Stuff happens.
Dick Cheney is being sent to the Middle East, again:
Cheney will leave next Sunday, March 16, and travel to Oman, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the West Bank and Turkey.
The White House says Cheney will be meeting with Mideast leaders to discuss “issues of mutual interest.”
Maybe, issues like the one where Qatar’s Prime Minister deviated from the official approved BushCo message that diplomacy with Iran is never an option?
DUBAI (Reuters) – Dialogue between Gulf Arabs and Iran over its nuclear ambitions is the best way to avoid another crisis in the oil-exporting region, Qatar’s prime minister said.
“It is very important that we have clear relations, frank relations, with Iran,” Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani said in remarks aired on Monday.
As for Iraq, it’s still safer than Washington, D.C. or Philadelphia, right?
Two suicide bombers, one of them a woman, killed a total of six people in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad on Monday, an army officer told AFP.
The woman bomber blew herself up outside the home of tribal leader Sheikh Ghadban al-Karkhi in Kanan, north of the provincial capital Baquba, killing him and three others, Brigadier General Rageb al-Omeri said.
Why worry after all. Just support the troops by keeping them in harm’s way:
BAGHDAD, March 10 (Reuters) – Five U.S. soldiers were killed and three others wounded in a bomb blast in central Baghdad on Monday, the U.S. military said, in the worst single attack on U.S. forces in Baghdad in months.
(cont.)
I mean, it’s not that bad according to an official Military Spokesperson, despite the increased violence in Iraq which Time Magazine is so worried about. It’s really nothing to concern your beautiful mind with:
BAGHDAD (AP) — The U.S. military said Sunday it does not believe a recent wave of deadly attacks in Baghdad reflects a trend toward an overall increase in violence.
Navy Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, the military spokesman, said a wave of horrific violence, including a single attack on Thursday that killed 68 people in Baghdad, must be placed in perspective.
You have to “look historically at what happened in the last year to put in perspective what has happened in one week or two weeks in Baghdad,” Smith said.
That’s right, just ignore those bothersome mass graves that keep popping up over there.
A mass grave containing about 100 bodies was discovered just north of Baghdad Saturday in an a part of Diyala province that for years has seen intense fighting between Sunni al-Qaida in Iraq extremists and Shiites.
And don’t pay any attention to the fact that whatever success the “surge” has had in reducing violence in Baghdad is increasingly dependent on the radical Shi’ite leader the US loves to hate.
. . . Gen. David Petraeus, said that al-Sadr’s continuation of the ceasefire was an important element of the surge’s success. Petraeus called [Muqtada] al-Sadr “al Sayyed,” an honorific used to designate descendants of the prophet Muhammad. […]
A man that the United States barely deals with, one who is labeled a clumsy political operator, seems to have a crystal-clear vision: Long before the surge was a success, al-Sadr figured out that not fighting was a military strategy and that time was on his side. Sooner or later, the United States would be gone, and his Mahdi army, representing millions of Shiite poor, would be left to rule.
And please, don’t mention the thousands of Iraqi protesters who marched in the streets of Basra. I mean really, don’t mention them:
Thousands of people took to the streets in southern Basra, protesting against deteriorating security in a city where Iraqi forces assumed responsibility for safety last December. […]
Many carried banners, decrying the killing of women, workers, academics and scientists.
But never forget that anything bad that is happening in Iraq is, without question, entirely the fault of the big bad Islamofascist Menace from — Iran:
Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq, provided new details of allegations that Iran is meddling in Iraq, accusing it of training Iraqi operatives to direct militants in their homeland.
“Groups and elements,” including Iranians and militants attached to Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia, were training Iraqis in Iran to act as recruiters and trainers in Iraq, Smith said.
Which no doubt is why Cheney is visiting the region next week. Just to reinforce that point. Iran bad, US good. All options still on the table (wink, wink). Well, all options but actually talking to the Iranians, natch.
BAGHDAD, March 9 (Reuters) – An Iranian delegation failed to meet U.S. officials in Baghdad for talks on security in Iraq and was forced to go home last week without meeting the Americans due to a mix-up over dates, Iraq’s foreign minister said.
Observers who closely follow the talks were left puzzled after Iran said they would start on March 6, the United States ambassador said no date had been set, and Iraq’s deputy prime minister said only that they would take place within the week.
Speculation veered between a deliberate snub by the Americans, who are at odds with Tehran over its nuclear programme, or a more likely breakdown in communication.
In his first comments on the mix-up, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said on Sunday that “confusion in communication” was to blame.
The Iranians had proposed March 6, he said, but the Americans had not actually accepted the date before the Iranian delegation was sent from Tehran.
“It was a misunderstanding … They (U.S. officials) did not determine their agreement about this date. As you know, they need their experts, their translators. They needed more time,” he told Dubai-based Sharqiya television in an interview.
Something tells me that when it comes to actual negotiations with Iran, the Bushies will always “need more time” before they can “commit” to actual meetings. If you know what I mean . . .
