Archives for 2005

Samawah Governor Fired Australian Officers Critique US Military in Iraq Al-Sharq al-Awsat and agencies: 28 deaths were reported on Monday and 30 wounded in guerrilla fighting, most of it outside the capital of Baghdad. Guerrillas killed two policemen in Sharqat, 300 km. north of the capital. Likewise, a Turkish truck drive was shot dead in […]

Kurdistan and the Future of Iraq Al-Sharq al-Awsat/ AFP reports that hundres of Kurds demonstrated on Monday in Irbil (Arbil), 350 km north of Baghdad, demanding that their rights be recognized in the permanent constitution now being crafted. The demonstrators gathered in front of the Kurdistan parliament building, carrying placards in Kurdish that said “Stop, […]

Party Over? On Cindy Sheehan Bob Harris has a must-read meditation on what things are important to George W. Bush and what aren’t, in light of the treatment of bereaved mother Cindy Sheehan, who wants to know from Bush why her son was killed in Sadr City in April, 2004. I found her account of […]

Courage of Peter Jennings As we comemorate the late Peter Jennings, one of the country’s great broadcast journalists, it is worth remembering, as Lila Rajiva does, that he was perhaps the first major news figure to break with the cheerleading consensus on the Iraq War. He was blasted by the US Right for doing so. […]

Joke of the Day CONSTITUTION “They keep talking about drafting a Constitution for Iraq. Why don’t we just give them ours? It was written by a lot of really smart guys, it’s worked for over 200 years and we’re not using it anymore.”

Constitution Still Deadlocked 35 Dead in Guerrilla Violence AP’s Bassem Mroue reports that the two-hour convocation of Iraqi political leaders at President Jalal Talabani’s home in Baghdad on Sunday produced no breakthroughs. Sunni Arabs are still rejecting the concept of federalism, preferring a French-style centralized state. Kurds absolutely insist on federalism, and Kurdish leader Massoud […]

2 US Troops Killed Kirkuk Tense A roadside bomb in Samarra, about an hour’s drive north of Baghdad, killed two US soldiers and wounded three others late on Saturday evening. It was announced on Saturday that the previous Thursday, guerrillas killed Private First Class Nils Thompson of the US military in MOSUL. UPI reports that […]

Khatami on the challenges in the Middle East Outgoing Iranian president Mohammad Khatami Reflected on the challenges facing the Middle East in an interview with al-Hayat, translated/ paraphrased by Shahram Kholdi. Khatami sees Middle East publics as caught between three major forces: 1) Authoritarian governments. 2) Neocolonial puppet regimes. 3) Reactionary radical movements. You could […]

Summit on Constitution Postponed Sistani accepts Federalism in Principle Only 38 percent of Americans approve of the job Bush is doing in Iraq, a steep fall. The president in particular lost the trust on this issue of the suburban young soccer moms and of men with a high school education or less. Less than half […]