Archives for July 2004

Arguing with Cheney Reuters reports that Dick Cheney was doing some counter-programming to the Democratic National Convention by speaking on the West Coast at Camp Pendleton. He said, “Terrorist attacks are not caused by the use of strength. They are invited by the perception of weakness.” This statement is half right and half wrong. Some […]

14 US Troops wounded by Mortar Fire in Baghdad 3 Iraqis die in Violence Paul Garwood of AP reports that on Tuesday, guerrillas successfully launched four or five mortars at the Green Zone in Baghdad that houses the caretaker government and the British and American embassies, wounding 14 US troops. Eleven were returned to duty. […]

Sunni Iraqis adopt Religious Radicalism Others Support Saddam Dan Murphy of the Christian Science Monitor reports on the way in which Sunni Iraqis are turning toward Salafi Islam. Salafis are sort of militantly Protestant Sunnis who reject the canons of medieval scholarship and strive to go back to the practice of the Prophet and his […]

Preoccupation with Iraq Slowed US, UK Response to Darfur Crisis The Foreign Policy Centre in the UK is issuing a report that blames the Iraq War for the inability of the US and the UK to respond in a timely way to the genocide in Darfur, Sudan. Although the US has applied diplomatic pressure and […]

Margaret Cho and an Iraq Blog I have been a fan of comedian Margaret Cho for years, and so was happy and surprised to see traffic coming from her site to mine. I found her appreciation of an Iraqi family’s blog touching. As someone who has been interested in Iraq for more than 30 years, […]

Clinton’s Low-Key Dissing of Bush Bill Clinton is perhaps the most gifted political orator of our generation, so it is worth considering how he dealt with Bush and the Iraq War issue in his speech Monday evening to the Democratic National Convention. He and the other Democrats went out of their way to avoid appearing […]

8 Killed in Iraq Violence 3 US Soldiers Wounded in Mosul Bombing Mark Turner of the Financial Times in Baghdad reports that the violence continues in Iraq. He writes, “The spate of post-transition violence in Iraq showed no sign of let-up yesterday, as insurgents bombed an airfield in Mosul, a senior interior ministry official was […]

Shiite Parties Seek Power in National Assembly Defense Minister slams Iran Ashraf Khalil writes for the Los Angeles Times that the Shiite al-Da’wa Party is making an alliance with the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq in hopes of having significant influence in the 100-person Iraqi National Assembly to be elected at a convocation […]

Brahimi: Iraq War Caused More Problems than it Solved, Brought Terrorism to Iraq Deutsche Press Agentur reports that former UN special envoy to Iraq, Lakhdar Brahimi, expresed deep criticism of the Bush administration’s Iraq war in an Austrian newspaper interview. Excerpts: ‘ [Brahimi] said Iraq would no doubt recover from the chaos in which it […]