News – Start the Week with Updates (1/2)

A lot to look at. Things been happening and after a weekend of relaxation, its time to get back in the saddle and bring a handful of it together in one place. Read and consider.

US Experts may (again) have found a site of WMD storage. We’ve heard it before. I’m not going to worry until we get confirmation from someone other than US officials. Enough of the maybes. Do they have something or not?

British officers say they’ve found the body of Ali Hassan al-Majid(AKA Chemical Ali), Saddam’s cousin and a major player in the hierarchy. This is another unconfirmed by higher sources, so remember your salt.

US forces have also muscled into Baghdad, by reports, with four losses(two killed, two missing) in a show of strength. I believe they made it to one of the bombed presidential compounds of Saddam. I believe(through listening to talk reading) they might have lost one tank as well. Of course, I also heard some silly comment about the soldiers taking their first showers in weeks in the palace, so I don’t put a great deal of faith in everything I hear on talk radio. If I was in the middle of the enemies city, I wouldn’t be stopping to shower.

On the global front, a statement from North Korea more or less shows that they’re thinking the same thing I and many others were. That other nations will see the Iraq war and come to the conclusion that only by fielding massive and daunting force will one be able to scare the Bush Administration out of war. Bush needs to talk with N Korea. Now.

Bush sends an aide(Mizz Rice) to smooth over relations with Russia. Instead of doing it himself to add extra formality to it all. This, after the as of yet unexplained attack on Russian diplomats departing Baghdad. We still don’t know the situation on who did that.

UN agencies are warning of a health crises in Iraq as their hospitals are swamped by patients and US bombing continues to degrade the infrastructure. I find this interesting as, after the rush to Baghdad, the US officials talking to the media have made it a point to flaunt their ability to ‘take it to the enemy’ at their leisure.

One of the ‘Iraqi Opposition’ folks made note that the US forces might have to be in Iraq for two years. Mind you this man, Ahmad Chalabi, has likely not been in Iraq for years and was sentenced to 22 years’ hard labor in Jordan for bank fraud and embezzlement. He was also the one that said the Iraqi army wouldn’t fight for Saddam. I don’t trust him. Wolfowitz says it’ll take at least half a year to make an Iraqi government and set it in place. Personally, I don’t know. Depends on the goals that encompass that objective and how receptive the people are.

In talking about the future of Iraq, Bush and Blair will be discussing the UN role. Blair still wants them in, but the US seems determined to relegate them to lesser roles because Washington and its allies earned that right by giving “life and blood” on the battlefield. Personally, I don’t think that’s valid because the UN never asked anyone to give their life and blood. The US volunteered. That doesn’t make them the best arbiter of Iraq’s future. In fact, I think primary US guidance will hamper things because of general Arab views of us. The UN taking a leading hand would lend the reconstruction more credibility.

Today’s Papers tout the invasion of Baghdad, as well as the supposed death of Chemical Ali. Brasa is falling into British hands, which seems to have touched off a spree of looting and general anarchy in the city. There is also talk of the accidental bombing of an allied convoy of US and Jurdish elements with as many as 18 dead and the Russian diplomatic convoy which got caught in a crossfire with five injured. There is also more info on the Iraqi National Congress and one Ahmed Chalabi. They are reportedly supported by the Pentagon, but distrusted by the State Dept and the CIA. Looks like another bad move on the Pentagon’s part to me.

Slate lets you know that there is more than just Al Jazeera when it comes to Arabic news stations that are highlighting the war. Summary judgment seems to down both Vin in A Man Apart and Colin in Phone Booth. The question of the day.. do you think Vin can act? Ever wonder why so many Iraqi landmarks are named ‘Rashid’? Explainer has the low down for you. The Congressional Budget Office has finally gotten down to the gritty numbers of how nasty the deficit will be this year(500 billion). Next year? Who knows. Here’s another bone for the pro and anti gun movements to chew one. Chatterbox delves into the fact that Iraqi citizens have lots of guns, yet that didn’t stop Iraq from becoming a repressive country. Dispatches has an interesting portrait from Kurdistan about fear and what the Kurds watch on TV.