Iraq Round-Up for Saturday
Eric Black’s interview with me about the upcoming Iraq elections is at the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Clerics are using the mosque to try to get out the vote for the parties they favor on December 15.
Iraqi Academics are at severe risk.
A recent poll in several Arab countries shows that the region is deeply suspicious of Bush’s motives and unimpressed by his alleged promotion of democracy in the region, according to Jim Lobe.
Mahan Abdin explores the possibly sinister role of the Iran-trained Badr Corps in the new Iraq.
Knight Ridder broke the story of the US military paying to place stories in the Iraqi press.
Nir Rosen argues for an immediate US withdrawal from Iraq in the Atlantic. Nir has been on the ground in Iraq a lot, speaks Arabic, and reports accurately on the mindset of Iraqis. I don’t agree with him, but I admit to being from the generation that lived through the Lebanese Civil War, the Iranian Revolution, the Afghanistan War, the Iran-Iraq War, the Kashmir Civil War, etc., etc., and the world looks darker to me and I can imagine more catastrophic scenarios than are presented here.
Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter in his Nobel Lecture lets Bush and Blair have it.