Bush: We can't jeopardize gains in Iraq

maddezmom

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Wed Mar-19-08 09:54 AM
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Bush: We can't jeopardize gains in Iraq

Edited on Wed Mar-19-08 10:04 AM by maddezmom

Source: AP

WASHINGTON - Five years after launching the invasion of Iraq, President Bush strongly signaled Wednesday that he won't order troop withdrawals beyond those already planned because he refuses to "jeopardize the hard-fought gains" of the past year.

As anti-war activists demonstrated around downtown Washington, the president spoke at the Pentagon to mark the war anniversary. He gave a strong defense of his decision to go to war and continue it and linked the fighting there to the global battle against al-Qaida.

"The battle in Iraq is noble, it is necessary, and it is just. And with your courage the battle in Iraq will end in victory," he told an audience of Pentagon brass, soldiers and diplomats.

Bush made some of his most expansive claims of success in the fighting there. He said the increase of 30,000 troops that he ordered to Iraq last year has turned "the situation in Iraq around." He also said that "Iraq has become the place where Arabs joined with Americans to drive al Qaida out."

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080319/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_iraq;_ylt=AvmDWX08.fnVG05XPa7K0gYD5gcF

delusional as ever :eyes:

Five-Year Iraq Conflict Has Caused Massive Refugee Crisis; IRC Commission Calls U.S. / World Response 'Grossly Inadequate'
18 Mar 2008 15:42:00 GMT
Source: International Rescue Committee (IRC)
International Rescue Committee
Website: http://www.theIRC.org/iraqi-refugees

The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq five years ago and its violent aftermath have produced one of the largest humanitarian crises of our time, yet the "Coalition of the Willing" has been mostly unwilling to own up to it and provide adequate aid for the innocent bystanders.

More than four million Iraqi civilians are estimated to be uprooted by horrific violence and in dire need of help in a crisis that is largely hidden from the public and ignored by the international community, according to a report issued today by the International Rescue Committee's Commission on Iraqi Refugees. The report, "Five Years Later, a Hidden Crisis," is available at www.theIRC.org/iraqi-refugees.

more:http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/fromthefield/220270/120585515763.htm

The Children of Iraq: 5 Years on
As this week marks the fifth anniversary of the Coalition invasion of Iraq, some steps have been taken to improve the lives of those displaced; Jordan has opened up it's classrooms to 50,000 Iraqi refugees this academic year, and an amnesty was issued for those refugees living in Lebanon – hundreds of whom were had been imprisoned for many months simply for being refugees. But more action is urgently needed if we are to offer meaningful hope to the trapped generation of Iraqi youth.

The war, which promised to be decisive and short-lived, has turned into one of the world's greatest humanitarian crises, the effects of which have spilled across the entire region.

'The scale of the crisis facing the people of Iraq, inside and outside its borders, is so great that it's neighbours simply do not have the necessary resources to cope,' said World Vision's Advocacy Director for the Middle East, Sharon Payt.
more:http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/fromthefield/wvmeero/ac06f18c914f33a79014ab20fbbd7df3.htm

Securing Oil Supplies: VP Cheney Visits Oman

March 19, 2008
Advertisement
Visiting U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney is expected to hold talks Wednesday evening with Oman's Sultan Qaboos bin Said in Omani capital Muscat over regional issues, news reaching said.

Cheney arrived in Muscat on Tuesday after winding up a two-day surprise visit to Iraq, where he described the increasingly unpopular U.S.-led invasion of Iraq a "successful endeavor".

But the official Oman News Agency and local media made no mention of his arrival.

The Iranian nuclear issue is expected to be the focus of the upcoming meeting between Cheney and Sultan Qaboos.

Oman, which shares with Iran the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic marine passage for some 30 percent of the world's oil supply, maintains good relations with Iran.

more:
http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/news/newsbyid.asp?NS=1&idx=93299&cat1=news