The NY Times reports that Iraq is asking for more time (U.S there for up to another 13 years) and more equipment (the laundry list included helicopters, tanks, armored personnel carriers, and people).
The Iraqi Defense Minister's timetable far exceeds the more optimistic projections. More importantly, his timeline lets us recognize just what horrible morass Bush has engendered. It's alarming. It's infuriating. But it's not surprising. This is what happens when you make a government impotent.
Showing posts with label international news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label international news. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Iraq Wants More
Sunday, January 6, 2008
The Deadliest Year
The "surge" notwithstanding, 2007 was the deadliest year in Iraq.
A day-by-day chart compiled by American and Iraqi governments and news media organizations provides the details. Altogether, 2,592 were killed. Iraqi civilian deaths were too numerous to be included in the pictorial chart. The display includes deaths from the following sources: hostile fire, homemade bomb, car bomb, suicide bomb, nonhostile/accidental/suicide and source unknown. It also portrays identities of the dead (American, Coalition or Iraqi forces, police and Iraqi security foces) and number of deaths by province.
What a piece of history to hang in the school rooms.
The idiots are at it again
Just ten days after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto,a murder that galvanized Pakistanis into grief and violent reactions, and cast immediate suspicion on that country's president for complicity in her death, U.S. President Bush is now signaling "covert CIA operations" to combat what he perceives as a resurgence of al Quaida and the Taliban in Pakistan.
Today's NY Times reports that Bush met with senior security advisers to discuss infiltration by U.S. military and intelligence operatives. There was no official statement but the article states that more aggressive measures are being considered to stabilize the Pakistani government. In other words, call in the calvary - because Musharraff is faltering. It's not enough that the U.S. has already poured billions of dollars into Musharraff's coffers. Pity that Bush's brain is telescopic and his responses always militaristic. A pity that he cannot let go of his Reaganesque crusade against the demons of world terrorism. Such a pity that he defends terrorism, oppression, injustice, stupidity and greed in his allies and yet leads an offensive against those terrorists he cannot (or will not) capture. To capture someone like bin Laden means his affair as savior of the world must end.
This is nothing but the shade of the Iraq invasion. The figures are murkier. The motives less defined. But the public will be asked to participate, as defenders of democracy, because Pakistan has nuclear power, and woe, the infidels may be astir!
Someone needs a slap - a collective jerk - something to awaken logic - to recognize fabrication. How much longer will the U.S. idly follow this idiot? How much longer will journalists, the Congress, your neighbor, abide this drumroll, Bush's ongoing call to arms and alarms?
It has begun already - hope comes with the Huckleberry - that unwinnable contestant - and the vigor of Obama, Hillary's steel. Get Bush out before he ruins the world (any further).
Friday, January 4, 2008
Musharraf's Denial
In a 90-minute speech, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf denied that the military or intelligence community within his government was involved in Benazir Bhutto's death and placed blame on Bhutto for placing herself at risk.
According to an article appearing in today's NY Times, Musharraf said he had "invited Scotland Yard to help with the investigation into Ms. Bhutto’s death to alleviate suspicions of foul play by the government, and that he did not fear what the inquiry would reveal."
However, Musharraf will not allow the investigators to speak with the four officials named by Bhutto in a letter pointing to suspicious individuals in the event of her death. According to Musharraf, the accusations made by Bhutto last October were "political and baseless."
Read the full story here.
Sunday, December 30, 2007
"Does Mr. Bush consider Musharraf his friend or Pakistan his friend?”
Friday, December 28, 2007
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Benazir Bhutto Assasinated
Bhutto had left her self-exiled life in London to present herself as an alternative to the military rule of General Musharraf, whose government was responsible for her security. Before returning to Pakistan, Musharraf had dropped the graft charges that had caused Bhutto to flee the country years earlier, making it possible for her to return without threat of imprisonment. This was considered a first step toward a potential power-sharing pact between Musharraf and Bhutto to occur after the general elections this coming January 8. The U.S. government considered Musharraf its strongest ally against al Kaida. However, just a month ago, the leader of Amnesty International urged the U.S. to investigate the repressive actions of Musharraf, specifically his house arrest of Bhutto as well as his imprisonment of thousands of PPP members including lawyers, and the removal of Supreme Court justices. Amnesty International urged the U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan to visit Bhutto and asked that Pres. bush suspend economic and military support of Musharraf, stating: While the Bush administration continues to view Pakistan as a valuable ally in the war on terror, it must not turn a blind eye to Musharraf's continued repression of the Pakistani people. Amnesty International urges President Bush to direct U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Anne W. Patterson to visit Bhutto, Chaudhry and Jahangir to evaluate their welfare and discuss recent developments. President Bush and the United States need to send a signal to Pakistan's civil society that Musharraf's blatant disregard for freedom of movement and peaceful assembly and the use of martial law will not be tolerated. CNN reported that "the attack came just hours after four supporters of former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif died when members of another political party opened fire on them at a rally near the Islamabad airport Thursday, Pakistan police said." In a statement from the hospital where Bhutto died, Sharif vowed to avenge her death. Bhutto was sharply interrogated by MSNBC correspondent Ann Curry for the loss of life that followed in the wake of the first attack against her in an interview days after the attack. A video of this interview can be found at MSNBC. Reuters news report on Bhutto's assassination is here. The Canadian Press report is here. Time article here. CNN report here. UK government reaction here. BBC report here.
The NY Times reports that the former Prime Minister of Pakistan was shot in the neck and head before an explosion moments later. At least 20 others were killed in the suicide attack. Bhutto had been speaking at a public rally in a park in Rawalpindi, a city near the country's capital.
This is the second attempt on her life since she returned from exile in October of this year. Bhutto was the leader of Pakistan's People's Party (PPP), the largest opposition party in Pakistan, a country which has been under military rule for eight years.
Bhutto, a graduate of Harvard,held the post of prime minister twice, first from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 1996. She was the first woman to hold that position in Pakistan. After her father's death by hanging, Bhutto assumed leadership of the PPP.
Just before the rally in which she was killed, Bhutto had met with visiting Afghan President Hamid Karzai. In a statement after their meeting, Bhutto said: “We too believe that it is essential for both of our countries, and indeed the larger Muslim world, to work to protect the interest of Islamic civilization by eliminating extremism and terrorism.”
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Riot police evict nuns
65 Polish nuns, defrocked by the Vatican, were evicted from their convent by police in riot gear.
According to a spokesperson for the Catholic Church, the nuns were "disobedient" when they refused a Vatican order to replace their mother superior.
“They were disobedient,” said Mieczyslaw Puzewicz, a spokesman for the Lublin diocese of the Roman Catholic Church. The Vatican formally expelled the women from their Sisters of Bethany order last year, but has revealed almost nothing about the dispute.Their electricity was cut-off a year ago, according to MSNBC.com and the nuns survived on food smuggled to them by nearby residents.
One version of the story is here.
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