AFP 967F4671-E331-452F-AAFA-9CB48996E7E9 Daily Star Lebanon The Bush administration has spent a lot of money in Iraq since White House economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey was fired in 2002 for daring to predict the war might cost as much as $200 billion. An estimate issued last August by the Congressional Budget Office suggested the war will have cost at least $1 trillion before it's over. A September report (PDF) by the Democratic staff of Congress's Joint Economic Committee pegged the cost at $1.3 trillion. Now a new book by a Harvard professor and a Nobel Prize winner in economics claims the true cost could be more than twice that-as high as $3 trillion dollars. If you wanted to pay that off with a single wad of $1,000 bills, your billfold would have to be almost 240 miles wide. In The Three Trillion Dollar War, Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard's Linda Bilmes claim to have laid out the "true cost of the Iraq conflict." Instead of simply including appropriations costs and the estimated costs for the future care of soldiers, as most estimates do, Stiglitz and Bilmes take many other factors into account. They include the costs of paying the interest on the money we've borrowed to finance the war; the increased costs of recruiting and retaining soldiers given the fact there is a war on; the macroeconomic costs, like part of the increase in the cost of oil and the lost economic productivity from spending the money overseas instead of reinvesting it at home; and the cost to the economy of the loss of the dead and the seriously wounded and their caretakers, using a metric called a "Valued Statistical Life." 20 Feb 2008 10:54:51 GMT http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2008/02/7216_the_real_cost_o.html AF7EDECC-845B-4987-8DB2-7BED548BC49D Mother Jones The mothers of two soldiers killed in Iraq are seeking an independent review of the legal grounds for joining the invasion Two grieving mothers whose sons were killed fighting for the British army in Iraq took their long-running battle to force a public inquiry into the legality of the war to the House of Lords this morning. Lawyers for Beverley Clarke and Rose Gentle will argue before an enlarged panel of nine law lords that the Government is obligated to hold an independent review of the decision to go to war under Article 2 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), which protects the "right to life". They will argue that the Government is bound by the convention to safeguard soldiers' lives by not sending them to fight in an illegal war. If the mothers win their appeal, it could result in Tony Blair, Lord Goldsmith, QC, the former Attorney-General, and Geoff Hoon, the former defence minister, called upon to give evidence in public. 20 Feb 2008 10:53:17 GMT http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article3350066.ece Michael Herman and PA D5C1D445-1DAB-4F35-AFFC-BD43E966676A The Times Blunt assessment delivered as British hand over security to Iraqis The full scale of the chaos left behind by British forces in Basra was revealed yesterday as the city's police chief described a province in the grip of well-armed militias strong enough to overpower security forces and brutal enough to behead women considered not sufficiently Islamic. As British forces finally handed over security in Basra province, marking the end of 4½ years of control in southern Iraq, Major General Jalil Khalaf, the new police commander, said the occupation had left him with a situation close to mayhem. "They left me militia, they left me gangsters, and they left me all the troubles in the world," he said in an interview for Guardian Films and ITV. 20 Feb 2008 10:51:39 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/dec/17/iraq.military Mona Mahmoud, Maggie O'Kane and Ian Black B3AA7D9F-12C1-4C24-B1E8-7A2717998251 The Guardian A government minister yesterday gave the clearest signal yet that there will be an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding Britain's participation in the US-led invasion of Iraq. Lord Malloch-Brown, the Foreign Office minister, told peers: "The time may come and, I suspect, definitively will come where such an inquiry is necessary. We ... have not yet reached that point. We still come back to the issue of not if there is an inquiry but when." Malloch-Brown, a former senior UN official and opponent of the invasion, said there needed to be "distance and perspective" to allow an inquiry to offer a "non-partisan source of analysis and advice for the future" that would "stand the test of time". 20 Feb 2008 10:50:17 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/jan/25/uk.iraq Richard Norton-Taylor 9BF0CB4F-FAD0-4444-99CA-329AF7D019C1 The Guardian Ministers were ordered yesterday to make public a secret document about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction that could shed light on the origins of the Government's claim that Saddam Hussein needed just 45 minutes to launch non-conventional warheads at British troops. The unpublished draft document was drawn up by John Williams, who in 2002, before the invasion of Iraq, was the head of information at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and one of the senior government spin-doctors. Yesterday the Information Tribunal ruled that the Williams report should be made public so that people could make their own judgment as to whether its contents could have influenced the official dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), including the 45-minute claim. 20 Feb 2008 10:47:18 GMT http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article3240548.ece Michael Evans A327C66E-99B4-497E-9213-BCE7327DFA0B The Times The government must open up to find out why it could not foresee - and barely considered - the outcomes of occupation The two main opposition parties will make another valiant effort today in the House of Lords to persuade the government to hold an inquiry into why its pre-war analysis of Iraq was so badly wrong. Valiant, because several previous attempts, including in the Commons, have failed. The last try came close. The government defeated a motion by Welsh and Scottish nationalists by just 298 to 273 votes. That was in October 2006, and the then foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, used the spurious argument that an inquiry could send a dangerous signal to insurgents that Britain did not have the determination to stick it out in Iraq. It was the worst kind of macho plea: "Don't give aid and comfort to the enemy", an unmerited claim of security in order to censor discussion. The Beckett argument, even taken at face value, doesn't hold water. Britain has abandoned its military positions in central Basra in the year and a quarter since she spoke. Its remaining troops are huddled at the airport. They play only a minimal role. For Britain to hold an inquiry into the government's Iraq deliberations of 2002 and 2003 will make no difference to the safety of the last 2,500 troops still there. The government's other argument is that there have been at least four Iraq inquiries already: the Hutton inquiry, the Butler inquiry, and hearings by two parliamentary select committees. True, but they focused on only one part of the story - the accuracy of the intelligence on Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction and the way Downing Street used it. 20 Feb 2008 10:45:16 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jan/24/politics.iraq Jonathan Steele 6CC2D022-5DE4-4B94-90E8-1C24EB759058 The Guardian An early draft of the government's discredited Iraq weapons dossier written by John Williams, a former journalist and head of the Foreign Office news department, must be released, the Information Tribunal ordered yesterday. The government has said the dossier was entirely the work of the intelligence agencies. Williams' role in the affair was not disclosed to the Hutton inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death of David Kelly, the government weapons expert who questioned the way the dossier was drawn up. The tribunal dismissed FCO claims that the release of the draft was not in the public interest. It said: "We do not accept that we should, in effect, treat the Hutton Report as the final word on the subject ... "Information has been placed before us, which was not before Lord Hutton, which may lead to questions as to whether the Williams' draft in fact played a greater part in influencing the drafting of the dossier than has previously been supposed. We make no comment on whether it did so in fact." 20 Feb 2008 10:43:55 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/jan/24/uk.iraq Richard Norton-Taylor 3290DA2C-A50E-4B71-BEF0-A7C955933E4B The Guardian A top U.S. military commander in Iraq said Tuesday that troops have al-Qaida on the run but will never completely be finished chasing them "because they may always come back." Army Maj. Gen. Mark P. Hertling, commander of coalition forces in northern Iraq, said some 40 military operations in his area since the last week of December have killed more than 130 militants and netted more than 370 prisoners, including 40 so-called "high-value individuals." Expanding security in the four-province area has "caused significant damage" to al-Qaida, Hertling told a Pentagon news conference. And commanders have intelligence indicating the insurgents are "looking for a place to hide." "A year ago, we were often reacting to al-Qaida and what they were going to do next," Hertling said by videoconference from Iraq. "Now I think the tables have turned a little bit and they are attempting to react to where we're going to go next - and that's a critical difference." 23 Jan 2008 13:24:21 GMT http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_IRAQ?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-01-17-17-38-39 PAULINE JELINEK CB41ECC7-457E-4F67-B811-3EAA8584B9DE AP Pity the U.S. presidential candidates. They had their positions on Iraq all worked out by last summer and have repeated them consistently ever since. But events on the ground have changed dramatically, and their rhetoric feels increasingly stale. They're fighting the Iraq War all right, but it's the wrong one. The Democrats are having the hardest time with the new reality. Every candidate is committed to "ending the war" and bringing our troops back home. The trouble is, the war has largely ended, and precisely because our troops are in the middle of it. From 2003 to 2005 the war in Iraq was defined by an insurgency. After the bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra in February 2006, it became largely a sectarian conflict. Now the dominant feature of the war is the proliferation of local ceasefires across the country. The real questions that candidates need to answer are these: How do they interpret this new reality? What would they do to maintain the new stability? What does all this mean for U.S. foreign and military policy in the next few years? 23 Jan 2008 13:23:41 GMT http://www.newsweek.com/id/96371 Fareed Zakaria 9777B494-2E04-4B13-872F-76B9BAEFE908 NewsWeek Defeat in Iraq? Jonathan Steele has to make the picture fit his premise, but on the ground the surge is making a future without tyranny possible Jonathan Steele's account of the defeat of western intervention in Iraq must have seemed a good idea in conception. Steele now has to make the best of the circumstance that, while his book was in press, events undermined him. Barring a fleeting reference to the multinational force's success in suppressing al-Qaida, his article this week might have been written a year ago for all its acknowledgement of Iraq's recent history. I supported the Iraq war and would do so again. It was - to invoke Talleyrand's terminology - neither a crime nor a blunder to overthrow a gangster regime that was in breach of the UN security council resolutions (among many others) that marked the conditions for ceasefire in the first Gulf war in 1991. But it was nearly a failure. Culpable negligence by the Bush administration left post-Saddam Iraq without a functioning state. The combined forces of Baathism and jihadism (grotesquely lauded by some columnists on this newspaper as the "resistance") opportunistically filled that vacuum, with unmitigated barbarism and an appalling civilian death toll. 23 Jan 2008 13:16:00 GMT http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/oliver_kamm/2008/01/the_tide_has_turned.html Oliver Kamm 902604B7-7A4D-4B72-9ADF-7E30D98F7957 The Guardian The government's top foreign policy advisers were as inept as their US counterparts in failing to see that removing Saddam Hussein in 2003 was likely to lead to a nationalist insurgency by Sunnis and Shias and an Islamist government in Baghdad, run by allies of Iran, the Guardian has learned. None of Whitehall's "Arabists" warned Tony Blair of the difficulties which have plagued the occupation. The revelation undermines the British claim that it was US myopia which was to blame for the failure to foresee what would happen in postwar Iraq. "Everyone was unprepared for the aftermath," a former ambassador, who served in the region at the time, told the Guardian. "To my shame I was in the complacent camp [in the Foreign Office]. We underestimated the insurgency. I didn't hear anyone say, 'It'll be a disaster, and it'll all come unstuck'. People felt it was a leap in the dark but not that we were staring disaster in the face." 23 Jan 2008 13:15:02 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2244155,00.html Jonathan Steele 0DCB2629-08DF-4B76-ADC8-C9C2FFD8BED1 The Guardian In the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, experts warned Tony Blair that occupying the country and trying to impose a western-style democracy was doomed to failure. He dismissed their objections, convinced that victory was a formality. In the first of three extracts from his new book, Jonathan Steele looks at how Britain went to war unbriefed, unprepared and with no idea of the fallout that would ensue On November 19 2002, four months before the invasion of Iraq, Tony Blair made a rare attempt to seek out expert views beyond the circle of his official advisers. Six distinguished academics were invited to Downing Street: three specialists on Iraq, and three on international security. George Joffe, an Arabist from Cambridge University, and Charles Tripp and Toby Dodge, who had both written books on Iraq's history, made opening statements of about five minutes each. They decided not to alienate the prime minister by discussing whether an invasion was sensible or necessary, but only what its consequences might be. 23 Jan 2008 13:13:40 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2244183,00.html Jonathan Steele 8C5262FB-A306-46C4-A0F5-346BD2768EDF The Guardian If the US can reach an accommodation with Iran before quitting, there is still the chance of a tolerable outcome in Iraq A few months ago, I suggested here that all of us who are sceptics about Iraq should subject ourselves to regular brain scans, just in case we were wrong. That is to say, enthusiasm to see George Bush's nose rubbed in his follies must never tip over into eagerness for US failure in Iraq. Its consequences for the world, and above all for the Iraqi people, are far too grave to indulge schadenfreude. There are three reasons today to revisit our thinking about Iraq even if, at the end of the process, we end up back where we started. James Forysth rightly remarked in the Guardian's media pages yesterday that the British press has under-reported the success of the US troop surge. It is a notable achievement by General David Petraeus and his forces that insurgent attacks have fallen by two-thirds, and civilian fatalities have declined steeply. Second, Gordon Brown told British troops outside Basra at the weekend that their role is almost over. Within weeks responsibility for security in the southern province will pass to local Iraqi forces. Finally, last week's amazing US national intelligence estimate, which declared that Iran has no current nuclear weapons programme, could carry critical significance for Iraq. It removes the overriding obstacle to dialogue between Tehran and Washington, which itself is indispensable to stabilising Iraq. 23 Jan 2008 13:10:47 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2225470,00.html Max Hastings FBCD23D0-2C5A-4D90-8CAC-357316D70A9B The Guardian One of the biggest surveys so far of Iraqis who have died violently since the US-led invasion of 2003 has put the figure at about 151,000. This is about a quarter of the figure given in a disputed Lancet article, but nearly three times higher than that of the Iraq Body Count campaigning group. The result is based on interviews with over 9,000 families across Iraq carried out by the health ministry for the WHO. The survey says more than half of all violent deaths were in Baghdad. 23 Jan 2008 13:05:29 GMT http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7180055.stm 92E88098-BF18-4F73-BEFB-AEEB3580ED7F BBC The US launched a major air strike this morning against what it claimed were al-Qaida hideouts on the southern outskirts of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. Planes dropped 40,000lb (18,100kg) of explosives during a 10-minute blitz on 40 targets, according to a military statement. The attack, involving B-1 bombers and F-16 fighters, was part of operation Phantom Phoenix, a campaign launched on Tuesday against al-Qaida insurgents who have regrouped following the "surge" around Baghdad. "Thirty-eight bombs were dropped within the first 10 minutes, with a total tonnage of 40,000 pounds," the statement said. 23 Jan 2008 13:04:29 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2238333,00.html Matthew Weaver and Ian Black 5BC6208C-1108-4F7E-94B9-2EE974EB6D09 The Guardian Some 48% of US diplomats who would refuse to volunteer to work in Iraq cited disagreement with President George W Bush's policy as a factor, according to a survey released on Tuesday. That reason ranked behind separation from family and security concerns, according to a survey by their union, the American Foreign Service Association. In the survey in which 4,300 of the 11,500 US Foreign Service members responded, some 68% opposed forced assignments as unnecessary and undesirable. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stirred controversy late last year when she warned diplomats they would be forced to serve in Iraq or risk dismissal if not enough came forward. In the end, there were enough volunteers. 23 Jan 2008 13:25:55 GMT http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=194944&version=1&template_id=43&parent_id=19 2B6E1D80-A76D-4E92-8800-A99A3FFCAD08 Gulf Times The narrative of progress in the "war on terror" is belied by immediate events and longer-term trends in Iraq, Afghanistan and Algeria. The mood-music for several weeks in November-December 2007 has been of the cautious improvement of military and political prospects in the various leading fronts of George W Bush's "war on terror". The United States military surge in Iraq was clearly having some success; a febrile political situation in Pakistan was nonetheless contained, with violence in areas such as Swat being addressed; the winter was expected to see an easing of the conflict in Afghanistan; the Annapolis summit could be presented as a signal of progress in middle-east negotiations; and Iran's recalcitrance over its nuclear programmes meant that there seemed a real possibility of maintaining pressure on Tehran (via an economic squeeze, international support for a third round of United Nations sanctions, and the ultimate threat of military force). In combination, the domestic political impact of these events and trends in the US - especially when given a positive gloss by the establishment media - could be regarded as positive for the Republicans in the 2008 presidential campaign (albeit without agreement yet on the party's likely candidate). 23 Jan 2008 13:03:21 GMT http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/conflicts/global_security/iraq_danger_signals Paul Rogers 298942C9-911F-467D-B27C-879D92BBE687 Open Democracy Attacks plummet as Shias join Sunnis in neighbourhood patrols to tackle militants and reunite communities Under the embers of the wintry evening sun the Tigris river, usually as brown as old boots, had turned almost blood red. Its waters were calm but its oily sheen was disturbed by the oars of a rower as he sculled his way through the city's fractured heart. Alone and apparently indifferent to the threat of a sniper's bullet, Muhammad Rafiq eased up on his stroke rate and tacked over to the shore. He hauled his craft up the bank to a mosque - the temporary headquarters for his rowing club since US soldiers had commandeered its real boathouse in 2003. Inside the courtyard, his forehead beaded with sweat, Muhammad laid a few old blankets over his upturned boat and padlocked the oars to a railing. "My friends said I was mad when I started rowing," said the 22-year-old former science student. "They said I would be sharing the river with dead bodies and that people would shoot at me. But it keeps me fit and it keeps me focused for my night work." As dusk fell, he checked the contents of his kit bag, slung it over his shoulder and jumped into a waiting taxi. 23 Jan 2008 13:02:18 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2230041,00.html Michael Howard 0AAD3FB2-7042-421C-BB63-F724B8C9E79A The Guardian More than 85% of the residents of Basra believe British troops have had a negative effect on the Iraqi province since 2003, an opinion poll suggests. The survey for BBC Newsnight of nearly 1,000 people also suggests that 56% believe their presence has increased the overall level of militia violence. 23 Jan 2008 13:01:51 GMT http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7144437.stm 6324BE0B-EFBA-4875-92FA-0DA7F6B75D56 BBC Staying in Iraq is not an option. Many Americans who were among the most eager to invade Iraq now urge that we find a way out. These Americans include not only civilian “strategists" and other “hawks" but also senior military commanders and, perhaps most fervently, combat soldiers. Even some of those Iraqis regarded by our senior officials as the most pro-American are determined now to see American military personnel leave their country. Polls show that as few as 2 percent of Iraqis consider Americans to be liberators. This is the reality of the situation in Iraq. We must acknowledge the Iraqis' right to ask us to leave, and we should set a firm date by which to do so. We suggest that phased withdrawal should begin on or before December 31, 2006, with the promise to make every effort to complete it by June 30, 2007. 23 Jan 2008 13:00:01 GMT http://www.harpers.org/archive/2006/10/0081225 George S. McGovern and William Roe Polk 651DBAF2-6659-4967-A518-C74949BA9138 Harpers The presence of only 2,500 British troops in Iraq from next spring could make it impossible for them to carry out any useful function other than to protect themselves from attack, a committee of MPs said yesterday. The Commons Defence Committee cast doubt on the Government's plan to reduce the number of troops from 5,000 to 2,500 next year. The cutback was announced by Gordon Brown in the Commons last month. The committee's scepticism was supported yesterday by a senior army commander who told The Times: “There is no point in having just 2,500 troops in Iraq. The minimum you need both for force protection and for continuing with training the Iraqi security forces is around 5,000. So you either keep 5,000 there or you withdraw the lot, which is what we suggested to the Government. 23 Jan 2008 12:58:59 GMT http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article2987831.ece Michael Evans BAADEAB8-C8FA-4F31-99B2-3441BC30930C The Times MoD begins study amid fears that up to 20,000 soldiers may be affected The Ministry of Defence is conducting a major study into brain injury in troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan amid fears that thousands of soldiers may have suffered damage after being exposed to high-velocity explosions. The US army says as many as 20% of its soldiers and marines have suffered "mild traumatic brain injury" (mTBI) from blows to the head or shockwaves caused by explosions. The condition, which can lead to memory loss, depression and anxiety, has been designated as one of four "signature injuries" of the Iraq conflict by the US department of defence, which is introducing a large-scale screening programme for troops returning from the frontline. 23 Jan 2008 12:58:13 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/military/story/0,,2200330,00.html Matthew Taylor and Esther Addley B68F6131-92D5-4E39-B93F-43E2B7B28B0C The Guardian War will spread to Turkish cities if his Iraq bases are attacked, PKK chief tells The Times Sipping milky coffee from a glass mug as he sat crosslegged on a cushion, the Kurdish rebel commander cut more of a kindly father figure than that of a fighter preparing to defend his cause to the death against Turkey. 23 Jan 2008 12:57:06 GMT http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article2681611.ece?EMC-Bltn Deborah Haynes AA24BDB0-6C7C-4EC7-9E29-0533B582D3C1 The Times The Turkish rockets streaked out of the night sky and slammed into the mountainside next to a village in northern Iraq, setting fire to a swath of grassland and forcing families to dive for cover. It was terrifying. All the children were crying," said Jafar Bahry Kaseem, 56, whose one-storey stone house was one of the closest to the surprise attack on Sunday night, which lasted for about 45 minutes. We are very frightened that this village will be shelled at any time. If this continues then we will be forced to leave our home," said the farmer, dressed in traditional Kurdish fatigues with a green scarf wrapped around his head, as he surveyed the burnt mountainside about 50 metres from his front door. 23 Jan 2008 12:56:14 GMT http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2666322.ece?EMC-Bltn Deborah Haynes B6F33960-2E35-491D-BB07-3122E9027686 The Times So cholera has now reached Baghdad. That's not much of a surprise given the utter breakdown of infrastructure. But there's a reason the cholera is picking up speed now. From the NYT: We are suffering from a shortage of chlorine, which is sometimes zero," Dr. Ameer said in an interview on Al Hurra, an American-financed television network in the Middle East. “Chlorine is essential to disinfect the water." So why is there is a shortage? Because insurgents have laced a few bombs with chlorine and the U.S. and Iraq have responded by making it darn hard to import the stuff. From the AP: [ World Health Organization representative in Iraq] also said some 100,000 tons of chlorine were being held up at Iraq's border with Jordan, apparently because of fears the chemical could be used in explosives. She urged authorities to release it for use in decontaminating water supplies. I understand why Iraq would put restrictions on dangerous chemicals. And I'm sure nobody intended for the restrictions to be so burdensome that they'd effectively cut off Iraq's clean water supply. But that's what looks to have happened. What makes it all the more tragic is that chlorine--for all the hype and worry--is actually a very ineffective booster for bombs. Of the roughly dozen chlorine-laced bombings in Iraq, it appears the chlorine has killed exactly nobody. 23 Jan 2008 12:54:39 GMT http://www.ericumansky.com/2007/09/chlorine-and-ch.html Eric Umansky 4DCAD934-0094-4B76-8915-C3AF30C933A3 Dispatches from Damascus, the Upper West Side, and other exotic locales Most British troops could be withdrawn from Iraq by the end of next year under an exit strategy outlined by Gordon Brown yesterday. As the Prime Minister began trying to restore his battered authority after calling off an autumn election, Mr Brown said British troop numbers would be halved to 2,500 by next spring when a further decision on the next phase would be taken. Ministry of Defence officials said that all British troops could be out by the end of next year, although Downing Street expressed caution about the prospect. 23 Jan 2008 12:53:51 GMT http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article2617645.ece?EMC-Bltn Philip Webster E6DE9CB6-FD84-45F1-8EDE-AECF4415B30A The Times The question of how many Iraqis have died since 2003 has been reopened. In answering it, it is vital to clarify the criteria in making a scientific assessment A third assessment of post-invasion violent deaths in Iraq was published on 9 January 2008 by the New England Journal of Medicine, a prestigious platform for medical research and scientific debates edited in Boston, Massachusetts. The lead article in the journal - "Violence-Related Mortality in Iraq from 2002 to 2006" - reports the results of an inquiry by the Iraq Family Health Survey Study Group (IFHS), involving collaboration between national and regional ministers in Iraq and the World Health Organisation (WHO). It finds that 151,000 (between 104,000 and 220,000) people died from violence in Iraq between March 2003 and June 2006. When such a politically sensitive figure is published, it is critical to turn statistics into words and explain what the new evidence tells, what it does not, and how far it confirms or invalidates the previous ones. 23 Jan 2008 13:06:25 GMT http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/conflicts/iraq_handover/numbers_game_revisited Michel Thieren 24FABF52-72B7-4ED5-A629-C77BB73990F2 Open Democracy The Government as a whole gave the public “false and inflated expectations" of what could be achieved by British troops in Iraq, its top military adviser has admitted to The Times. Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, the Chief of Defence Staff, said that it would take “many years" for conditions to improve substantially in Basra. He also revealed that there were no plans to establish a “permanent British base" in Iraq. In a wideranging interview, Sir Jock was also sceptical of the call by General Sir Richard Dannatt, the head of the Army, for homecoming parades for troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. “I think a lot of units wouldn't want parades," he said. 23 Jan 2008 12:53:06 GMT http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article2610058.ece?EMC-Bltn Michael Evans 5CAD6CC6-0BC1-4EC7-8592-53CB1D9966CC The Times The prime minister paid a glowing tribute to British troops in Basra today after announcing 1,000 personnel would be home for Christmas. "I want to say to you how proud I am, how proud I believe all the British people are for what you have managed to do and what you are achieving," Gordon Brown said. "You are brave, you are courageous and I am incredibly proud of you." He later said further troop reductions next year depended on how the Iraqi forces coped with maintaining security. UK troops are stationed at the airport after pulling out of Basra palace, their last base in the city itself, last month. It is expected, however, that a UK force will remain at the airport on "tactical overwatch", ready to help the Iraqi security forces if they run into any difficulties they cannot deal with alone. 23 Jan 2008 12:52:03 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2181755,00.html Fred Attewill 5A7B2765-FA68-4927-8276-445588AC1AE1 The Guardian Between April 2003 and June 2004, $12 billion in U.S. currency much of it belonging to the Iraqi people was shipped from the Federal Reserve to Baghdad, where it was dispensed by the Coalition Provisional Authority. Some of the cash went to pay for projects and keep ministries afloat, but, incredibly, at least $9 billion has gone missing, unaccounted for, in a frenzy of mismanagement and greed. Following a trail that leads from a safe in one of Saddam's palaces to a house near San Diego, to a P.O. box in the Bahamas, the authors discover just how little anyone cared about how the money was handled. 23 Jan 2008 12:50:33 GMT http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/10/iraq_billions200710 Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele A3AB8622-9BB6-43EB-8FBC-C8FA1AD41284 Vanity Fair The United States is in the middle of an intense series of discussions, hearings and reports about the future of its military forces in Iraq. Each assessment of the current predicament carries some implication for possible ways forward. But the unfolding pattern of events in Iraq is not a matter for the US alone: whatever happens in that country will profoundly affect the lives of Iraqis themselves and people and states in the neighbouring region. What then will happen in Iraq over the next five years? This article presents and outlines four scenarios. Scenarios are thought-experiments of possible, contrasting futures. They are not about probabilities. Different scenarios may be more or less likely, but in principle each presents policy-makers with the same degree of challenge: thinking about how to prepare for them or how to prevent what would be regarded as the less favoured ones. A simple scenario exercise identifies two main drivers of future development in a specific setting. In the case of Iraq, we can consider one external factor (the presence of United States troops) and an internal one (the ability of Iraqi political actors to achieve consensus on the most important constitutional distributional questions) as the most relevant drivers. Together they form a matrix with a horizontal axis that reaches from a total withdrawal of US forces to their remaining in place; and a vertical axis for the range of possibilities between no consensus among Iraqi actors at the bottom to consensus about the most important questions at the top. 23 Jan 2008 12:49:29 GMT http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/conflicts/institutions_governments/iraq_2012 Volker Perthes 01373CCE-D549-41FF-927E-C2C718B781AA Open Democracy Barely a quarter of Iraqis say their security has improved in the past six months, a negative assessment of the surge in U.S. forces that reflects worsening public attitudes across a range of measures, even as authorities report some progress curtailing violence. Apart from a few scattered gains, a new national survey by ABC News, the BBC and the Japanese broadcaster NHK finds deepening dissatisfaction with conditions in Iraq, lower ratings for the national government and growing rejection of the U.S. role there. More Iraqis say security in their local area has gotten worse in the last six months than say it's gotten better, 31 percent to 24 percent, with the rest reporting no change. Far more, six in 10, say security in the country overall has worsened since the surge began, while just one in 10 sees improvement. 23 Jan 2008 12:47:59 GMT http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3571504&page=1 Gary Langer CFB1ED1E-F2B1-4524-ACBC-01E626CD0C06 ABC News The positive mood-music from Iraq may be ominous for Iran. A war of position in Washington is well underway in advance of the status report on the United States military "surge" in Iraq being prepared by the military commander in the country, General David Petraeus. The general's hint on 4 September 2007 that progress in achieving key objectives might allow modest troop withdrawals from Iraq early in 2008 is being used as one gambit in this power-game; the bleak report of the US government's accountability office - stating that the Iraqi government had passed only three of the eighteen "benchmarks" set for it by the US Congress - is another. Petraeus's signal may reflect a realistic assessment of the United States army's current overstretch as much as any real confidence that security in Iraq has or will improve in an enduring way. But it reinforces the sense that the combination of his testimony to Congress (on 10 September) and the release of the report itself (on 15 September) is likely to recommend a continuation of the surge for the next six months at least. 23 Jan 2008 12:46:39 GMT http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/conflicts/global_security/baghdad_tehran Paul Rogers 5CB55DD2-F412-4F5A-B22F-B9C41CFBFB7E Open Democracy Leaked Red Cross report sets up Bush team for international war-crimes trial by Nat Hentoff If and when there's the equivalent of an international Nuremberg trial for the American perpetrators of crimes against humanity in Guantánamo, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the CIA's secret prisons, there will be mounds of evidence available from documented international reports by human-rights organizations, including an arm of the European parliament-as well as such deeply footnoted books as Stephen Grey's Ghost Plane: The True Story of the CIA Torture Program (St. Martin's Press) and Charlie Savage's just-published Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy (Little, Brown). While the Democratic Congress has yet to begin a serious investigation into what many European legislators already know about American war crimes, a particularly telling report by the International Committee of the Red Cross has been leaked that would surely figure prominently in such a potential Nuremberg trial. The Red Cross itself is bound to public silence concerning the results of its human-rights probes of prisons around the world or else governments wouldn't let them in. 23 Jan 2008 12:44:36 GMT http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0735,hentoff,77643,6.html Nat Hentoff 536DAB1A-7436-4C13-8198-BCC31FE131AB Village Voice Action Shows Rare Bipartisan Consensus Showing rare bipartisan consensus over war policy, the Senate overwhelmingly endorsed a political settlement for Iraq that would divide the country into three semi-autonomous regions. The plan, conceived by Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), was approved 75-23 as a non-binding resolution, with 26 Republican votes. It would not force President Bush to take any action, but it represents a significant milestone in the Iraq debate, carving out common ground in a debate that has grown increasingly polarized and focused on military strategy. The Biden plan envisions a federal government system for Iraq, consisting of separate regions for Iraq's Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish populations. The structure is spelled out in Iraq's constitution, but Biden would initiate local and regional diplomatic efforts to hasten its evolution. 23 Jan 2008 12:42:44 GMT http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/26/AR2007092601506.html Shailagh Murray 6F3F8155-5C3F-4B91-BEF3-FCF5CD4B8F3C Washington Post We speak with Michael Klare, author of “Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Dependency on Imported Petroleum." Klare says, “There's a second war underway in Iraq that's a war for the control of the oil wealth. That's a war that is pitting Kurds against the Arabs of the country, Shiites against Sunnis, and Shiite against Shiite. Because eventually the Americans are going to leave and the people of Iraq know this." 23 Jan 2008 12:41:55 GMT http://www.democracynow.org/2007/9/14/michael_klare_on_the_internal_war 5FE8B227-2A01-488E-88EF-306F91462C21 Democracy Now! Iraq has failed to meet all but three of 18 congressionally mandated benchmarks for political and military progress, according to a draft of a Government Accountability Office report. The document questions whether some aspects of a more positive assessment by the White House last month adequately reflected the range of views the GAO found within the administration. The strikingly negative GAO draft, which will be delivered to Congress in final form on Tuesday, comes as the White House prepares to deliver its own new benchmark report in the second week of September, along with congressional testimony from Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker. They are expected to describe significant security improvements and offer at least some promise for political reconciliation in Iraq. 6 Sep 2007 12:30:33 GMT http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/29/AR2007082902434.html?nav=rss_email/components Karen DeYoung and Thomas E. Ricks A7FD39DF-EF97-4C48-81C5-99E66509C6A4 The Washington Post U.S. President George W. Bush is preparing to ask Congress for as much as $50 billion in additional funding for the war in Iraq, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday, citing a White House official. The request signals increasing White House confidence that it can fend off mounting congressional pressure to begin withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, the Post reported. The additional funds would come on top of about $460 billion in the fiscal 2008 defense budget and $147 billion in a pending supplemental bill to fund the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Post said. 6 Sep 2007 12:29:38 GMT http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN2830132120070829 D7DC4E3B-FC4B-4BC8-A75C-CF8899F4D78B Reuters The constitutional scholars who represented extraordinary-rendition victim Maher Arar charge that America is losing the "war on terror" and the civil rights of its citizens because of Bush administration policies. In a new book, "Less Safe, Less Free: Why America Is Losing the War on Terror," law professors David Cole and Jules Lobel argue that the problem lies in the aggressive "preventive paradigm" the Bush administration adopted in the wake of 9/11. The authors note that the administration "is fond of reminding us that no terrorist attacks have occurred on domestic soil since 9/11," but they ask, "Has the administration's 'war on terror' actually made us safer?" Their answer: "While the 'preventive paradigm' can point to few gains in our security, it has come at great cost to our ideals. In the name of preemptive security, the administration has undertaken torture, indefinite detention without trial, extraordinary renditions, disappearances into CIA 'black sites,' warrantless wiretapping of American citizens, and an illegal and disastrous war in Iraq." 6 Sep 2007 12:28:28 GMT http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/082807K.shtml William Fisher E58D534E-21B8-43D0-A9D8-C4E24E76BEB0 t r u t h o u t Iraq's deadly insurgent groups have financed their war against U.S. troops in part with hundreds of thousands of dollars in U.S. rebuilding funds that they've extorted from Iraqi contractors in Anbar province. The payments, in return for the insurgents' allowing supplies to move and construction work to begin, have taken place since the earliest projects in 2003, Iraqi contractors, politicians and interpreters involved with reconstruction efforts said. 6 Sep 2007 12:21:21 GMT http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/19232.html Hannah Allam BEB558F2-F20E-480F-8CB0-1DDE5A7B3089 McClatchy Newspapers After serving in Vietnam nearly 40 years ago and receiving the Bronze Star for it the Tucson soldier was called back to active duty in Iraq. While there, he awoke one morning with a sore throat. Eighteen months later, Army Sgt. James Lauderdale was dead, of a bizarrely aggressive cancer rarely seen by the doctors who tried to treat it. As a result, his stunned and heartbroken family has joined growing ranks of sickened and dying Iraq war vets and their families who believe exposures to toxic poisons in the war zone are behind their illnesses - mostly cancers, striking the young, taking them down with alarming speed. 6 Sep 2007 12:20:17 GMT http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/198240.php Carla McClain F6482350-D594-4101-9084-5DB135F8E391 Arizona Daily Star This year's U.S. troop buildup has succeeded in bringing violence in Baghdad down from peak levels, but the death toll from sectarian attacks around the country is running nearly double the pace from a year ago. Some of the recent bloodshed appears the result of militant fighters drifting into parts of northern Iraq, where they have fled after U.S.-led offensives. Baghdad, however, still accounts for slightly more than half of all war-related killings - the same percentage as a year ago, according to figures compiled by The Associated Press. 6 Sep 2007 12:19:01 GMT http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070825/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_counting_the_dead Steven R. Hurst 1BC35E78-7CE0-4217-9BDA-F104B53AFA90 Yahoo News/AP "He shall judge between many peoples, and shall decide for strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more;" - Micah, Chapter 4, The Bible "And make not Allah because of your swearing (by Him) an obstacle to your doing good and guarding (against evil) and making peace between men, and Allah is Hearing, Knowing." - The Koran For decades, especially since the end of the Vietnam War, the US military has been wrestling with aggressive sects of doomsday Christians demanding control and conversions of those of other faiths as well as nonbelievers within the armed forces. Even beyond this high-pressure hard sell, those Judgment Day, apocalyptic Christian leaders, with followings estimated at 40 million parishioners, have urged public officials on all levels to wage war with Israel's enemies. Sometimes they and others even send their followers into dangerous war zones to preach their faith and risk lives. In at least one case, the Pentagon is supporting a Christian evangelistic group's efforts to promote itself inside the Muslim-dominated Iraq war zone. 6 Sep 2007 12:17:46 GMT http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/082407R.shtml Thomas D. Williams and JP Briggs II 817448FD-DD3E-40F8-A588-30FF695153B8 t r u t h o u t Iraq's prospects look increasingly bleak, but dividing the country on ethnic and sectarian lines will cause more problems than it solves. Recently, while the Bush administration's top officials have been downgrading General David Petraeus's promised report on the Pentagon's surge in Iraq in September as a mere "snapshot" of progress instead of a final assessment - the earlier billing by President Bush - there has been a growing speculation on the future shape of Iraq as a sovereign state. Will the republic of Iraq chug along as it is? Or will it split formally? If so, how deep will that split be? Some experts foresee a formal division of Iraq into three parts, each new state dominated by one of the major communities - Shias, Sunnis and Kurds. Others visualise a federal Iraq, with Shias in the south and Sunnis in the west following the example of the Kurds, who have been running the regional Kurdistan government since 1991, with Baghdad administered by the central authority. Still others see a federal Iraq, with Baghdad divided into Sunni- or Shia-dominated cantons. 23 Jan 2008 13:09:11 GMT http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/dilip_hiro/2007/06/will_it_have_to_get_worse.html Dilip Hiro 7C3C93C0-1E72-41EE-812B-D451B53AEB1F The Guardian The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is expected to advise President Bush to reduce the U.S. force in Iraq next year by almost half, potentially creating a rift with top White House officials and other military commanders over the course of the war. Administration and military officials say Marine Gen. Peter Pace is likely to convey concerns by the Joint Chiefs that keeping well in excess of 100,000 troops in Iraq through 2008 will severely strain the military. This assessment could collide with one being prepared by the U.S. commander in Iraq, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, calling for the U.S. to maintain higher troop levels for 2008 and beyond.