It's Iraq. Every one is talking about Iraq. The RW hysteria will backfire

[ProSense]

Iraqi Demands a Pullback; U.S. Lifts Baghdad Cordon

By KIRK SEMPLE
Published: November 1, 2006

BAGHDAD, Oct. 31 — Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki demanded the removal of American checkpoints from the streets of Baghdad on Tuesday, in what appeared to be his latest and boldest gambit in an increasingly tense struggle for more independence from his American protectors.

Mr. Maliki’s public declaration seemed at first to catch American commanders off guard. But by nightfall, American troops had abandoned all the positions in eastern and central Baghdad that they had set up last week with Iraqi forces as part of a search for a missing American soldier. The checkpoints had snarled traffic and disrupted daily life and commerce throughout the eastern part of the city.

The language of the declaration, which implied that Mr. Maliki had the power to command American forces, seemed to overstep his authority and to be aimed at placating his Shiite constituency.

The withdrawal was greeted with jubilation in the streets of Sadr City, the densely populated Shiite enclave where the Americans have focused their manhunt and where anti-American sentiment runs high. The initial American reaction to the order, which was released by Mr. Maliki’s press office, strongly suggested that the statement had not been issued in concert with the American authorities.

“Our commanders have his press release and are reviewing how best to address these concerns,” Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a military spokesman in Baghdad, said early Tuesday afternoon, about an hour after the order was issued.

more...

As Vote Nears, Stances on War Set Off Sparks

By ADAM NAGOURNEY and JIM RUTENBERG
Published: November 1, 2006

Snip...

In the process, Mr. Bush brought renewed attention to the war in Iraq, which he defended with renewed vigor while campaigning in Georgia, at the very moment that a number of Republican Congressional candidates, following the advice of party strategists, are stepping up their efforts to distance themselves from the White House on the war as the campaign enters its final days.

“President Bush isn’t getting our frustrations — it’s time to be decisive, beat the terrorists,” Mike McGavick, the Republican candidate for Senate in Washington State, said in an advertisement that began running this week. “Partition the country if we have to and get our troops home in victory.”

Snip...

In a debate a day earlier, Mr. Chafee signaled an openness to calling for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to step down; Mr. Whitehouse has been pressuring Mr. Chafee to do just that in his television advertisements. In Tennessee, Bob Corker, a Republican candidate for Senate, said it was time for a new plan and a change in leadership at the Pentagon.

In New Jersey, Thomas H. Kean Jr., the Republican challenging Senator Robert Menendez, has started a new advertisement that says he wants to “change the course in Iraq; Replace Rumsfeld.” In Indiana, John Hostettler, a Republican congressman, reminds voters in his latest advertisement that he voted against the invasion of Iraq because “the intelligence did not support the claim that there were weapons of mass destruction there.”

To date, none of the Republicans who have spoken out have called for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq, and some had expressed previous reservations about the war or opposed it initially. But their willingness to break so publicly with the White House in the closing days of the campaign — in some cases, with the active encouragement of the some of the party’s own strategists — is evidence of the extent to which they view the war in Iraq as a lethal issue this fall.

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The Untracked Guns of Iraq

U.S. military deaths in Iraq at 2,816

[babylonsister]

1. It's what everyone should be talking about. If Kerry enabled that,

so be it! :evilgrin:

[MadMaddie]

2. I wonder if that gun in the picture is one of the guns that is missing

from the weapons cache and unnaccounted for? just askin...

[phillysuse]

3. Cutting and running

out of Sadr City.

[ProSense]

4. Along Iraq-Syria Border, a Struggle to Cover the Terrain

Along Iraq-Syria Border, a Struggle to Cover the Terrain

Effort to Intercept Insurgent Aid Proves Elusive

By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 31, 2006; A12

RABIYAH, Iraq, Oct. 31 -- A convoy of U.S. Humvees streamed through the midnight darkness, following the border as soldiers scanned the endless flats with night-vision goggles. The thin earthen berm separating northern Iraq from Syria lay just a few hundred yards to their right, but what was out there was almost a total mystery.

"We've lost them," Lt. Stuart Burnham, 24, of Springfield, Va., said with faint resignation, ordering the convoy to turn around and head back to the small U.S. base at this border crossing town. "Maybe next time."

Less than an hour earlier, air surveillance of the area had picked up signs of as many as 20 people trying to sneak into Iraq near an Iraqi Border Patrol fort. Now they had faded away.

Soldiers and Iraqi border officials don't know exactly what crossed into Iraq on Monday night, whether it was the usual parade of smugglers ferrying sheep, cigarettes and fuel, or perhaps foreign fighters hauling in bundles of cash. The 45 miles of border monitored out of Combat Outpost Heider and a series of Iraqi forts here are porous, especially at night, and U.S. authorities say it is simply impossible to know who and what are passing through.

U.S. and Iraqi officials have been trying for years to crack down on foreign fighters and funds moving across the border from Syria. But training efforts for Iraqi Border Patrol officers have picked up steam only over the past year. Better equipment such as new pickup trucks arrived only months ago.

U.S. trainers say the Iraqis are getting much better at their jobs but still lack vital resources, have far too few men to adequately monitor this stretch of desert and farmland, and are up against a furtive smuggling culture that has been in place for centuries.

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Iraq ‘lost battle,’ says Saudi study

Agence France-Presse
Last updated 10:16am (Mla time) 11/01/2006

WASHINGTON -- The US war in Iraq is a "lost battle" and the violence-ravaged nation's "dire" plight seems certain to see it shatter along ethnic lines, an advisor to the Saudi government is warning.

The damning analysis, unveiled in a presentation at a two-day conference on US-Arab relations here, sees violence in Iraq getting worse and alleges large-scale Iranian "interference" there is set to grow.

"It is already a lost battle," said Nawaf Obaid, Managing Director of the Saudi National Security Assessment project, at the annual policymakers conference of the National Council on US-Arab Relations.

The question in Iraq is not "if the US succeeds -- it has failed by every single measure that you can think of," said Obaid, private security and energy adviser to the Saudi ambassador to Washington, Prince Turki al-Faisal.

more...

[ProSense]

5. It's the mess in Iraq!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2536037&mesg_id=2536037

[genie_weenie]

6. Hopefully. Troops home now. n/t

[Pierzin]

7. Yes!!!! Everyone. Should. Be Talking. About Iraq. All..the.. time...

That includes the MSM. The MSM media covered Whitewater and Bill Clinton 24-7 for years. Everyone knows Bush lied about Iraq, and he's not going to be impeached????? The deficit is out of control, it's even worse than it was under Reagan Bush, why isn't anyone talking about that???

[magellan]

8. Every opportunity to do right by the Iraqis was missed

Every way they could screw Iraq, AWOL and his cabal of draft-dodgers have screwed Iraq. And Afghanistan. Step by step they couldn't have screwed things up worse if they'd tried, and in fact I think they did: this situation is exactly what BushCo want.

Endless war equals endless profit for the corporate elite.