Wednesday News Bucket

13 Comments

1. 

   CabinGirl on April 11, 2007 at 7:21 am

   the strategery for Iraq: UK Independent

   Faced with an ever-more ruthless insurgency in Baghdad – despite President George Bush’s “surge” in troops – US forces in the city are now planning a massive and highly controversial counter-insurgency operation that will seal off vast areas of the city, enclosing whole neighbourhoods with barricades and allowing only Iraqis with newly issued ID cards to enter.

   The campaign of “gated communities” – whose genesis was in the Vietnam War – will involve up to 30 of the city’s 89 official districts and will be the most ambitious counter-insurgency programme yet mounted by the US in Iraq.

   The system has been used – and has spectacularly failed – in the past, and its inauguration in Iraq is as much a sign of American desperation at the country’s continued descent into civil conflict as it is of US determination to “win” the war against an Iraqi insurgency that has cost the lives of more than 3,200 American troops. The system of “gating” areas under foreign occupation failed during the French war against FLN insurgents in Algeria and again during the American war in Vietnam. Israel has employed similar practices during its occupation of Palestinian territory – again, with little success.

   Great idea…let’s use a plan that has no history of success when it’s been employed before.  Not to mention what happens to people (friends/families) who are on the wrong side of the barrier from each other.

   Of course, I doubt the Iraqis are getting out much anyway…hard to go anywhere when you have to worry about everything blowing up and killing you, or being kidnapped and tortured and shot.

2. 

   CabinGirl on April 11, 2007 at 7:23 am

   Reuters

   Evidence of water has been detected for the first time in a planet outside our solar system, an astronomer said on Tuesday, a tantalizing find for scientists eager to know whether life exists beyond Earth.

   Travis Barman, an astronomer at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, said water vapor has been found in the atmosphere of a large, Jupiter-like gaseous planet located 150 light years from Earth in the constellation Pegasus. The planet is known as HD 209458b.

   Other scientists reported in February that they were unable to find evidence of water in this planet’s atmosphere, as well as another Jupiter-like planet.

   “I’m very confident,” Barman said in an interview. “It’s definitely good news because water has been predicted to be present in the atmosphere of this planet and many of the other ones for some time.”

3. 

   ask on April 11, 2007 at 7:50 am

   Not knowing, no longer an excuse:

   Google Earth turns spotlight on Darfur

   Using hi-tech satellite imagery, photos and eyewitness accounts, the ongoing crisis in Sudan’s Darfur region is being brought into the homes of millions of internet users.

   The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC has teamed up with Google’s internet mapping service, Google Earth, to try to halt what they see as genocide.

   By combining the museum’s Darfur database with clickable images on the ground, they aim to create a “community of conscience” among internet users.

   Download file from here: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

   • 

     CabinGirl on April 11, 2007 at 8:01 am

     Wow.  That’s an interesting project…but I can’t help but think of the recent story of how Google Maps is currently using pre-Katrina images of New Orleans and saying they aren’t trying to hide anything by doing so.

     Why highlight one tragedy and hide the other?

4. 

   ask on April 11, 2007 at 7:58 am

   Turning which corner, again?  A double whammy.

   Iraqis face ‘immense’ suffering

   The International Committee of the Red Cross says the situation for ordinary Iraqis is getting steadily worse.

   Four years after the US-led invasion, the ICRC says the conflict is inflicting immense suffering, and calls for greater protection of civilians.
   (snip)
   The report also highlights the following problems:

   • Iraq’s healthcare facilities face critical shortages of staff and supplies. Many doctors, nurses and patients no longer dare to go to hospitals and clinics because they are targeted or threatened
   • much of Iraq’s vital water, sewage and electricity infrastructure is in a critical condition
   • food shortages have been reported in some areas and malnutrition is said to have increased

   Iraq policy ‘spawned new terror’

   The British and US policy towards Iraq has “spawned new terror in the region”, a think tank report has said.

   The countries had tried to “keep the lid on” problems by military force and had failed to address the root causes, the Oxford Research Group warned.

   It said Iran, Syria and North Korea had become “emboldened”, while the Taleban was on the rise in Afghanistan.

   The UK government said the past decade of foreign policy had been effective and action in Iraq was “justified”.

   • 

     CabinGirl on April 11, 2007 at 8:04 am

     Terrorism and suicide bombing look more appealing when people don’t have necessities (like food, water and medical care) or a whole lot to live for, don’t they?

     BushCo needs to go so someone can start trying to get us out of the mess they’ve created in the middle east.

5. 

   CabinGirl on April 11, 2007 at 8:37 am

   apparently no one wants the job: WashPo

   The White House wants to appoint a high-powered czar to oversee the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with authority to issue directions to the Pentagon, the State Department and other agencies, but it has had trouble finding anyone able and willing to take the job, according to people close to the situation.

   At least three retired four-star generals approached by the White House in recent weeks have declined to be considered for the position, the sources said, underscoring the administration’s difficulty in enlisting its top recruits to join the team after five years of warfare that have taxed the United States and its military.

   “The very fundamental issue is, they don’t know where the hell they’re going,” said retired Marine Gen. John J. “Jack” Sheehan, a former top NATO commander who was among those rejecting the job. Sheehan said he believes that Vice President Cheney and his hawkish allies remain more powerful within the administration than pragmatists looking for a way out of Iraq. “So rather than go over there, develop an ulcer and eventually leave, I said, ‘No, thanks,’ ” he said.

   Later in the article, it says that the generals who have turned down the offer are administration insiders to varying degrees.  Interesting…perhaps fewer people are interested in falling on their swords for W anymore?

   • 

     dada on April 11, 2007 at 12:15 pm

     getting hard to find good

     toadies

      help these days.

     ITMF’sA

     

6. 

   dada on April 11, 2007 at 12:13 pm

   bush 43, after meeting pooty

   wonder if he saw this coming?

   another foreign policy disaster from the most inept and corrupt administration in history:

   Russia threatening new cold war over missile defence

   Kremlin accuses US of deception on east European interceptor bases

   Luke Harding in Moscow
   Wednesday April 11, 2007
   The Guardian

   Russia is preparing its own military response to the US’s controversial plans to build a new missile defence system in eastern Europe, according to Kremlin officials, in a move likely to increase fears of a cold war-style arms race.
   The Kremlin is considering active counter-measures in response to Washington’s decision to base interceptor missiles and radar installations in Poland and the Czech Republic, a move Russia says will change “the world’s strategic stability”.

   […]

   In an interview with the Guardian, the Kremlin’s chief spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Moscow felt betrayed by the Pentagon’s move. “We were extremely concerned and disappointed. We were never informed in advance about these plans. It brings tremendous change to the strategic balance in Europe, and to the world’s strategic stability.”

   […]

   Analysts said there was a common feeling in Russia that the US had reneged on an agreement after the collapse of the Soviet Union to abandon cold war politics. “Cold war thinking has prevailed, especially on the western side,” Yevgeny Myasnikov, a senior research scientist at Moscow’s Centre for Arms Control, told the Guardian. “Russia has been deeply disappointed by what has happened after 1991. Nato started to expand, and the US started to think it had won the cold war. We had hoped for a partnership. But it didn’t happen.”

   article continues

   BushCo’s™ unilateral abrogation of these is bearing fruit:

       * The Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty
       * The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
       * The 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty

   …feeding the MI complex daily.

   ITMF’sA

   

7. 

   cruz del sur on April 11, 2007 at 4:42 pm

   Just heard in Telesur, that cuban terrorist Posadas Carriles was set free on bail.

8. 

   on April 11, 2007 at 5:23 pm

   From TPM Cafe:

   Buried in  today’s Los Angeles Times poll is a fascinating number that’s gotten no attention as of yet:

   It finds that if President Bush vetoes the Dems’ bill attaching a withdrawal date to troop funding, more Americans by a very slim margin want Congress to refuse to send the President another bill without withdrawal timetables than want Congress to give him the no-strings-attached bill that he’s insisting on.

   Here’s the question:

   Q: If George W. Bush vetoes the legislation, do you think Congress should pass another version of the bill that provides funding for the war without any conditions for troop withdrawal, or should Congress refuse to pass any funding bill until Bush agrees to accept conditions for withdrawal?

       Fund the war without conditions: 43%
       Withhold funding until Bush signs: 45%
       Don’t know: 12%

   Well, that removes any excuse Dems may have had to cave in to Bush if he vetos the emergency war funding Bill. The American people want Dems to stand firm.

   • 

     CabinGirl on April 11, 2007 at 5:25 pm

     That is interesting…I wish there were a bigger margin in favor of witholding the funding, although it’s still comforting to see that people are tired of the Bushit.

     • 

       on April 11, 2007 at 6:16 pm

       Actually, if you think about the constituencies of Congressional Dems, the margin is wider. Among Dems, 66% say Congress should withhold funding and 24% say that it should pass a bill without conditions for troop withdrawal. Since one would expect that in general, districts and states with Dem reps or senators are predominantly Democratic, if Dem congressmen followed the wishes of their constituencies, there is no question as to how they should proceed: the margin on average would probably be something like 55/45 in Dem areas. (For independents, the margin is 43/40.)

       The poll is also interesting in that it asks whether Bush should sign a bill with conditions for withdrawal. 48% of all those polled say yes; 43% no. That’s a significant margin. Clearly, most Americans want Bush to sign the present bill. So if he vetoes it, he will once again be defying the will of the American people. (This is Hillary’s line.)

       The poll is available as a PDF file.