Indo-US Nuclear Deal Done; Pleases Few10 Dec 2006Excerpt: NEW DELHI —One and a half years after it was signed, the nuclear cooperation agreement between the United States and India has received highly qualified approval from U.S. Congress.
Back to Lebanon10 Dec 2006Excerpt: When Israeli jets were dropping American-made-and-paid-for bombs on Lebanon’s cities, where was the Lebanese “army”? Hiding in its barracks, even as the Israelis reduced their bases to rubble. And where was Lebanon’s prime minister, Fouad Siniora, and what was he doing about it? He was pleading with his masters in Washington to call off their Israeli dogs, and wiping away tears as he broke down in front of the Arab conference, when it became apparent that his pleas were falling on deaf ears. That isn’t all he was doing, however, as Hassan Nasrallah recently pointed out. Addressing 2 million protesters rallying in Beirut against Siniora’s government, he asked: “Didn’t the prime minister of Lebanon work to cut off the supply lines?” Nasrallah and his supporters claim Lebanese government officials colluded with the Americans and the Israelis to rain death on their own country.
Sunday: 127 Iraqis, 4 GIs Killed; 47 Iraqis, 3 GIs Wounded9 Dec 2006Excerpt: Four American soldiers were killed today and another three injured when they were blasted by separate roadside bombs in or just west of the capital. This brings the total for December to 42 American servicemember deaths. One death was reported late Sunday night and the other three early the next morning. Also, at least 127 Iraqis were killed or found dead and another 47 wounded. Clashes between Shi’ite and Sunni groups erupted in several locations, and U.S. forces were called in to help alleviate some of the fighting in the Baghdad neighborhood of Adhamiyah. American troops also killed three militiamen after observing them planting a roadside bomb in Saqlawiyah.
Remember Pearl Harbor8 Dec 2006Excerpt: Perhaps it is fitting that the Iraq Study Group chose to make its report public on “Pearl Harbor Day,” calling on, inter alia, President Bush to seek Iran’s help in extricating us from the mess he got us into by his “preemptive” attack on oil-rich Iraq’s non-existent nuclear weapons program.
Democrats Let Gates Slide8 Dec 2006Excerpt: I wish I could say that the Democratic takeover of Congress gives me hope for an end to the war in Iraq. But it doesn’t. Since winning an overwhelming victory at the polls this November, the Democrats have done nothing to engender optimism in the peace camp.
Impunity and Immunity8 Dec 2006Excerpt: Confession, the time-honored, soul-soothing last resort for those caught in error, may not survive the Bush administration. It has, after all, long made a mockery of such revelations by manufacturing an entire lexicon of coercive techniques to elicit often nonexistent “truths” that would justify its detention policies. And yet, without being coerced in any way, administration officials have been confessing continually these past years—in documents that may someday play a part in their own confrontation with justice.
Kurds Reject US Study Group’s Report8 Dec 2006Excerpt: ARBIL —In a strongly worded statement, the president of Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region rejected in its entirety the report by the Iraq Study Group, and threatened that Kurds would opt for secession from Iraq should Washington try to implement some of the key recommendations of the report regarding Kirkuk, federalism and the constitution.
The Iraq Study Group: None Dare Call It Treason8 Dec 2006Excerpt: On Wednesday, December 6, 2006, the Iraq Study Group finally presented its much-anticipated report on Iraq to the President and the country. It seems the President needs advice, and so he welcomed the formation of the Iraq Study Group when it was formed last March.
Public Found Likely to Support Baker Report8 Dec 2006Excerpt: With the administration of President George W. Bush under mounting pressure to alter U.S. strategy in Iraq and the Middle East, a new public opinion survey quietly released this week found strong popular support for pursuing new diplomatic avenues as proposed by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group (ISG).
Nice Try, Daddy8 Dec 2006Excerpt: What it looks like to me—and to some people in Houston a friend and I have talked to who are in a much better position to know firsthand—is that Daddy called on his old friend and consigliere to save Junior from himself. Jim Baker, impelled by friendship and other ties, saw a chance not only to perform a possible service, but to burnish his legacy as the statesman who finally brought peace to the Middle East.
Saturday: 59 Iraqis, 1 Marine Killed; 51 Iraqis Wounded8 Dec 2006Excerpt: A pair of separate car bombs, including one near an important shrine, added to todayand#8217;s tally of Iraqi victims of violence. Overall, at least 59 Iraqis were killed or found dead and another 51 were wounded. Also, U.S. military authorities reported that one Marine died today in Fallujah, raising the number of U.S. dead in December to 38 servicemembers. And early reports state that U.S. soldiers mistakenly killed three Iraqi soldiers during a raid in Dulouiya.
Setting the Limits of Invasion Journalism7 Dec 2006Excerpt: On Nov. 14, Bridget Ash wrote to the BBC’s Today program asking why the invasion of Iraq was described merely as “a conflict.” She could not recall other bloody invasions reduced to “a conflict.”
Republic Takes Another Hit at Gates Hearing7 Dec 2006Excerpt: At Tuesday’s Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the nomination of Robert Gates to be secretary of defense, I felt as though I were paying last respects to the Constitution of the United States. But there was none of the praise customarily given to the deceased. Rather, the bouquets were fulsomely shared round about among the nominee and the senators—all of the “distinguished,” but none more distinguished than the Very Reverend John Warner, the gentleman from Virginia, chairman of the committee and presider at the wake.
ISG Report Faces Uncertain Future7 Dec 2006Excerpt: One day after its official release, the package of 79 recommendations on U.S. Iraq and Middle East policy released Wednesday by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group (ISG) faced a very uncertain future.
We Can’t Wait for 20087 Dec 2006Excerpt: As an attempt to clean up the mess created by President Bush and his neocon advisors, the report [.pdf] of the Baker-Hamilton commission is an admirable effort. Yet, in the end, it is too little, too late.
Readings in the Age of Empire7 Dec 2006Excerpt: The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created a War Without End Peter Galbraith Simon and Schuster, 2006 261 pp. Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq Thomas E. Ricks Penguin Press, 2006 482 pp.
Friday: 78 Iraqis, 3 GIs Killed; 43 Iraqis, 2 Marines Wounded7 Dec 2006Excerpt: Although a regular car curfew helped quash violence towards religious observers in the capital, at least 109 Iraqis were killed today and 43 wounded in violent attacks across the country; most were victims of controversial U.S air strikes. Also, three U.S. soldiers were killed and two Marines were wounded in separate events.
Thursday: 57 Iraqis Killed, 10 Wounded6 Dec 2006Excerpt: At least 57 Iraqis were killed or found dead today and another 10 were wounded in several attacks. U.S. military authorities reported that another U.S. soldier was killed yesterday in Iraq, and a GI died today from wounds received in combat yesterday; they are listed in Wednesday’s tally.
A Losing War, a Failed President, a Weak Dollar: We’ve Been Here Before6 Dec 2006Excerpt: I’m not a financial speculator, and I don’t play one on television. So please don’t base your decision on whether or not to bet against the U.S. dollar on my thoughts about the fate of the greenback, which has fallen to a 20-month low against the euro recently. But for someone like myself who is interested in the relationship between economics and politics, especially as they affect global affairs, the current weakness that the U.S. currency seems to be experiencing hasn’t come as a total shock.
NATO’s Poisoned Chalice6 Dec 2006Excerpt: On Nov. 29, NATO foreign ministers meeting in Riga extended an invitation to Serbia, Montenegro, and Bosnia-Herzegovina to join its Partnership for Peace (PfP) program. Established in 1994, the program was a way for former Warsaw Pact countries and others to attach themselves to the Alliance, and is widely considered as the gateway to full NATO membership.
Catastrophe Still Awaits6 Dec 2006Excerpt: A ray of realism appeared in the confirmation hearings for Secretary of Defense nominee Robert Gates before the Senate Armed Services Committee. Gates himself said that the U.S. was not winning in Iraq, a statement with which everyone agreed except the White House.
How More Produces Less in Iraq6 Dec 2006Excerpt: As of this morning, new polling data about American public opinion on Iraq is on the table. The Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA), through its WorldPublicOpinion.org, has just released its post-election poll. On crucial issues, especially the matter of setting a timetable for withdrawal and the Bush administration’s (in all but name) permanent bases in Iraq, American and Iraqi public opinion are in remarkably similar places; that the Bush administration, as the election results indicated, is now distinctly a minority regime; and that the Democrats are still largely lagging behind public opinion on Iraq, as is the media, as is James Baker’s Iraq Study Group (ISG), which today releases its “consensus report” to the president.
Iraq Study Group: How Big a Change?6 Dec 2006Excerpt: Today’s release of the Iraq Study Group report [.pdf] raises as many questions as it answers. A few highlights of the report and its 79 recommendations follow.
Antiwar.com original