News – High Level Dissent on Iraq

Iraq

Jeffrey Record, professor of strategy at the Air War College, said: “I see no ray of light on the horizon at all. The worst case has become true. There’s no analogy whatsoever between the situation in Iraq and the advantages we had after the second world war in Germany and Japan.” Military strategists and retired military brass seem to think that things aren’t going well. W Andrew Terrill, professor at the Army War College’s strategic studies institute – and the top expert on Iraq there – said, “I don’t think that you can kill the insurgency” … “We have a growing, maturing insurgency group. We see larger and more coordinated military attacks. They are getting better and they can self-regenerate. The idea there are x number of insurgents, and that when they’re all dead we can get out is wrong. The insurgency has shown an ability to regenerate itself because there are people willing to fill the ranks of those who are killed. The political culture is more hostile to the US presence. The longer we stay, the more they are confirmed in that view.”

That’s pretty much how I view things. The longer they fight, the smarter they get, learning and adapting to US tactics, constantly regenerating the fallen and making the US look worse the longer the struggle drags on. They have time on their side, we don’t. Some more expert opinions.

Colonel Tim Collins, who urged his men to be “ferocious in battle, magnanimous in victory” in a now famous speech, is accusing the US and Britain of “gross incompetence” in not planning for peace. “Nature abhors a vacuum and so do politics, and if you knock something down you must be prepared to put something in its place,” he said, going on to muse the reason the US invaded. “Either it was a war to liberate the people of Iraq, in which case there’s gross incompetence. Or it was simply a cynical war that was going to happen anyway to vent some form of anger on Saddam Hussein’s regime.”

Kofi has come right out to say the war in Iraq was illegal and against the UNs charter for the first time last night. “I have indicated it was not in conformity with the UN charter. From our point of view and from the charter point of view it was illegal.”

Two Americans and a Briton are nabbed by militants in Iraq.

Israel/Palestine

Israeli forces kill six militants and four civilians in Gaza say witnesses and medics.

Afghanistan

Hamid Karzai has canceled a campaign trip out of Kabul when a rocket shot over his helicopter as he was landing in southeastern Gardez.

Iran

A senior US official says that satellite photos show a suspected nuclear site in Iran demonstrated its intention to develop atomic weapons. Just like they showed Iraq was producing WMD?

Russia

Vladimir Putin makes another Osama reference as he rules out talking to Chechen rebels. On an interesting note, when asked to define what he meant by terrorist, he replied “Terrorists are bandits who hide behind political, religious or nationalist slogans to try to resolve questions that have nothing to do with what they publicly state.” Sounds like the definition of a politician to me.

Bush urges Putin to uphold Russian democracy, but I suspect he’ll be ignored, since I doubt he’ll go past carefully worded statements.

US

Ivan has struck land in the US, coming up near Gulf Shores, Alabama. Fortunately it’s down the a Cat one hurricane now. In other ornery nature news, tropical storm Jeanne has upgraded herself to a full hurricane and is threatening the Dominican Republic, Haiti and other northern Caribbean islands.

Despite being slammed from all sides CBS sticks to it’s guns on the subject of Bush’s national guard service. I caught 60 Minutes yesterday and they had a new segment on the subject. They seem determined to keep a tight grip on the subject no matter what.

Director George Butler says that his documentary, “Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry,” is not a response to attack ads against the democratic nominee and was well under way before the commercials were first aired.

The Republican-led Senate Appropriations Committee has voted 13-16 to roll back Bush’s overtime rules. The amendment is attached to a larger funding bill for the departments of Labor, and Health and Human Services for fiscal 2005 and a similar amendment was approved by the House with it’s own version of the bill.

A divided U.S. congressional panel voted on Wednesday to prevent federal courts from declaring as unconstitutional the phrase “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance. The legislation would only permit state jurists to consider such court challenges.

The Pentagon’s chief prosecutor(Army Col. Robert Swann) in the U.S. military trials of four Guantanamo Bay prisoners asked the presiding officer(Army Col. Peter Brownback) to evaluate his(Brownback) suitability for the position and consider quitting, questioning his impartiality. The defense argued previously that Brownback’s friendship with John Altenburg, the Pentagon official who selected and oversees the tribunal, makes him unable to make impartial decisions or at least creates the appearance of bias. There are also questions about three other members of the tribunal. One served in military intelligence in Afghanistan when the prisoners were captured there, one previously called Guantanamo detainees “terrorists” and one made arrangements to send prisoners from Afghanistan to Guantanamo.

A readers guide to <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitty_Kelly”>Kitty Kelly’s The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty . Juicy tidbits plucked for you.

General

Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence is anime for deep thinkers, said to be better than the original with fewer clichés, more sophisticated animation, deeper insight into human nature and technology. Sounds interesting.

A new patch to plug homes in Microsoft’s software.

Apple is accused of a rip off in the UK as it seems folk pay the equivalent of $1.40 for a track off the music store in the UK while being charged $1.20 in France.

Today’s Papers has Martha eager to start her time in the slammer, Idema getting 10 years in prison, a piece on Shamil Basayev the Chechen warlord and more in the one page news.

Amusements

Neurotically Yours: TECH-SUPPORT

Mark Fiore: Assault Weapons Sale Extravaganza

Odd Todd:

Thieves rob bus full of cops

UW student copies parking ticket, places it on other cars with his own PO box address. Profit.

College freshman reenacts locker room scene from “Porky’s”

Oklahoma Senate candidate claims the government put a radio device in her head to annoy her

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop this happy couple in Hawaii

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop this photographic representation of the eternal struggle of man against goat

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop an celebrity endorsed food item for your local grocer