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August 23, 2004
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Three star bigotry
A Defense Department investigation has found that a top Army general violated Pentagon rules with his anti-Muslim remarks to Christian groups, yet one Pentagon official dismissed the errors as “relatively minor.” That obtuseness reflects a stunning inability to understand how much the comments have hurt the United States abroad.
It is unfathomable why Lt. Gen. William G. “Jerry” Boykin has been allowed to keep his job. When Boykin’s remarks became known last October, President Bush limited himself to a tepid announcement that the comments about Muslims and Islam did not reflect his point of view or that of his administration. And Boykin soldiers on…
Boykin – a disgrace to any uniform (except a bedsheet)
Posted by: Nemo | Aug 26 2004 8:14 utc | 101
Saboteurs attack multiple Iraqi pipelines
Sadr supporters attacked near Najaf
Supporters of Sistani fired upon – 20 dead
It is not clear yet if the two shooting incidents are actually confused accounts of one event. Twenty seven people are now said to be dead after the mortar attack on the Kufa mosque and tensions are running very, very high. If you ever pray for peace, today is a day for it.
Posted by: Nemo | Aug 26 2004 9:01 utc | 102
…Not long after the blasts dozens of people were wounded when Iraqi national guardsmen opened fire on a demonstration in Kufa in support of radical Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada Sadr, an AFP photographer witnessed.
Thousands of people chanting their solidarity with Sadr and denouncing Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, were heading for nearby Najaf, where Sadr’s Mehdi Army is fighting US and Iraqi government forces.
They were passing a military base on the road between Kufa and its twin city of Najaf, when the national guardsmen opened fire at them, the photographer said….
Twenty five killed, dozens wounded in Kufa violence as Sistani returns
Posted by: Nemo | Aug 26 2004 9:10 utc | 103
Allawi – 24 hour ceasefire will commence in Najaf when al-Sistani arrives
Some of the dead after mosque blast, laid out at Kufa hospital, August 26th
As Kufa hospital ran out of space many of those injured in the mortar attack on Kufa mosque had to be treated in the hospital garden, August 26th
Tending an injured survivor of mosque blast, Kufa hospital garden, August 26th
Tending to wounded after mosque blast, Kufa hospital garden, August 26th
Posted by: Nemo | Aug 26 2004 11:03 utc | 104
@Nemo
Could you please cut it back just a little bit by further consolidating your comments. Nothing against them, but they kind of drown the discussion.
Please answer via email – thanks.
Posted by: b | Aug 26 2004 11:13 utc | 105
@DeAnander
Interesting take on US policy (promoting chaos as a goal on its own). However, Iran whatever the faults of its current leadership, is a real country, with a proud history and a strong sense of itself as a nation. It will be much harder to break into small pieces than Iraq. In fact, the likely result of any overt US action (whether military or diplomatic) will be to unite back the population behind its leaders against the outside threat. The Iranian opposition has said it: the best thing the US can do for them is to stay put and wait.
Posted by: Jérôme | Aug 26 2004 11:52 utc | 106
Josh Marshall described the strategy in the Middle East in his April 2003 piece Practice to Deceive.
[They will raise chaos, terrorism and further wars.] But to the Bush administration hawks who are guiding American foreign policy, this isn’t the nightmare scenario. It’s everything going as anticipated.
In their view, invasion of Iraq was not merely, or even primarily, about getting rid of Saddam Hussein. … the administration sees the invasion as only the first move in a wider effort to reorder the power structure of the entire Middle East.
Posted by: b | Aug 26 2004 12:37 utc | 107
From the Weekly Standard:
The important thing to note is that the world’s largest oil consumer (America) and the world’s fastest growing importer of oil (China), although competing for supplies, now also realize that they have a shared stake in the stability of Middle East producers, and the secure movement of oil on the world’s sea lanes. Politics may make strange bedfellows, but a thirst for black gold makes even stranger ones.
Then there is Saudi Arabia, no longer capable of controlling oil prices merely by issuing a press release about its production intentions. One expert on that country’s politics and industry tells me that Saudi promises to step up output are worthless, since a significant portion of that country’s “reserves” are “political barrels,” nonexistent or at best undeveloped barrels reported to enhance Saudi prestige but not actually quickly extractable.
American defense and intelligence officials until recently assigned a 50:50 probability that the Saudi regime would survive for the next ten years. They are now quietly speaking in terms of a mere five years. Which means that there is an even chance that the kingdom’s royal family soon will be calling for help to prevent a bin Laden-like takeover. China and America will find themselves with no choice but to join forces to protect the Saudi fields from a takeover that could result in a halt to production. So don’t look for China to oppose steps America might feel necessary to keep Saudi oil moving onto world markets. Russia, untroubled by the disappearance of a major competitor from the supply side of the oil market, would be likely to oppose Sino-American intervention.
Posted by: Pat | Aug 26 2004 18:19 utc | 108
Exiting Iraq, the title of a new book out from the Cato Institute (cato.org):
The U.S. occupation of Iraq has now passed the one-year mark. With no end in sight, the Cato Institute convened a special task force of scholars and policy experts to examine U.S. strategic interests in Iraq and to question the Bush administration’s intention to “stay as long as necessary.”
In this joint statement, the members of the special task force argue that the military occupation must end. They assert that the presence of troops in Iraq distracts attention from fighting al-Qaeda and emboldens a new class of terrorists to take up arms against the United States. Moreover, the occupation is enormously costly for American taxpayers, exposes our men and women in uniform to unnecessary risks, and undermines attempts to foster political and economic reform in the region.
Unlike other reports that shy away from stipulating an end date for the U.S. occupation, Exiting Iraq advocates a military withdrawal by January 1, 2005.
Posted by: Pat | Aug 26 2004 18:27 utc | 109
Thousands of Shiites end Najaf siege
Jean-Marc Mojon | Najaf | August 26
AFP – The gates of Najaf’s Imam Ali shrine were forced open Thursday by a sea of weeping and chanting Shiite Muslims, ending a siege of the shrine which had lasted for days and weeks of fighting with US forces.
Yet as the camp of radical cleric Moqtada Sadr, who led a rebellion against the US-led forces and the new Iraqi government, went into talks with the country’s highest Shiite authority, the military standoff appeared far from over.
Akir Hassan (63), woke up at 6am (0200 GMT) to heed a call by his spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani to leave his village south of Kut to converge on the revered mausoleum.
Tears ran down his wrinkled face and his feet barely touched the ground as the elated crowd squeezed through the gates and into the shrine’s courtyard.
He and the others were greeted like heroes by the 300 besieged Sadr militiamen inside.
“This is democracy”
“God is great. This is democracy, this is the new Iraq, this is the greatest defeat we could have inflicted on the Americans. It’s the most beautiful day in my life,” he shouted, hurrying inside the main mausoleum to pray.
“We have been on the road since yesterday. When we reached the area, the national guard and the Iraqi police tried to prevent us from heading towards the shrine, but there was nothing they could do,” said 20-year-old Hussein Noma, from the town of Amara.
Most of the demonstrators were Sistani supporters.
“It is my duty to follow the orders of the ayatollah and it was the duty of all Muslims to work for a peaceful solution,” said Ali Rasheed, a young man from Kut.
Sadr’s Mehdi Army fighters brandished their Kalashnikovs and rocket-propelled grenade launchers as they watched the seemingly endless flow of marchers flowing into the holy site…
Posted by: Pat | Aug 26 2004 19:02 utc | 110