News – Not so Happy Anniversary (1/2)

Israel/Palestine

The third anniversary of the Palestinian uprising is marked with a vow to fight on. I’m less than pleased by that. 3,000 Israelis and Palestinians dead in three years.

Alastair Crooke should remains Britain’s link to Hamas and Is a One State Solution still Workable?

Edward Said dies at 67. He was considered the boldest advocate of the Palestinian cause in the US and widely respected.

Iraq

India won’t be sending troops to Iraq.

The Mongolians are returning to Iraq! Though, unlike the nasty events of 745 years ago, 171 Mongolian troops will be joining the modest international force that the US has managed to scare up so far.

Three more civilians dead in a mistake in Iraq. In a way, the rebel factions are succeeding in making our troops jump, reacting with full force even with light provocation. This only furthers a cycle of deepening rift between some Iraqis and the US.

UK troops in Iraq are being warned of ‘inevitable’ terror attacks against them. It seems logical as at least some of the rebels in Iraq are intent to attack any invaders, no matter good or bad intentions.

The resistance in Iraq has annoyingly strong popular support it seems. The opinion of Iraqis that the US occupation has threads of Saddam’s style appearing doesn’t help matters. Truth or fiction, the perception itself is a powerful negative to maintaining control and finishing the reconstruction.

Afghanistan

A draft of the Afghan constitution obtained by the Washington Post notes a nation based on Islam but does not impose strict Sharia law and calls for a president elected by popular vote. It still has a ways to go in being accepted, however.

Instability leaves Afghanistan weak and plagued by regenerating militant violence. But this isn’t for want of the Afghan government trying, it simply doesn’t have the resources. And not all of the violence is the work of the Taliban.

Iran

Iran seems willing now to play along with the UN. Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi said they’d sign the Additional Protocol as long as they can continue to produce fuel needed for their power plants.

Korea

Rumsfeld has been hit back for remarks on North Korea, being called a dictatorial psychopath and a politically illiterate old man. Ouch.

Italy

Italy is returning to normal after a power blackout left millions in the dark. Seems the big wakeup call event for 2003 are power blackouts. :p

US

Condie Rice assures us there was new Iraq WMD data before the war. Really, though they cant’ show it to anyone outside of the White House. Sort of like Joseph Smith and the sacred gold plates. How about if we coin this the Mormon Administration?

The New York Times has noted a DIA internal review which has noted most Iraqi defector information was pretty much unusable

A letter from two members of the intelligence committee of the US House of Representatives to CIA director George Tenet notes “significant deficiencies” in the community’s ability to collect fresh intelligence on Iraq.

Many are questioning the comparison of the effort over Iraq to The Marshall Plan(What is the Marshall Plan?), saying it is wrong to make reference to it. I would agree, as the Marshall Plan involved giving money to independent nations as ah economic kick I the pants to get things moving again, not one that is currently under our control and being rebuilt with the money. Nor are we asking them what they will do with the money, more likely we’re deciding where the money goes. Thus comparison to the Marshall Plan is faulty.

Bush says the world is safer without Saddam. I say prove it. As of late, the world seems a lot less safe to me, with little help coming from the deposing of Saddam.

Remember the leak of a CIA agent’s identity a while ago? Well, it’s being investigated now. Though Condi says she didn’t know about any effort to conduct this illegal act

The US is rejoining the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization from which we withdrew in 1984, Regan considering the organization hostile to the west. The rejoining of this council was announced last year, coincidentally when Bush was looking for initial support for action against Iraq.

The Gaffes of John Edwards: First is his obvious lack of experience in politics, only Wesley Clark exceeding him. Case in point, his lack of deep knowledge of things a president should know. And a slip up in his speech in California.

Explainer notes why we don’t import more oil from non-OPEC countries. We already do and it doesn’t come cheap.

The US must take Arabs seriously to make inroads. A good step toward that would be actually learning something about them and how to deal with them, rather than assuming.