Archives for June 2005

Jaafari in Washington Weeping Madman in Sweltering Baghdad Robin Wright and Jim VandeHei of the Washington Post profile the meeting of Ibrahim Jaafari with George W. Bush. As reported here yesterday, on Thursday morning back in Baghdad, four bombings left 17 dead and 70 wounded. (-Al-Sharq al-Awsat). Richard Reeves predicts that the US will be […]

Al-Duri Leads Baath Birth of His Daughter in Mosul Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri [al-Douri] just had a daughter in Mosul, according to al-Hayat. The article says, roughly: Al-Hayat has learned from sources close to Iraq’s armed groups that the former vice president of the Revolutionary Command Council and the present Secretary-General of the dissolved Baath Party, […]

UN and Trying Bush More on my UN Option for Iraq. By the way, someone over at the Kos discussion (scroll down) said that there “was no civil war” when the US withdrew from Vietnam. But mainland southeast Asia from the mid-70s is a pretty stark cautionary tale. Khmer Rouge take-over of Cambodia, genocide (one […]

Stirling Newberry on UN Option And the Great Oil Price Shock of Gulf War IV Stirling Newberry doesn’t think the UN has enough troops for Iraq, either; and he instances the Congo as an example of things going bad. “What’s wrong with staying in: Realistically any change of occupation policy will require a change of […]

Abizaid: “Cost in Blood and Treasure” 2nd Lt.: “The War is Lost” Vice President Dick Cheney needs to talk to his generals more often. Michael Hedges of the Houston Chronicle reports that Gen. John Abizaid, who has recently consulted with US commanders in Iraq, said today that the guerrilla movement in Iraq is as strong […]

Brussels Conference Inconclusive 32 Dead in Guerrilla Violence The Brussels conference of foreign ministers on Iraq seems to me to have yielded little practical result. The real action will come at the donors’ conference in Amman, Jordan, next month. The world community has pledged billions to Iraq, but has only delivered about $2 billion, in […]

Questions on UN Option in Iraq A reader with a US military background writes: “I noted your recent proposal for increased UN military involvement with some questions. 1. With great oversimplification, the civil war in Iraq is being fought by factions who desire to have the long term control of either the government of the […]

Kos Discussion of UN Option Many thanks to “Mark in San Francisco,” who runs a diary at Daily Kos, for provoking an extensive and often acute discussion of my piece on the “UN Option” there. The first thing I should say is that people shouldn’t get too hung up on the exact composition of a […]

Bush’s Iraq Incubator of Terror Syria Deploys 7,000 to Block Infiltrators The New York Times reports that the CIA is growing increasingly alarmed about Bush’s Iraq as an incubator of terrorists, and the probability that at some point they will target the US at home. Al-Sharq al-Awsat/ AFP: Demonstrators in Baghdad from the center and […]