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POPS 6,000 Sunnis Join Pact With US In Iraq Kurds often consider Kurkik part of their ancestral homeland and often refer to the city as the "Kurdish Jerusalem." Saddam, however, relocated tens of thousands of pro-regime Arabs to the city in the and 1990s under his "Arabization" policy. The Iraqi government has begun resettling some of those Arabs to their home regions, making room for thousands of Kurds who have gradually returned to Kirkuk since Saddam's ouster. Tension has been rising over the city's status—whether it will join the semi-autonomous Kurdish region or continue being governed by Baghdad. "Hawija is the gateway through which all our communities—Kurdish, Turkomen and Arab alike—can become unsafe," said Abu Saif al- Jabouri, mayor of al-Multaqa village north of Kirkuk. "Do I love my neighbor in Hawija? That question no longer matters. I must work to help him, because his safety helps me."
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POPSJust close your eyes and repeat after me ... Just close your eyes, stick your fingers in your ears, and repeat after me: "9-11 ... weapons of mass destruction ... al-Qaeda ... Defeatocrats ... birth pangs of a new Middle East ... 9-11 ... liberal media ... support our troops ... 9-11 ... spreading democracy and freedom ... better off without Saddam ... 9-11 ... last throes ... the surge is working ... welcome us as liberators ... 9-11 ... evildoers ... so we won't have to fight 'em here ... 9-11 ... "
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POPSLearning from history: the British pullout from Iraq, 1932 Maj. Joel Rayburn, a historian and officer now posted to CENTCOM, writes about the dangers of a too-hasty exit from Iraq, drawing on the British experience post-WWI. I need to read this more carefully, but it seems his ideas present a pretty strong rebuke to both Republican and Democratic positions on the war right now. He says: a purely military approach, which is what the administration is pushing (though they claim not to be) will probably make things worse, but leaving now would probably be just as bad. From Foreign Affairs; a cached version.
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POPSIraq: the new plan A deeply significant political commentary (no pun intended). Note the look on the American's face as he contemplates the significance of the new plan he's been handed.
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POPSWild-Eyed Bush Thumping Chest: "I Am the President" The comments about the other ranting in the article: ome big money players up from Texas recently paid a visit to their friend in the White House. The story goes that they got out exactly one question, and the rest of the meeting consisted of The President in an extended whine, a rant, actually, about no one understands him, the critics are all messed up, if only people would see what he’s doing things would be OK…etc., etc. This is called a “bunker mentality” and it’s not attractive when a friend does it. When the friend is the President of the United States, it can be downright dangerous. Apparently the Texas friends were suitably appalled, hence the story now in circulation.
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POPSLieberman talks to frustrated troops Next to him, Spc. Will Hedin, 21, of Chester, Conn., thought about what he was going to say. "We're not making any progress," Hedin said, as he recalled a comrade who was shot by a sniper last week. "It just seems like we drive around and wait to get shot at." But as he waited two chairs down from where Lieberman would sit, Hedin said he'd never voice his true feelings to the senator. "I think I'd be a private if I did," he joked. "It's just more troops, more targets." The soldiers smiled and greeted , stood with him for pictures and sat down to a lunch of roast beef and turkey sandwiches. It was unclear if they ever asked their questions. ... It isn't clear whether Williams mentioned the last line on his note card, the one that had a star next to it. "We don't feel like we're making any progress," it said.
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POPSAmerica's Allies at War: Turkey and the Kurds Ut-oh. Turkey? As in our long-time Near-Eastern ally? Getting ready to invade Iraq? To attack the Kurds? As in the only people in Iraq currently not trying to kill us? I'm going to file this one under "Lose Lose Situation." To bad we don't have a leader with diplomatic skills who could be defusing this situation RIGHT NOW...
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POPSIraq is more than just an election issue! At this point we really should be asking ourselves: what is the real objective of the Bush administration? Is he actually trying to win the war? Or simply trying to keep it going until he is out of office? Isn't the troop surge perfect evidence of this? The new strategy amounts to nothing more than simply committing more men and material to the problem without a significant re-evaluation of our overall strategy, or its shortcomings. Unfortunately, the impractical Democrat bill on spending, and their quick retreat from that position also seems to suggest that many Democrats think that an ongoing war in Iraq might be a convenient election issue next year. I will vote for no candidate who plays politics while people's lives are on the line.
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POPSTop 25 Censored Stories of 2007 More I couldn't clip (due to Clip Limits) #21 Gold Mining Threatens Ancient Andean Glaciers #22 $Billions in Homeland Security Spending Undisclosed #23 US Oil Targets Kyoto in Europe #24 Cheney’s Halliburton Stock Rose Over 3000 Percent Last Year #25 US Military in Paraguay Threatens Region
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POPS$100 billion more for an unwinnable war: Congress caves to GWB Sanchez says that IF America commits AT LEAST 100,000 troops for 6 or 7 years and IF there is dramatically improved US and Iraqi leadership we may be able to salvage a stalemate. WTF. "A Congressional study has found that despite billions spent on training, Iraq has just 6,000 troops willing to operate independently from the coalition forces - with the rest refusing to fight unless backed by US firepower. The study indicates it will be years before Iraq has an army capable of battling the rebels." Hilary, Obama and 12 other senators voted against the $100billion bill, but were outnumbered by the hawks and the spineless. It's so, so frustrating and depressing to watch America go down the tubes this way.
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POPSWhy the Democrats can't stop the Iraq war To finish the point: "If they are able to meet these benchmarks, the Democrats (and Bush, for that matter) could declare victory. If they don't meet these benchmarks, then the Democrats could claim that we helped the Iraqis enough that they should have been able to meet these guidelines. This would warrant the claim that the Iraqis lack the will to engage in useful nation building and thus the failure is theirs not ours.Bush cannot accept this proposal because Bush knows that the Democrats will claim forever that he and the party that supported him got us into an unwinnable war." Interesting points made re: US not being accustomed to defeat; too long to clip, go to the source "
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