5/3/08

US senator wants Iraq oil funds used for rebuilding
Reuters – USA
By Richard Cowan WASHINGTON, March 4 (Reuters) – The chairman of the US Senate Armed Services Committee said on Tuesday he may try to require Iraq to spend …
www.reuters.com/article/featuredCrisis/idUSN04467762

2003 Michigan casualties in Iraq
Detroit Free Press – United States
Kevin G. Nave, 36, of White Lake Township, who served with the 1st Marine Division, was killed in a vehicle accident in Iraq on March 26, 2003. 3.…
www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
AID=/20080304/MISC03/80304063

US Agrees to Leave 9 Inspectors in Iraq
Guardian – UK
AP By BARRY SCHWEID WASHINGTON (AP) – Under congressional pressure, the State Department agreed Tuesday to retain nine inspectors in Iraq to oversee …
www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/7357913

4/3/08

Norman Solomon: The Iraq War Is Wrong. Why Can’t Candidates Admit It?
By Norman Solomon
The only way for Democrats to challenge US militarism is to condemn the Iraq war as inherently immoral.
www.alternet.org/columnists/story/78638/

Iran may be biggest threat to Iraq – US general
Reuters – USA
By Andrew Gray WASHINGTON, March 4 (Reuters) – Iran may pose the greatest long-term threat to Iraq’s stability, a US general said on Tuesday, the day after …
www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN04505031

Helicopter Crash in Iraq Kills 8
The Associated Press –
BAGHDAD (AP) — An Iraqi military helicopter crashed in northern Iraq, killing an American soldier and seven other people, the US military said Tuesday. …
ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gkx-3oYe
FwuWKCusr2jrojs98w8wD8V6QF780

Iraq Drawdown Resumes With Army Unit
Guardian – UK
The drawdown began last December with the departure of one brigade, numbering about 5000 troops, dropping the overall US troop level in Iraq to 158000. …
www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/7357650

Aida on Rails
Iraq has the biggest rail network in the Middle East. Rail lines reach from beyond Mosul in the north, west to Al Qaim and south to the Persian Gulf. During the early 20th Century, the Berlin to Baghdad railroad line (part of which was …
johnsonmatel.com/blog1/2008/03/aida_for_the_railroad.html

Exodus from Iraq: ‘Not Our Country To Return To’
By travellerev
“I shall never return to Iraq until the last American soldier and Iranian mullah leaves,” Alwan says. “It is their country now, not ours. The only thing that might take me back is when I decide to fight for Iraq’s real liberty.” …
aotearoaawiderperspective.wordpress.com/2008/03/04/
exodus-from-iraq-not-our-country-to-return-to/

Iraq and Iran: Foresight, or Poor Sight?
By Rick Horowitz
Did they ever consider the possibility of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visiting Baghdad, the first Iranian president to set foot in Iraq since the Iranian revolution way back in 1979? Did they ever figure on Ahmadinejad holding news conferences …
rickhorowitz.typepad.com/yesrick/2008/03/iraq-and-iran-f.html

Media lauds Ahmadinejad Iraq trip
BBC News – UK
Many commentators in the Middle East media believe Mahmoud Ahmadinejad scored a diplomatic success with his visit to Iraq, the first-ever by an Iranian …
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7277039.stm

Commander in Mideast says decreased violence in Iraq not irreversible
WLOS – Asheville,NC,USA
Admiral William Fallon tells a Senate committee there’s been a dramatic drop in violence in Iraq. But he warns that the threat of extremism remains high and …
www.wlos.com/template/inews_wire/wires
.national/24847f3b-www.wlos.com.shtml

Iraq helicopter crash kills 8
Swissinfo – Switzerland
One US service member was among those on board the Russian-made Mi-17 aircraft, it said, adding that the cause of the crash in northern Iraq was under …
www.swissinfo.ch/eng/news/international/Iraq_helicopter_crash
_kills_8.html?siteSect=143&sid=8811904&cKey=1204648792000&ty=ti

Odierno: Iran Supporting Iraq Militias
The Associated Press –
WASHINGTON (AP) — Iran is still training, funding and providing weapons to insurgents in Iraq, the former No. 2 US military commander in Iraq said Tuesday. …
ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gux49S
wqMftPpk_0bpuCSPnhzd2QD8V6N0MO0

Iraq’s Talabani to visit Turkey on Friday-official
Reuters – USA
The visit comes one week after Turkish troops withdrew from northern Iraq after a major eight-day ground offensive against Kurdish PKK rebels who use the …
www.reuters.com/article/featuredCrisis/idUSL04583943

Top Commander: Iraq Assessment Needed
The Associated Press –
Fallon said Petraeus, who oversees combat in Iraq, has the daunting task of making sure Iraqi security forces are ready to take over. …
ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hcWJu
9bbzrJZ7uNHjvMn0BuTGqHQD8V6N4QG2

Smiling US Marine throws puppy off Iraq hill
Telegraph.co.uk – United Kingdom
By Bonnie Malkin The American army is investigating shocking footage of a grinning Marine throwing a yelping puppy into a gully in Iraq. …
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?
xml=/news/2008/03/04/wpuppy104.xml

Iraqi PM: Christians Essential to Iraq
The Associated Press –
“Christians in Iraq are an essential component of the Iraqi society and a part that cannot be separated from the Iraqi people and civilization. …
ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5itHhgO
0BUxvg1EylxFf1ncOdrkZQD8V6LBA00

Iraq’s Sadrists demand US release former minister
Washington Post – United States
“They are in US custody and my understanding is that the intention is to release them, pending results of ongoing consultations with government of Iraq …
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content
/article/2008/03/04/AR2008030400712.html

FACTBOX-Security developments in Iraq, March 4
Reuters – USA
BAGHDAD – US and Iraqi forces were searching for an Iraqi MI-17 transport helicopter which disappeared in northern Iraq on Monday after being caught in a …
www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL04904888

US soldier among eight dead in Iraq chopper crash
AFP –
BAGHDAD (AFP) — A Russian made Mi-17 helicopter belonging to the Iraqi military has crashed in northern Iraq, killing eight people on board including a US …
afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i57
tWmQeBfWSaPA5WFmTMEBG-cYA

McCain on Iraq: Straight Talk, No Chaser
By Jeff Huber
On Monday, February 25, while rolling through the highways of Ohio on the Straight Talk Express, McCain told reporters that if he can’t convince Americans that the troop escalation in Iraq is working, then, “I lose.” …
www.atlargely.com/2008/03/mccain-on-iraq.html

Kosovo, Palestine, Iraq: the limits of analogy, Shlomo Avineri
There is, however, a case in the middle east that is similar to Kosovo: the Kurds in Iraq. Here, as in former Yugoslavia, an ethnic minority with a distinct culture, language and history has been continuously oppressed by a series of …
www.opendemocracy.net/article/conflicts/
reimagining_yugoslavia/kosovo_palestine_iraq