EU-DIGEST

Labels: Britain, EU, Iraq, Tony Blair

Except for some die-hard "neocon", it is widely recognized that the Iraq War has been a debacle for the United States – paid for in unnecessary loss of lives, international opprobrium, and the diversion of an astronomical sum of money from domestic priorities to warfare. However, some military contractors have done quite nicely; so too have many oil companies, even as the ancillary costs of the $1 trillion-plus war continue to ripple through a devastated U.S. economy, as writer Sherwood Ross describes in this essay.

Labels: Iraq

Freedom of Speech - Iraq Censorship Laws Move Ahead - by Timothy Williams

The doors of the communications revolution were thrown open in Iraq after the American-led invasion in 2003: In rushed a wave of music videos featuring scantily clad Turkish singers, Web sites recruiting suicide bombers, racy Egyptian soap operas, pornography, romance novels, and American and Israeli news and entertainment sites that had long been blocked under Saddam Hussein’s rule. Now those doors may be shut again, at least partially, as the Iraqi government moves to ban sites deemed harmful to the public, to require Internet cafes to register with the authorities and to press publishers to censor books. opponents of the proposals question why Iraq would seek to impose the same sorts of censorship that had been among the most loathed aspects of daily life under Saddam Hussein and suggest that they are another example of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki’s working to consolidate his power. The new policies will put Iraq more in line with neighboring Islamic states. The new rules constitute a “return of dictatorship,” said Ziad al-Ajeeli, who directs the Society to Defend the Freedom of the Press, a nonprofit Iraqi group.

Iraq’s Constitution which was written with the help of US lawyers is not clear on the matter. It guarantees freedom of expression, but only if it “does not violate public order and morality.”

Labels: Free Speech, Iraq

Turkey, Iraq, U.S. to discuss how to combat PKK terrorists

(Reuters)Senior officials from Turkey, Iraq and the United States will meet in Ankara on Tuesday to discuss closer cooperation against Kurdish rebels who attack Turkey from bases in northern Iraq, a Turkish government official said. Turkey and Iraq will be represented by their interior ministers, said the official, who requested anonymity. It was not clear who would head the U.S. delegation. "It is going to be a meeting about intelligence sharing and the issue of the PKK will be taken up," said the official. The three countries have stepped up efforts to fight separatist rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is considered a terrorist organization by Washington, the European Union and Turkey.

Labels: Iraq, Turkey, US

Don’t flee Kirkuk, Iraqi Christians are urged - by Gerald Butt

Christian families living in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk have been urged to remain there, despite the murder of three members of the minority community last week. Security sources said that gunmen broke into a home in a southern district of the city and shot dead two Christian women. In a separate attack in the same area, one man was killed and two were wounded in a shooting in their home. Last autumn, in a spate of attacks on Christians living in the northern city of Mosul, 15 Christians were killed. Their deaths prompted dozens of families to leave the city. Only when police and army reinforce­ments were deployed did the exodus gradually stop. The Governor of Kirkuk, Abdul Rahman Mustafa, said that security in the city was being reinforced to deter the intimidation of Christians. “We will not stand with our hands behind our backs. We will pursue the wicked people who are trying to stir sectarian strife in Kirkuk. I’m asking Christian families not to fall for this ploy.”

Labels: Christians, Iraq, Kirkuk

The Turkish joker - by Mustafa El-Labbad

President Barack Obama's recent visit to Turkey inaugurated a new chapter in the assignation of roles in the Middle East. It marked a clear recognition of Turkey's political and geographic importance in the region and gave a green light to Ankara's more active engagement in shaping international balances of power. The significance of this should not be lost on us. It marks the beginning of a new strategic partnership between the world's main superpower and a rising regional power, and its effects are certain to be felt for some time to come in that huge geographical arc extending from the southern borders of Russia through the Caucasus, Iran and Iraq, to Syria and the eastern Mediterranean. The US presence in the region had suddenly pulled the rug from under Ankara's feet as proxy, a role that it had performed so well, and to make matters worse the surge of Turkish national ambitions beneath the American umbrella in Iraq threatened to spill over into Turkey and ultimately threaten its territorial integrity. The resolve of the Obama administration to break with the Bush administration's policy has dramatically altered this situation. Washington is now set to withdraw from Iraq and it wants Ankara's logistical and political support. Only in this context can we understand the significance of the Obama visit.

In addition to having been elevated to a new special footing with the US as a strategic partner and as the new American president's sole regional forum for addressing the Islamic world in the hope of repairing the American image so drastically damaged by Bush, Ankara has won additional kudos in NATO. In short, with all its strategic advantages, Turkey is in a position to help Washington achieve a whole gamut of objectives in the far-reaching geopolitical game that is unfolding on that vast board that stretches across the Middle East, Central Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia. Indeed, Turkey could well become the "joker" that the Obama administration will depend on to trump the US adversaries' cards in the different parts of the board. Although this administration is still in the process of getting the feel of all players, so far it appears that the Turkish card will prove an invaluable and reliable asset.

Labels: EU, Iraq, Middle East, Turkey, US

German foreign minister visits Iraq - by Chris Bryant

Frank-Walter Steinmeier arrived in Baghdad on Tuesday on the first visit by a German foreign minister since Germany opposed the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.The visit signals a clear shift in in Berlin’s diplomatic and economic engagement with Baghdad, coming some 22 years after a German foreign minister last set foot in Iraq. The trip takes place less than a month after Barack Obama took office as president, having pledged to withdraw US troops from the country. Officials in Berlin said it was not a coincidence that the visit was taking place now that the White House had a new occupant, who has signaled a new approach towards Iraq. During his visit, Mr Steinmeier will pledge Germany’s support towards rebuilding the country and announce measures to bring about closer economic cooperation. He will be accompanied by representatives of German industry who may hope to restore business ties with Iraq now that the security situation in Baghdad has somewhat improved.

Labels: EU, Germany, Iraq

Blackwater banned from Iraq

Blackwater, a US private security firm, has been barred from providing security for US diplomats in Iraq for its alleged involvement in the deaths of at least 17 civilians in 2007. The Iraqi interior ministry on Thursday said the measure followed the firm's "improper conduct and excessive use of force". "It is because of the shooting incident in 2007 ... [Blackwater] came to us and applied and we refused them. They tried by all means to stay here and we said 'no'," General Abdel Karim Khalaf, an interior ministry spokesman, told AFP. Five former Blackwater guards are awaiting trial in the US for the incident that took place in September 2007.

Labels: Blackwater, Iraq

Iraq delays vote on US forces - Deborah Hayenes

The Iraqi Parliament yesterday delayed a historic vote on the future of US forces in Iraq by 24 hours because of last-minute haggling between different political factions that could end up postponing the decision by another fortnight. As part of the deal-making, MPs agreed to put the US-Iraqi accord, if approved, to a public referendum. The pact sets out a timetable for US troops to leave Iraq within three years after withdrawing from towns and cities by the middle of 2009.Muwafaq al-Rubaie, Iraq’s national security advisor, said: "It is not only the Iraqi Parliament that has a role in overseeing this agreement, but the Iraqi people, who will have a referendum on July 30 so they can see if the agreement is correct or not, six months after it comes into effect."

Labels: Iraq, US

Iraqi Christians fleeing murder in Mosul - by Martin Barillas

The Barnabas Fund, a charitable of the worldwide Anglican Communion, reported on October 13 that Iraqi Christians are fleeing Mosul as Islamic extremists launch campaign against them in Iraq. Said Ni’ma Noail, a 50 year-old civil servant, "We left everything behind us. We took only our souls." Thousands of Iraqi Christians have fled the city of Mosul in northern Iraq over the past week after Sunni Muslim extremists launched a deadly campaign to remove the Christian community from the city. Christian houses have been blown up, and at least 744 Christian families (approximately 3,750 people) have left their homes to find refuge with relatives or in churches and Christian centers in seven towns and villages to the north and east of Mosul. Some are sleeping in their cars. They are in desperate need of food, clothes, bedding, items for personal hygiene and other basic necessities.

Labels: Christians, Iraq

Turkey says 'control your borders' to U.S., Iraq

Turkey relayed a "control you borders" message both to Iraq and the United States, which is leading coalition forces in this country, on Sunday following Friday's attack by outlawed PKK separatists. Turkey gave a note to Iraq and urged this country to take all the necessary measures to find and punish the perpetrators and to prevent any similar incidents, according to diplomatic sources. The sources also said the Turkish Embassy in the United States was launching initiatives with U.S. officials, as this country leads the coalition forces.

Fifteen Turkish soldiers were killed, 20 others were wounded and two soldiers went missing, Friday in an assault staged by PKK terrorists from north of Iraq on Aktutun Gendarmerie Border outpost in Semdinli town of southeastern province of Hakkari. Twenty-three PKK separatists were also killed in the clashes.

Labels: Iraq, Kurdish PKK terrorists, Turkey, USA

Iraq demands US withdrawal timeline

The US must provide a "clear timeline" to withdraw its troops from Iraq as part of an agreement allowing them to operate in Iraq beyond this year, Hoshiyar Zebari, Iraq's foreign minister, has said. Iraq's leaders have become more confident of their ability to provide security as the country has become safer, but Zebari's comments came as fighting and bomb attacks across Iraq killed at least 11 people, including a US soldier.

Labels: Iraq, US

Big Oil's 'secret' out of Iraq's closet - by Pepe Escobar

It is not about the "war on terror". It is not about weapons of mass destruction. It is not about "freedom and democracy to the Iraqi people", or to the "Afghan people". It is not about "Islamofascism". It is not about a Pentagon-coined "arc of instability" from the Middle East to Central Asia. New evidence shows once again both George W Bush administration wars - in Afghanistan and Iraq - above all are about oil and gas. But now the US and European Big Oil majors that controlled the Iraqi oil industry up to the 1972 nationalization - today represented by Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP, Total and Chevron - seem to be back with a vengeance. Thus the New York Times, for instance, can redeem itself from printing Ahmad Chalabi-fed weapons-of-mass-destruction nonsense on its front page for months and actually engage in news that's fit to print. This past Monday, the paper reported that "a group of American advisers led by a small State Department team played an integral part in drawing up contracts between the Iraqi government and five major Western oil companies to develop some of the largest fields in Iraq".

It ain't over till the fat (oil) lady sings. But if the Bush administration "vision" of a perpetual Iraqi puppet regime, with its oil wealth confiscated and under the imperial boot, takes hold, alongside the Taliban having a long pipeline to play with in Afghanistan, the least one can expect is a lot more blood on the tracks.

Labels: Iraq, Oil Industry, Oil Prices

Germany to Push EU to Take In Iraqi Christian Refugees

Germany's interior minister got backing from the country's top security officials to press the EU to open up to Christian refugees from Iraq. But the ministers failed to agree on a new attempt to ban the far-right NPD.

Federal Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble got the green light from the country's 16 top state security officials to start a European Union initiative for the acceptance of Iraqi Christians as refugees. Schaeuble will make the proposal at a meeting of EU interior ministers in Luxembourg on Friday, April 18.

Labels: Christians, EU, Germany, Iraq

EU close to reaching energy deal with Iraq

The European Union and Iraq are close to signing an energy cooperation deal, EU Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso said Wednesday, as Europe strives to reduce dependence on Russian oil and gas. "It's only a matter of some weeks I believe to conclude these negotiations," on sealing a memorandum of understanding on energy cooperation, Barroso told reporters at a joint press conference with visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. "These negotiations are going very well... there are already very concrete details now," Barroso added.

Labels: EU, Iraq

For the complete report from the Daily Times click on this link

Iraq: The Three Trillion Dollar War —Joseph E Stiglitz

With March 20 marking the fifth anniversary of the United States-led invasion of Iraq, it’s time to take stock of what has happened. In our new book The Three Trillion Dollar War, Harvard’s Linda Bilmes and I conservatively estimate the economic cost of the war to the US to be $3 trillion, and the costs to the rest of the world to be another $3 trillion — far higher than the Bush administration’s estimates before the war. The Bush team not only misled the world about the war’s possible costs, but has also sought to obscure the costs as the war has gone on.

Was this incompetence or dishonesty? Almost surely both. Cash accounting meant that the Bush administration focused on today’s costs, not future costs, including disability and health care for returning veterans. Only years after the war began did the administration order the specially armored vehicles that would have saved the lives of many killed by roadside bombs. Not wanting to reintroduce a draft, and finding it difficult to recruit for an unpopular war, troops have been forced into two, three, or four stress-filled deployments. The US administration has tried to keep the war’s costs from the American public. Veterans groups have used the Freedom of Information Act to discover the total number of injured — 15 times the number of fatalities. Already, 52,000 returning veterans have been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.

America will need to provide disability compensation to an estimated 40 percent of the 1.65 million troops that have already been deployed. And, of course, the bleeding will continue as long as the war continues, with the health care and disability bill amounting to more than $600 billion (in present-value terms). Americans like to say that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Nor is there such a thing as a free war. The US — and the world — will be paying the price for decades to come.

Note Eu-Digest: Joseph E. Stiglitz, winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize of economics at Colombia University is the co-author, with Linda Bilmes, of "The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Costs of the Iraq Conflict"

Labels: Casualties, Iraq, Iraq war, US Economy

The World from Berlin: 'Something America Can Afford Less Than Ever'

The US government intervention in this crisis is cause for new concern. For one, the new actions and interventions of the Fed leave the impression that the problems behind the scenes must be much greater than what's been made public so far. It's also an absurd contradiction when the president meets with his top economic advisers and announces that everything's 'under control.' When something is really 'under control,' the White House doesn't get involved. George W. Bush is also not known for being tremendously curious about the details of the stock market."

"There's also the danger that the Federal Reserve will be over-influenced by bankers' pleas … This dynamic is dangerous, because it threatens to further undermine faith in the dollar. Its precipitous decline on the currency markets -- along with the latest price records in oil and gold -- are warning signs we should take seriously."

"Naturally the US economy profits from a depreciation-driven improvement in competitiveness. But to stop the falling real-estate and stock markets and stabilize its reeling banks, America needs lots of fresh foreign capital. A global retreat from the greenback is something America can afford less than ever."

Labels: Iraq

Iraq cuts oil price to Europe, ups US - Energy - by Simon Webb

Iraq has cut the official selling price of its Basra Light crude for April loading by $2.20 a barrel to European buyers and raised prices for the US, an Iraqi oil official said on Thursday. The April Basra Light price for European buyers was set at BFOE minus $6.25 versus $4.05 in March.

Labels: EU, Europe, Iraq, Oil

EURO versus DOLLAR: Iraq, the US trump to avoid a dollar collapse - by Alberto Cruz

With an exchange rate over US$1.51 against the Euro and a continuing depreciation against the Yen, the dollar is close to collapse. This is a theory that has been repeated for some time now (1) although it doesn't mean we are in the twilight of the current economic system nor in the antechamber of a crisis in capitalism's nerve centre. But we are witnessing a progressive weakening of the United States and this provokes movement, sometimes small but still significant, in what is really important : the progressive reduction of various countries' dollar reserves (right now 64.8% of the world's monetary reserves are held in dollars) and their transfer into other stronger currencies like Euros or Yen. That means fewer dollars in circulation and less financing for the US external debt of about 9 trillion dollars. In fact the dollar as the main currency for international trade and as the main reserve currency for different countries' Central Banks has lost almost 7 percentage points since 1999, dropping from 71% of all reserves that year to the current 64.8% now, which indicates that more and more countries are reducing their dependency on the US currency.

For the US to staunch this constant financial bleeding only one life raft remains : Iraq. That means increasing oil production in that country at all costs, ensuring its definitive return to OPEC on the same terms as OPEC's other members - since Iraq was paralyzed by the UN during the government of Saddam Hussein following the sanctions the country was subjected to - and above all, with Iraq's presence, reinforcing Saudi Arabia, which is under more and more pressure from the oil cartel's other member countries to stop using dollars as the only currency for oil transactions. When Ahmadinejad and Chavez made their proposal, the Saudis were the most reluctant to accept it or even to discuss it and managed to avoid even a tangential reference to the issue in the final declaration of that OPEC summit. But the reality is much more obstinate. Maintaining the alliance with the US is ever more costly in political and economic terms. In Saudi Arabia current inflation rates are the highest since 1980, running currently at 7%. In the United Arab Emirates, inflation is even higher at 9.3%. (3) The reason is none other than the weakness of the dollar in economies completely dollarized as those countries' are. That is what has led the Saudis finally to let their arm get twisted and to accept now a discussion about the dollar in the terms proposed by Venezuela and Iran.

Labels: Dollar, EU, euro, Iraq, Oil, Opec

Iraqi Youth Losing Faith in Muslim Religion

Iraqis in their teens and 20s, having been reared in a world of kidnappings, disappearances, beheadings and bombings, have grown weary of the severe “do’s and don’ts” Islamic extremists imposed upon them. Caught smoking? Be ready to have your fingers broken. Boys who wear long hair? Be ready to have it cut, and then forced to eat it. Even wearing shorts brings severe penalties. No longer wanting to live under the burden of extremism, many young people in Iraq are turning away in droves. Weekly prayer sessions are shrinking in attendance. Graduate students are losing interest in attending religious classes.

“‘I used to love Osama Bin Laden,’ proclaimed a 24-year-old Iraqi college student. She was referring to how she felt before the war took hold in her native Baghdad. The Sept. 11, 2001 strike at American supremacy was satisfying, and the deaths abstract.

“Now, the student recites the familiar complaints: Her college has segregated the security checks; guards told her to stop wearing a revealing skirt; she covers her head for safety. “‘Now I hate Islam,’ she said, sitting in her family’s unadorned living room in central Baghdad. ‘Al Qaeda and the Mahdi Army are spreading hatred. People are being killed for nothing.’”

Labels: Iraq, Muslims

Ahmadinejad welcomed heartily in Iraq - US humiliated - by Mark Mackinnon

It's a damning indication of how poorly things have gone for the United States during its five-year misadventure in Iraq that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad can drive in broad daylight though this war-ravaged city and spend the night at the presidential palace, but George W. Bush can't. Mr. Ahmadinejad was greeted with lavish ceremony yesterday as he became the first Iranian President to visit Baghdad, a trip some said reflected Iran's great and growing power in Iraq and how severely the U.S. effort to remake Iraq into a Western-friendly democracy has gone awry.Apparently ignoring repeated U.S. charges that Iran is destabilizing his country, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani smiled broadly as he greeted Mr. Ahmadinejad outside his palace. Hailing a new era in ties between their states, the two men clasped hands and exchanged traditional kisses on the cheeks before walking together down a red carpet to review an honour guard as a military band played the two national anthems.

Unlike Mr. Bush's cloak-and-dagger visits here - fly-in trips to heavily guarded U.S. military bases that only last a few hours, often with no advance notice given to even the Iraqi government - Mr. Ahmadinejad's schedule was announced days earlier. He spent last night at Mr. Talabani's palace, across the Tigris River from the fortified Green Zone that houses the massive new U.S. embassy.

Labels: Ahmadinejad, Iran, Iraq, US

Iraq, EU to increase aid for health care of Iraqi refugees in Syria

The European Union (EU) here Monday signed an agreement with Syria on increasing financial aid worth 9 million euros (13 million U.S. dollars) to modernize health care utilities for Iraqi refugees in Syria. "The said amount will be used to supply 50 health care centers and a number of hospitals with necessary modern medical equipment in the regions mostly affected by the flow of Iraqi refugees," the European commission in Syria said in a statement. "The EU has decided to extend this additional aid through the program of modernizing health sector in Syria with a value of 30 million euros (44 million dollars), which comes as a result of the pressure created by the existence of a big number of Iraqi refugees in Syria who need health services," added the statement. The EU will also support Syrian health care centers to boost the quality of their services through increasing medical and administrative capabilities to meet the increasing public health demands of the Syrian and Iraqi people.

Labels: EU, Iraq, Medical, Syria

Iraqi Medical System Wrecked by War - by Lori Hinnant

Already a troubled system, Iraqi medical care has fallen to the brink of collapse since the U.S.-led invasion five years ago. Scores of doctors have been slain, cancer patients have to hunt down their own drugs — even IV fluid is in short supply. On Tuesday, a former deputy health minister and the head of the ministry's security force will stand trial, a year after they were accused of letting Shiite death squads use ambulances and government hospitals to carry out kidnappings and killings.According to figures from the Iraqi Health Ministry released earlier this year, 618 medical employees, including 132 doctors, as well as medics and other health care workers, have been killed nationwide since 2003, among the professionals from many fields caught up in Iraq's sectarian violence.

Labels: Iraq, Medical

Denmark grants asylum to 370 Iraqis

Denmark has granted asylum to nearly 370 Iraqi civilians who were spirited out of their homeland in a resettlement program for interpreters and others who worked for Danish troops in Iraq, immigration officials said Monday. None of the 376 asylum claims filed by Iraqi aides and their dependents has been rejected, Danish Immigration Service spokesman Morten Bo Laursen told The Associated Press.

Labels: Denmark, EU, Iraq

Democrats demand veto power for US-Iraq proposal - by Elana Schor

Democrats in Congress opened a new front today in their battle to extricate the US from Iraq, pressing for veto power over a long-term security pact that the Bush administration is planning with Baghdad. Under early terms of the pact that were agreed to by the two nations last fall, the US military is bound to help protect the Baghdad government for the foreseeable future. Alarmed at the prospect of George Bush locking the US armed forces into defending Iraq even when America does not perceive a threat, Democrats responded by pushing for congressional oversight of the agreement.

Labels: Democrats, Iraq, US

George W Bush, White House told 935 lies after September 11

US President George W Bush and other top officials issued almost one thousand false statements about the national security threat from Iraq following the September 11 attacks, according to a study by two not-for-profit organisations. The Associated Press reports the study, published on the website of the Centre for Public Integrity, concluded the statements “were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanised public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretences”.

According to the study, 935 false statements were issued by the White House in the two years after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.“The cumulative effect of these false statements – amplified by thousands of news stories and broadcasts – was massive, with the media coverage creating an almost impenetrable din for several critical months in the run-up to war,” the study concluded.

Labels: Bush, Iraq, Iraq war

Iraq's other Kurdish rebel group - by Jenne Cuffe

The PJAK is a sister organisation to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). While the US wants the Iraqi government to comply with Turkey's demands and drive PKK fighters from the Kandil mountains, where they have been launching attacks on Turkish military targets, the PJAK continues to operate against Iran from the Iraqi side of the border, and the Iranian government alleges it does so with American financial support.

Labels: Iraq, Kurdish PKK terrorists

Turkish troops enter Iraq

For the complete report from Bloomberg.com click on this link

Turkish Troops Enter Northern Iraq to Target the PKK - by Camilla Hall

Turkey sent 700 soldiers into northern Iraq and had 20 tanks ready to follow them in an assault on Kurdish militants who have carried out cross-border attacks. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in northern Iraq today for a previously unannounced visit, flying into Kirkuk, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan said on the party's Web site.

The U.S., alarmed over the prospect of a conflict in a relatively peaceful area of Iraq, had been working with Turkey to prevent an incursion. Turkey says the U.S., which classifies the PKK as a terrorist group, and Iraq haven't done enough to stop the group using northern Iraq as a base.

Labels: Iraq, Kurdish PKK terrorists, Turkey, War

Turkish Jet Fighter at local base

For the complete report from Forbes.com click on this link

Turkish Planes Bomb Terrorist PKK Targets in Iraq - Susan Fraser

Turkey said dozens of its warplanes bombed Kurdish rebel targets as deep as 60 miles inside northern Iraq for three hours Sunday, the largest aerial attack in years against the outlawed terrorist group.n the nighttime offensive, the fighter jets hit rebel positions close to the border with Turkey and in the Qandil mountains, which straddle the Iraq-Iran border, the Turkish military said in a statement posted on its Web site. It said the operation was directed against the rebels and not against the local population. As many as 50 fighter jets were involved in the airstrikes, private NTV television and other media reported. Turkey has recently attacked the area with ground-based artillery and helicopters and there have been some unconfirmed reports of airstrikes by warplanes.In Iraq, Mohammad Hajj Hammoud, a Foreign Ministry undersecretary, summoned the Turkish ambassador in Baghdad and asked that Ankara end raids "that cause harm to innocent people and affect friendly bilateral relations," the ministry said on its Web site.Turkish news reports said a PKK command center in Qandil was hit.

Labels: EU, Iraq, Kurdish PKK terrorists, Turkey, US

Christian women in Basra forced to wear Islamic headscarf - by Daniel Blake

”Christian women in Basra are being threatened and intimidated into wearing the traditional Muslim headscarf, or hijab. The Times has reported on the case of Zeena, 21, who on her first day at Basra University was met by a man who told her, along with three other Christian girls, to cover their heads with the hijab.Graffiti adorns the city warning women not to go outside without following Islamic dress codes. According to the newspaper, one such message said, “Whoever disobeys will be punished. God is our witness that we have conveyed this message.”

Labels: Christians, Iraq, Musllim

Iraq: Opinion - Blackwater: bulging biceps fueled by ideological purity - by Professor Floyd J. McKay

"BLACKWATER, the secretive private army now emerging into public view, is a perfect hinge linking two key elements of the Republican political base: America's war machine and a muscular form of fundamentalist Christianity. Blackwater is the private empire of billionaire Erik Prince, a major Republican fundraiser and bankroller of several fundamentalist Christian organizations. His private army employs some 2,300 active gunners and boasts a register of 21,000 ready to serve on call. He has the largest privately held arsenal in the country and the expertise and firepower to bring down a small country. In 2006, Prince expanded internationally, forming a new subsidiary in Barbados, outside American taxes and regulation, to train foreign forces, often funded by American military aid. Elite Blackwater soldiers have conducted secretive "black jobs" for the CIA or other spy agencies.

In Prince, the Republicans' radical Christian base is wed to the war-machine base, the one providing votes and manpower, the other providing campaign funds. The resulting combination is one of rigid ideology and eagerness to solve any problem with overwhelming force. The Bush administration convinced itself its views on Iraq were right, pushing aside contrary evidence, then failed to think beyond "shock and awe," with resultant horrors. In a world of nuance and gray areas, ideological purity and bulging biceps will cause as many problems as they solve. Blackwater seems to epitomize a dark side of the US psyche that should be troubling to all Americans." Floyd J. McKay is a journalism professor emeritus at Western Washington University, he is a regular contributor to the Seattle Times editorial pages. You can E-mail him at floydmckay@yahoo.com

Labels: Blackwater, Iraq

Turkey/Iraq: Turkish commander says Turkey preparing for cross-border operation

Land Forces' Commander Gen. Ilker Basbug was quoted by the state-run Anatolia news agency as saying: "we have entered the process of implementing the authorization.Of course, when or how the authorization would be implemented, that's another matter," the agency quoted him as saying." Basbug said that, although a cross-border operation would not eradicate the rebel group — the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK — it would deal a blow to the guerrillas, according to private NTV television.

Turkey's parliament last month gave the government the green light to order an operation into neighboring Iraq to dislodge separatist Kurdish rebels from camps in the north of the country.

Labels: Iraq, Kurdish PKK terrorists, Turkey

2007 Is Deadliest Year for US in Iraq

The U.S. military on Tuesday announced the deaths of five more soldiers, making 2007 the deadliest year for U.S. troops despite a recent downturn, according to an Associated Press count. At least 852 American military personnel have died in Iraq so far this year — the highest annual toll since the war began in March 2003, according to AP figures.The grim milestone passed despite a sharp drop in U.S. and Iraqi deaths here in recent months, after a 30,000-strong U.S. force buildup. There were 39 deaths in October, compared to 65 in September and 84 in August. Five U.S. soldiers were killed Monday in two separate roadside bomb attacks, said Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, director of the Multi-National Force-Iraq's communications division.

Note EU-Digest: Unfortunately in all these figures no one ever seems to mention the civilian casualties. The Huffington Post recently noted: "The fault for all this confusion about civilian casualties lies with the U.S. military, which decided early on it was not worth counting Iraqi civilian casualties. Even the term given to their tragic loss at the hands of U.S. forces -- "collateral damage" -- smacks of bureaucratic hubris. A chilling segment on 60 Minutes reports that 30 civilians killed was the magic number Pentagon officials could live with when targeting a "high-value" terrorist in Afghanistan; anything higher requires approval from the defense secretary or president. The Pentagon should keep closer tabs on Iraqi (and Afghan) civilian deaths, especially when the United States is at fault. Only the American military has the presence on the ground and resources to catalog reliable statistics. It won't, for obvious PR reasons, but it has in the past. After military operations in Somalia and Kosovo in the 1990s, for instance, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention conducted body count estimates of local civilians. They should do the same for Iraq and Afghanistan."

Labels: Casualties, Iraq, US

Iran, Turkey, Iraq victims of terrorism: Hosseini

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini said here Thursday that the three states of Iran, Turkey and Iraq are victims of terrorism, and the U.S. is responsible for the situation. Hosseini made the remarks in an interview with the CNN Turk in Istanbul, and underlined the need for holding such joint meetings between Iraq's neighboring countries as well as establishing joint security committees to explore the root causes of terrorism in the region. Underscoring the need for pursuing diplomatic means and joint cooperation in this respect, he noted that given its role, the U.S. should take responsibility for the instability in the Middle East.

The spokesman referred to the recent U.S. Senate's plan for dismembering Iraq into three sectors for Sunnis, Kurds and Shiites, saying that this is in line with the American Greater Middle East plan and to preserve its own national interests. This, he said, will bear no fruit but instability in the region.

Labels: Iran, Iraq, Kurdish PKK terrorists, Turkey

When it comes to invading Iraq, what would Ataturk do? - by Bridget Johnson

"I am not ordering you to attack; I am ordering you to die," Mustafa Kemal Ataturk is quoted as telling his troops in the 1915 battle of Gallipoli, in which British and French forces were prevented from taking Istanbul with heavy casualties. So seems the motto of Kurdish terrorists who keep ambushing Turkish soldiers on the Iraqi border, racking up a Turkish body count of 42 in the last month as well as kidnapping eight soldiers. The Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, has embraced a death wish. Tanks have massed along the Iraqi border, just waiting for the word go. On Oct. 17, the Turkish parliament voted 507-19 in favor of going into Iraq to rout the PKK. And just days ago, Gen. Yasar Buyukanit said, "We are determined to make those who cause this sadness grieve with an intensity that they cannot imagine. "You'd better believe the Turks. While in Baghdad and Washington, everyone is freaking out.

Note EU-Digest: Staunch opponents of terrorism like the US can't be hypocrites and the EU should not play the "Holy Saint". The Turks should be able to defend their country as anyone would. Go for it, Turkey. Its time to show the world that the legacy of Ataturk and secularism is alive and well in Turkey

Labels: Iraq, Kurdish PKK terrorists, Turkey

Cost Iraq War: As Turks mass on border, $2.4 trillion?

If Americans wanted some reassurances that the war in Iraq was going well, they aren't getting it right now.The U.S. has spent about $604 billion on the wars so far, it says. If the U.S. were to reduce the number of troops to Iraq and Afghanistan to 75,000 six years from now, it would cost $1 trillion more and $705 billion in interest to pay for them through 2017. "That estimate is a far cry from the administration's original claim of a $50 billion price that the Iraqis could pay themselves," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. "The depth of this tragedy is stunning, particularly for our military families - and for prospects for peace in the region."

Americans have grown skeptical of the Bush administration's insistence on keeping troops at full strength in Iraq.

Note EU-Digest: In America there is a saying - "you can fool some of the people sometimes, but you can't fool all the people all the time". Unfortunately today the majority of the American population seems to be fooled all the time by an Administration which is wasting money at a scale never seen before. This same Administration now also seems to have convinced its taxpayers that if they don't "take care of Iran" they can expect the Third World War will break out. In this context Europe needs to take a hard look at their efforts in Afghanistan and what it needs to do on an independent basis. Europe's objectives are very different from those of the Bush Administration.

Labels: Bush, EU, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, US

Storm Warnings : Turkey- Iraq - by René Wadlow

The Government of Turkey is under pressure from the military and part of the population to do something after a land mine exploded on Sunday 7 October some 25 kilometres inside Turkey from the Iraq border in south-eastern Sirnak Province. The mine killed 13 soldiers, and the Army is frustrated by the fact that PKK fighters can carry out attacks on Turkish soil and then cross the frontier into Iraqi Kurdistan. The Turkish Government is under pressure to please the Army after the Army accepted the election of former Foreign Minister Abdullal Gul as President. Some, especially in the military, felt that Gul’s Islamic convictions put the secular nature of the Turkish state in danger. There was even talk of a military coup to prevent Gul’s election. While these objections to Gul have calmed, the Turkish military can expect some favors in return for their moderation on the political front. Punitive raids into Iraq might be such a favor. The PKK is made up largely of youth, influenced by Marxism, independent of traditional Kurdish tribal leaders. It started a program of violence against the Turkish State and against Kurds who were considered allies of the Turkish government. The PKK is strong in the poor mountainous areas where the State authorities had difficulty to penetrate. The PKK has military bases in northern Iraq and training camps in Syria.

René Wadlow is the editor of the online journal of world politics www.transnational-perspectives.org and the Representative to the United Nations, Geneva, of the Association of World Citizens. Formerly, he was professor and Director of Research of the Graduate Institute of Development Studies, University of Geneva. To get a copy of the complete report write to him at: Wadlowz@aol.com

Labels: EU, Iraq, Kurdish PKK terrorists, Turkey, US

Kurdish PKK terrorists rebels ambush, kill 12 Turkish troops and civilians

Kurdish rebels have killed at least 12 Turkish soldiers near the border with Iraq and reportedly taken some others hostage, causing Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to call a crisis meeting. "Our anger, our hatred is great," he said Sunday on national television. However, Erdogan said the government would take "an approach that is calm, far from agitation and based on common sense."The late Saturday attack, one of the worst in a decade, comes four days after Turkey's parliament approved a motion allowing troops to enter Kurdish-dominated northern Iraq to fight the rebels.Erdogan said he will meet later today with President Abdullah Gul and army chief General Yasar Buyukanit to decide on Turkey's response to today's military casualties. Gul will meet with the leaders of the political parties represented in Turkey's parliament tomorrow, he said.

Note EU-Digest: "The Turkish Government is to be complimented for their restraint they are showing so far. Also the Iraqi government today declared on CNN that the Kurdish PKK operating from their soil is considered a terrorist organization, but they unfortunately do not have the political clout or military capability to get rid of these terrorists. The key to solving this problem is in the hands of the US which has done very little so far in fear of angering their Kurdish Allies in Iraq. The US intend to open three US military bases in the Kurdish region of Iraq. The three bases will probably be located in Qaradagh (south of Al-Sulaymaniyah), Zakho area (north of Duhok), while the third one will be based near Arbil. There is also a possibility that the Incirlik base in Turkey, opened in 1992, will be transferred to the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Since the PKK is recognized as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the European Union it might be useful for Turkey to ask for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council and request for a UN presence on the Iraq - Turkey border area? "

Labels: Council of Europe, EU, Iraq, Kurdish PKK terrorists, Turkey, US

"Turkish tanks ready to roll into Iraq in hunt for Kurdish terrorist hideouts"- by Suna Erdem

Turkey was preparing to send troops and tanks into northern Iraq yesterday as the Government came under intense pressure to avenge the deaths of Turkish soldiers in attacks by Kurdish terrorists. Risking a major diplomatic row with Washington and the European Union, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish Prime Minister, said that he had ordered preparations for a possible military strike and might seek parliament’s approval as early as today.

Note EU-Digest:PKK terrorists and Kurdish nationalists who have used their safe haven in Iraq to strike and kill innocent civilians in Turkey should be made aware that these acts can not go on unpunished. The US should be the first to know this, given their own retaliation policies around the world in relation to terrorists. The EU should support this military action by Turkey, since the PKK is on its list of terrorist organizations.

Labels: EU, Iraq, Kurdish PKK terrorists, Turkey, US

TURKEY took a step towards a military operation in Iraq as its political and military leaders issued a statement authorizing troops to cross the Iraqi border to eliminate separatist Kurdish rebel camps in the north. The move came in the face of strong opposition by the US, which is anxious to maintain peace in Iraq's north, one of the rare areas of stability in conflict-torn Iraq. More than two dozen Turkish soldiers have been killed in recent days, and the Government of the Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, appears far more determined than before to act decisively. A government official said preparations were under way to seek parliamentary approval for a border military operation, a request that would be the first formal step towards an offensive. The request could be submitted to parliament this week.

Note EU-Digest: PKK terrorists and Kurdish nationalists who have used the safe haven in Iraq to strike and kill innocent civilians in Turkey should be made aware that these acts can not go on unpunished. The US should be the first to know this, given their own retaliation policies around the world in relation to terrorists.

Labels: Iraq, Kurdish PKK terrorists, Turkey, US

The cost of war in Iraq $ 10 billion per month - by Ron Dzwonkowski

"If you could take just a week's worth of what the United States is spending in Iraq and send it to Michigan -- wow, no budget crisis, no tax increase debate, etc. Give us a month's worth and watch those college tuition rates fall. Compound this with the fact that Michigan, despite having some of the worst economies in the US, remains a "donor state" -- sending more money to Washington than the federal government spends in Michigan.

Labels: Iraq, Michigan, US Economy

Remembering 9/11 and reflecting on General Petraeus review on Iraq

General Petraeus report on Iraq, and the fact that he based much of his assessment on the claim that violence there is dropping certainly was an excellently orchestrated PR effort. Unfortunately his optimistic statement just wasn't true.

a) According to the Washington Post, Petraeus and the Pentagon used a bizarre formula for measuring violence in Iraq. For example, deaths by car bombs don't count. Assassinations count only if you're shot in the back of the head—not in the front.

b) According to a massive new ABC/BBC poll, every single Iraqi polled in Baghdad, the primary target of the "surge," said it had made security worse. Iraqis themselves overwhelmingly think the situation in Iraq is deteriorating, in terms of security, political cooperation, the economy, and other measures. Overall, 70% think the escalation worsened rather than improved security conditions.

c) A comprehensive Government Accountability Office (GAO) report ordered by Congress found that the "average number of daily attacks against civilians have remained unchanged from February to July 2007.

d) In August, things got even worse, with civilian casualties rising according to the Associated Press and the Los Angeles Times.

e) The fact is that for US troops, it has been the bloodiest summer yet. More U.S. troops have died every month this year compared to the same month last year.

General Petraeus also claimed that he compiled his report without conferring with the White House. But the Washington Post recently reported that Petraeus and his staff joined daily conference calls with the White House and former RNC chairman Ed Gillespie this summer to "map out ways of selling the surge." The Post reported that Gillespie's White House political unit was "hard-wired" to Petraeus' military unit.

Everyone would like to see life improving in Iraq. But it is not—it's getting worse! And if US forces stay in Iraq both the Americans and Iraqis will pay a terrible price.

Today is also the anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in American history. The wounds of 9/11 are still fresh for many of us. After 9/11, President Bush used fear, lies and trumped-up intelligence to stampede the US and some of its allies into Iraq. Now, America is bogged down in an unwinnable civil war, and Al Qaeda has regained enough strength to once again menace the world.

It would be a tragic irony if, six years later, the US administration once again used cooked-up intelligence to head off the growing momentum for an exit strategy from Iraq.

Its time to stop the spin and get out of Iraq.

Labels: EU, General Petraeus, Iraq

Miliband paves way for Basra exit -"Troops withdrawal Basra determined by British interests, not President Bush" - by Gerri Peev

The exit date for British troops would be determined by national interests and not by the US president, George Bush, David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary has said as he hit back at American criticism of UK operations in Basra. "Our decisions about Basra are about the situation on the ground in Basra, not the situation on the ground in Baghdad."

The al-Mahdi army, the source of much of the inter-Shia tension in the south, has agreed to give British troops safe passage as they depart.

Labels: EU, Iraq, UK

US Army to Examine Iraq Contracts - intended for Iraqi security forces ended up being used for murders and other violent crimes in Turkey.

Among the contracts to be reviewed by the Army are awards to former Halliburton subsidiary KBR, which has received billions of dollars since 2001 to be a major provider of food and shelter services to U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Democrats in the US Congress have claimed that KBR, formerly known as Kellogg Brown and Root, benefited from ties to Vice President Dick Cheney, who once led Halliburton Co., the Houston-based oil services conglomerate, and congressional Republicans. Democrats in Congress have claimed that KBR, formerly known as Kellogg, Brown and Root, benefited from ties to Vice President Dick Cheney, who once led Halliburton Co., the Houston-based oil services conglomerate, and congressional Republicans.

Labels: EU, Iraq, Turkey, US

Europe must play greater role in Iraq (by means of the UN): Kouchner - by Aseel Kami

"Everyone knows the Americans will not be able to get this country out of difficulty alone. And so, I have said it and I will say it again, the more the Iraqis request the intervention of the UN the more France will help them," Mr. Kouchner France Foreign Minister told RTL. France opposed military intervention in Iraq in 2003 on the grounds that UN inspectors should be given more time to find weapons of mass destruction, the main reason given by Washington for the invasion. No such weapons have ever been found.

The United Nations Security Council voted earlier this month to give the United Nations an expanded political role in Iraq to promote dialogue between rival factions and dialogue with neighbouring countries.

Labels: EU, France, Iraq

France "Turns the Page" on Iraq - by Bruce Crumley

"It has not been lost on us that the road to Washington passes through Baghdad, and we happily took note that the U.S. was the first to react to [Kouchner's] visit with praise," a French Foreign Affairs Ministry official told TIME of this first voyage to Iraq by a government official from France since the war began. However, the official also acknowledged that beyond the message sent to America about French desire to replace past conflict with diplomatic partnership on Iraq, Kouchner's visit wouldn't produce much in the way of hard results. "It's of symbolic significance," he said. "But you often open the door to concrete chance by first taking symbolic positions."

Labels: EU, France, Iraq, US

Iraqi government in deepest crisis - Sam Dagher

Iraq is in the throes of its worst political crisis since the fall of Saddam Hussein with the new democratic system, based on national consensus among its ethnic and sectarian groups, appearing dangerously close to collapsing, say several politicians and analysts.

Labels: Iraq, Political

Iraq: Out of Control Costs of the Iraq War: The Bridge to Nowhere - by Dina Rasor

"The US is spending approximately $10 billion a month in Iraq. Whatever your politics on the war, all of us should agree that we must get control of this spending now. We need to start by reining back the out of control contractor billings so that the predictions that this war will cost $1 trillion will not come true and we can begin to rebuild our country. Professor Melman spent his career warning us about our fraudulent and wasteful war spending. Will we begin to listen now?"

Labels: Iraq, US Economy

Sacrifice is for Suckers - by Paul Krugman

"You see, the Iraq war, although Mr. Bush insists that it’s part of a Global War on Terror™, a fight to the death between good and evil, isn’t like America’s other great wars — wars in which the wealthy shared the financial burden through higher taxes and many members of the elite fought for their country.

This time around, Mr. Bush celebrated Mission Accomplished by cutting tax rates on dividends and capital gains, while handing out huge no-bid contracts to politically connected corporations. And in the four years since, as the insurgency Mr. Bush initially taunted with the cry of “Bring them on” has claimed the lives of thousands of Americans and left thousands more grievously wounded, the children of the elite — especially the Republican elite — have been conspicuously absent from the battlefield."

Labels: Iraq, Republicans, The elite

The cost of war to the US: EURO 8.7 billion ($12 billion) a month

The boost in US troop levels in Iraq has increased the cost of war for the US there and in Afghanistan to EURO 8.7 billion ($12 billion) a month, according to the US nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. Debate within the Bush administration about the next phase of the president's Iraq strategy is centering on a report to be presented to Congress this week that says the Baghdad government has failed to meet any of its targets for political, economic and other types of progress.

Labels: Afghanistan, Iraq, US Economy

Abu Ghraib: The rest of the story - by Joseph L.Galloway

"Maj. Gen. Anthony Taguba, U.S. Army retired, was an accidental choice to conduct one of 17 Pentagon investigations of the prisoner abuses at Abu Ghraib. He was grabbed because he wore two stars, and they needed someone of that rank to probe a case that involved a one-star general. The trouble was that Tony Taguba was honest and thorough and reported in detail, early and often, to his superiors on evidence he was uncovering -- film and photos of abuses far worse than those the public saw. There was sexual abuse of female prisoners by their American guards and forced sex acts between a father and his young son.For his honesty in revealing what he uncovered in Iraq in his report and in testimony before Republican-controlled congressional committees, Tony Taguba found himself sidelined for a decent interval, then forced to retire.

It's long past time for the US Congress to reopen the matter of who's really responsible for Abu Ghraib and let the chips fall where they may -- even if that means they pile up around the retirement home of a former secretary of defense or the gates of the White House itself."

Labels: Abu Ghraib, George Bush, Iraq, US

Gates warns Turkey not to invade Iraq - by Robert Burns

Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Sunday cautioned Turkey against sending troops into northern Iraq, as it has threatened, to hunt down Kurdish rebels it accuses of carrying out terrorist raids inside Turkey. "We hope there would not be a unilateral military action across the border into Iraq," Gates told a news conference in Singapore after meetings there with Asian government officials. Turkey and Iraq were not represented.

Labels: Iraq, Kurds, Turkey, USA

Turkish Army Build - Up against PKK Kurdish Rebels Fuels Anxiety on Iraq Border

Speculation about an imminent incursion into Iraq has grown since Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said last week he saw eye to eye with the army over possible military action, despite unease in the United States, Turkey's NATO ally, about such a move. There was also anxiety along the border in southeast Turkey, where many Kurdish villagers form part of a state-backed militia which fights alongside the army against the PKK rebels.

"We support the operations in the mountains here because the PKK made us suffer a lot. I lost 10 people from my family," said Nadir Karadeniz, an official in the village of Gorumlu, located near a military base just a few kilometers from the border.

Labels: Iraq, Kurdish PKK terrorists, Turkey, US

Alarming increase of Casualties in Iraq as US celebrates Memorial day

The latest U.S. military deaths included five Saturday: a Marine killed in Al Anbar province, three soldiers who died in a car bomb attack in Salahuddin province in the north and a soldier killed south of Baghdad. The others were a soldier who died Friday in an ambush in Taji, north of Baghdad, and two who were killed Wednesday in a bombing east of Baghdad. The deaths raised the number of U.S. military fatalities to 3,452 since the start of the war in March 2003, according to the website icasualties.org, which tracks military deaths. The May death toll of 101 U.S. military personnel makes it the seventh time a monthly total has surpassed 100 since the U.S.-led invasion.The wrangling in Washington over war financing, still fierce despite the Democrats’ decision to forgo for now withdrawal deadlines, has obscured a more fundamental debate over what Iraq’s future might look like without American troops.

Iraqis who favor a speedy American departure include those who think the country will stabilize after a flaring of violence and redrawing of sectarian boundaries. Some factions, including many supporters of the anti-American Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, said they believed that they would be better able to bring stability, albeit on their own terms. “I think the Sadr tide will rule the country,” said Muhammad Qasim Ali, a suitcase salesman in the predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Karada. “They are the majority and they have a good background, and that gives them a chance to take control. Once we take power, we will be merciful with Sunnis.

Labels: Casualties, Iraq, Troop withdrawal

Funding for troops Iraq approved by US Senate: "Operation Iraq Forever" - by Manuel Valenzuela

The occupation of Iraq has and will continue to severely cripple America, both in treasure and blood, bogging it down in a grueling guerilla war of attrition for years to come. Already the war and occupation has lasted longer than America’s involvement in World War II. Already it has cost, in only four years, over one trillion dollars. Already, America’s military is overstretched, overstressed, overburdened and overworked. So far, close to 3,500 troops have died, with up to 30,000 maimed and injured; tens of thousands of personnel have been forced to serve more than two tours of duty.

raq is too valuable, in the minds of America’s elite and her corporatists, to simply walk away from. For all intents and purposes, therefore, Iraq has become America’s 51st state, a colony that will act as America’s gas station for decades to come. Iraq is destined to become the grease that provides the lubrication needed to run the great American engine. It will act as America’s aircraft carrier, the easier to patrol the world’s most strategic region. In time, Iraq will be used to invade, threaten, hold hostage and/or conquer the oil fields of Iran and those of the central Asian basin."

Labels: Iraq, US

War Costs Money. Why Can't Politicians Say So? - by Robert D. Hormats

Lost amid the week's political struggles was this blunt reality: America's political leaders have been reluctant to confront the public with the need to make financial sacrifices to pay for the conflict and for the ongoing struggle against al-Qaeda. And that could spell disaster later on.

Labels: Iraq, US Economy, War

Iraq's Maliki walks a tightrope

A FEW months ago, Wash ington circles saw Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as "Tehran's man" in Baghdad. Today, Tehran circles label him "Washington's man" in Baghdad. Maliki's government has the unenviable task of keeping the Americans in, when they don't want to stay - and the Iranians out, when they want to come in.

Some Americans blame Maliki for doing nothing to hasten the departure of U.S. troops, for not decreeing a blanket pardon of Baathists (regardless of what they did during four decades of despotic domination), and for rejecting federal schemes that could lead to the disintegration of the Iraqi state. The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) recently called Maliki "too pro-Arab." In plain language, that means he emphasizes the Arab identity of the majority of Iraqi peoples - rather than their sectarian affiliation, as Tehran would prefer.

Labels: Iran, Iraq, USA

U.S. suffering higher casualties in Iraq

Two months into the troop “surge” in Iraq, the U.S. military is suffering an increase in battlefield deaths while Iraqi civilian casualties in greater Baghdad have dropped sharply.

US Army officials say the reason is two-fold. Army units have intensified their efforts to defeat the insurgents. And, al-Qaida in Iraq and Iraqi guerrillas are focusing more on American targets to defeat the troop reinforcement plan, which is widely seen as the United States’ last chance to stabilize the country.The first quarter of 2007 marked the first time that 80 or more Americans were killed in action in each of three consecutive months. April, with 35 deaths so far, is on a pace to exceed 100 deaths, which would make it one of the deadliest periods for American troops since the war began four years ago. January, February and March combined for the deadliest first quarter, with 244 deaths compared with 148 in 2006, 200 in 2005 and 119 in 2004, according casualty counts by the Web site icasualties.org.

Labels: Casualties, Iraq, US

An Abyss Called Iraq - by Thaddeus Gadfly

"I'm going to dare to proclaim the unthinkable: Democracy isn't for every country. My reasoning is that when a nation whose people are so divisive and uncivilized they must war with each other, with little hope of factions learning to coexist peacefully, as evidenced by history, what hope does such a nation have on the immediate horizon for democracy to take root? Can democracy be a viable system in such a country? I realize it is an American ideal to think that all countries deserve democracy, but, after this Iraq debacle, I’m not so sure. Maybe they do, maybe they don't."

"Spreading democracy at the barrel of gun is a policy we should abandon, and one that I believe is un-American in the first place. There are no meters or instruments to help us measure and make such an evaluation; we must study the history of the region in question. Bush, I fear, made no such serious study. Bush has made a blunder of a magnitude the likes of which our country has never experienced."

Labels: Bush, Iraq, USA

USA: The tax bucks stop here / Resisters withhold payment in protest of U.S. sending troops to Iraq

With the tax-filing deadline just two weeks away, some Bay Area residents are using it as an opportunity to protest the war by withholding their tax dollars to fund it. Known as war tax resisters, they consider it an act of civil disobedience. Some withhold only a symbolic portion of what they owe -- $10.40, for example, to represent the 1040 tax form -- while others, like Hansen, refuse to pay anything at all. Many will redirect their tax dollars to a charity of their choice.

Labels: Iraq, Protest, USA, War

Israel stalls US arms sales to Saudis

A worried Israel has stalled a US plan to sell advanced weaponry, including satellite-guided arms, to Saudi Arabia, the New York Times reported Thursday. The Times said on its website that Israeli officials, including former defense minister Shaul Mofaz, have strongly lobbied Washington in recent months to block parts of a planned arms package for the Saudis and unspecified others in the Middle East that could be worth five billion to 10 billion dollars. Israel is particularly concerned that the United States will supply the Saudis with precision-guided air-based weapons that could erode Israel's military superiority in the region, the newspaper said, citing unnamed US government sources.

Labels: Iran, Iraq, Israel, Middle East, Saudi Arabia, USA

American forces casualties toll nearly twice Iraqi forces-U.S. military deaths in March total 81 - by Steven Hurst

The U.S. military death toll in March, the first full month of the security crackdown, was nearly twice that of the Iraqi army, which American and Iraqi officials say is taking the leading role in the latest attempt to curb violence in the capital, surrounding cities and Anbar province, according to figures compiled on Saturday.

According to the AP count 3,246 U.S. service members have died in Iraq since the war began in March 2003. At least 83 American forces died in January and 80 in February, according to the AP tabulation.Additionally, the Iraqi ministry figures listed 1,872 Iraqi civilian deaths for the month, about 300 more than the AP tabulation, which is mainly gathered from daily police reports nationwide.

Labels: Casualties, Iraq, US, War

Democratic majority in US Congress and Senate vote on measures to block further abuse of Bush Presidential powers

"Showing a direct defiance to President Bush, the Senate has passed a war-spending bill that will require the start of troop withdrawal from Iraq in four months and complete the withdrawal by March next year in spite of Bush's threat to veto the bill. The senate passed it by a margin of 51-47, allotting a $122 billion spending package for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Democrats in the senate said that withdrawal was the wish of people following the midterm elections in which Republicans lost control of both the houses.

The bill will now go to the President's table for approval, with the House already passing a similar bill. However, Bush has stated that he will be vetoing any bill that sets a time limit for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq. The approval of the bill by both the houses points to Bush's falling stock regarding the war on terror.

In another development, the House of Representatives by a vote of 329-78 on March 26 followed the Senate and stripped Bush of his authority to appoint U.S. attorneys on an interim basis, ending the ability of the Bush administration to do an end run around the Senate in putting controversial U.S. attorneys in office. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), places a 120-day limit to the term of a United States attorney appointed on an interim basis. Democrats allege that Bush's authority to appoint interim U.S. attorneys on an unlimited basis, inserted stealthily into the 2006 reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act, was used as a loophole to insert Bush administration political loyalists into office.

The Bush administration's firings of eight federal prosecutors has created a controversy that continues to fester. As a result most Democrats and many Republicans feel that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales should be fired. As the Democratic party controlled Congress starts to exert more and more of its investigatory powers into every area of the administration's domain, even Bush's own political Guru Rove is not exempt. There are very few options left for the US Administration to stage a come-back - even a confrontation with Iran could badly backfire.

Labels: Alberto Gonzales, Bush, Democrats, Impeachment, Iraq

"And Then There Were None" - by Richard May

Several European allies are quickly losing interest in fighting what they perceive as America’s expansionist war in the Middle East and South Asia, and have begun withdrawing and distancing themselves from Afghanistan. CDI Scoville Fellow Richard May examines the causes and indications of this phenomenon in his latest commentary.

Britain has announced that it would be pulling 1,600 troops out of Iraq and the Dutch have said that they will follow suit. This presents a sharp blow to the Bush administration and its efforts in the war in Iraq. The move signals that Europe is growing tired of American adventurism in the Middle East. Britain and the Netherlands, who are following the British lead, are not the only European countries that have grown weary of the United States presence in Iraq, but most countries don't have troops that they can withdraw to show their displeasure. Instead, the European countries that lack troops in Iraq may illustrate their dislike for the United States in another place: Afghanistan.

Labels: Afghanistan, EU, Iraq, Military, US