29/04/2008

'Western Leaders Are War Criminals'

The former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Mahathir Mohamad, has echoed calls for Western leaders to be charged with war crimes over the invasion of Iraq. Speaking at Imperial College in London Mahathir, who was in office from 1981 to 2003, singled out US President George Bush, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Australia's former prime minister John Howard as he wants to see them tried in absence for war crimes committed in Iraq. The event was organised by the Ramadhan Foundation which is a leading British Muslim youth organisation working for peaceful co-existence and dialogue between communities. Mohammed Shafiq, spokesman for the group said: It was an opportunity for students to put a range of questions about war crimes and the international situation. He said that people have to stop killing each other and use arbitration, negotiation and discussion as an alternative to violence, war and killing. Speaking about the Iraq war, Mahathir focused on the thousands dying, the economic war, the power of oil and how we could utilise some of these tools to have a leverage against the people who commit countries to war, Shafiq said.

Author : Mick Meaney
Source : RINF

29/04/2008

Turkish army strikes PKK targets in northern Iraq

The General Staff said in a statement posted on its website that the strike targeted a group of PKK rebels in Zap, Avashin and Khakurk regions of northern Iraq who were trying to infiltrate Turkey to carry out attacks. "All planes returned to base safely after successfully executing their mission," added the statement. Also on Wednesday, Turkish jets hit PKK targets in the Hakurk region of northern Iraq. The Turkish military has periodically bombed and shelled suspected PKK positions in northern Iraq during the past few months. In February it launched an eight-day ground incursion into Iraq.

Author :
Source : Mathaba

29/04/2008

The Price of the Surge

The Bush administration's new strategy in Iraq has helped reduce violence. But the surge is not linked to any sustainable plan for building a viable Iraqi state and may even have made such an outcome less likely -- by stoking the revanchist fantasies of Sunni tribes and pitting them against the central government. The recent short-term gains have thus come at the expense of the long-term goal of a stable, unitary Iraq.

Author : Steven Simon
Source : Foreign Affairs

29/04/2008

US showing 'Iranophobia' on Iraq: Tehran

Iran accused US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of Iranophobia on Sunday for trying to blame Tehran for Iraq's security problems. Rice said last week she would press Iraq's Arab neighbours at a meeting on Tuesday in Kuwait to do more to support Baghdad's government and shield it from Iran's nefarious influences. Iran, as a neighbour of Iraq, will also attend the gathering. Regarding Rice's statements, these statements are not something new.

Author :
Source : Daily Times

29/04/2008

Anti-U.S. cleric al-Sadr threatens new uprising

Anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr gave a "final warning" to the government Saturday to halt a U.S.-Iraqi crackdown against his followers or he would declare "open war until liberation." A full-blown uprising by al-Sadr, who led two rebellions against U.S.-led forces in 2004, could lead to a dramatic increase in violence in Iraq at a time when the Sunni extremist group al-Qaida in Iraq appears poised for new attacks after suffering severe blows last year. Al-Sadr's warning appeared on his Web site as Iraq's Shiite-dominated government claimed success in a new push against Shiite militants in the southern city of Basra. Fighting claimed 14 more lives in Sadr City, the Baghdad stronghold of al-Sadr's Mahdi Army.

Author :
Source : MSNBC/AP

29/04/2008

300,000 US troops suffer mental problems: Study

About 300,000 US troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan suffer symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder or depression, but about half receive no care, an independent study said yesterday. The study by the RAND Corp also estimated that another 320,000 troops have sustained a possible traumatic brain injury during deployment. But researchers could not say how many of those cases were serious or required treatment. Billed as the first large-scale nongovernmental survey of its kind, the study found that stress disorder and depression afflict 18.5 percent of the more than 1.5 million US forces who have deployed to the two war zones

Author :
Source : The Peninsula Qatar/Reuters

29/04/2008

Iraq sacks 'disloyal' troops

The Iraqi army has sacked 1,300 troops for failing in their duty in the recent offensive against the al-Mahdi Army and its offshoots in the country's south. The move comes as the government announced plans to crack down on armed groups controlling petrol stations and oil distribution to cut off the resources of groups such as the al-Mahdi Army. During the fighting that started on March 25, some soldiers laid down their weapons in a show of allegiance to Muqtada al-Sadr, a populist Shia leader and part of a bloc within the government.

Author :
Source : Aljazeera

29/04/2008

Bush 'Divorced From Reality'

Analysts and media op-ed writers have spent the past couple of days dissecting and digesting the Iraq War Report Card presented by the US military commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, and his State Department sidekick Ambassador Ryan Crocker. Perhaps the two most significant points that those who watched the testimony will remember are (1) no plans for a troop withdrawal for the time being, and (2) Iran is to blame for everything that has gone wrong.

Author : Chris Gelken
Source : Ohmy News

29/04/2008

Iran Confirms Role In Brokering Iraq Truce

Officials in Iran confirmed for the first time Saturday that the country played an important role in brokering a recent truce between the Iraqi government and anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Iran's Shiite government helped end the clashes between Iraqi government troops and al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia for the sake of Shiite unity, said a senior Iranian official who deals with Iraq.

Author : Ali Akbar Dareini
Source : Huffington Post

03/04/2008

The Iraq legacy: a diplomatic surge

The US should withdraw its troops from Iraq within the next year and convince Iraq's neighbours to prevent it from becoming a failed state By any objective measure, the costs of the invasion and occupation of Iraq far outweigh the benefits. That is why nearly two-thirds of Americans think the war was not worth fighting. Similarly, the costs of remaining in Iraq indefinitely and in large numbers also outweighs the potential benefits. Therefore, the US should begin a phased and responsible strategic redeployment of its forces and undertake a diplomatic surge immediately.

Author : Lawrence Korb
Source : The Guardian

03/04/2008

Gates discusses U.S. troop proposals for Iraq, including expected midyear pause in drawdown

Top U.S. military leaders have presented Defense Secretary Robert Gates with their strategy for future force levels in Iraq, including expected recommendations for a pause in troop cuts for as much as six weeks at midyear. The presentations was Thursday during an hourlong videoconference. And the discussions mark the start of what will be a series of meetings, presentations and congressional testimony during the next two weeks, that will assess the military, political and economic progress in Iraq. Thursday morning, Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, who is chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, heard from the top commander in the Middle East, Adm. William Fallon, and the U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus.

Author :
Source : International Herald Tribune/AP

03/04/2008

And the biggest winner is ... Iran

The invasion had one clear purpose - the removal of a tyrant. But the consequences have been far more complex, throwing up a new regional power, intensifying Sunni-Shia divisions, and prompting a painful US rethink

Author : Jason Burke
Source : The Observer

03/04/2008

The Other Iraqi Civil War

The battle of Basra may be virtually over. But nobody's talking about the invisible Battle of Mosul. President George W Bush's self-described "defining moment" in Iraq amounted to this: General Qassem Suleimani, the head of the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) , brokered a deal in Qom, Iran, between Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's envoys and Hadi al-Amri, the head of the Badr Organization and number two to Adbul Aziz al-Hakim, the head of the the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC) and a key player of the government in Baghdad. That sealed the end of the battle of Basra

Author : Pepe Escobar
Source : Asia Times

03/04/2008

Anniversary of invasion: Iraq five years on

After a long and grim period in which weddings and parties have generally been outnumbered by funerals, bookings are finally on the up again for Haider Salah, one of Baghdad's liveliest and loudest mobile disc jockeys. Last Thursday, at a private club overlooking the Tigris, his huge outdoor speakers were booming Arab pop music across the riverbanks - where, five years ago this week, an even heavier baseline resounded as the opening salvoes of Operation Shock and Awe, the coalition bombing campaign to remove Saddam Hussein, got under way. The club's various guests - two groups of students holding graduation celebrations, and a wedding party - were not the only ones in a good mood. Thanks to the progress of the year-long US "troop surge" in reining in Baghdad's warring religious militants, the man behind the decks no longer has to worry about being killed for the sin of encouraging music and dancing.

Author : Colin Freeman
Source : The Daily Telegraph

03/04/2008

U.N. Urges Iraq to Address Human Rights During Lull

The United Nations on Saturday called on the Iraqi government and the United States to take advantage of a period of reduced attacks to address the human rights problems that plague Iraq, including violence against civilians, abuse of detainees, persecution of women and ethnic minorities, and a lack of food and shelter for displaced people. In a new human rights report, the United Nations noted some progress, including “a marked decrease in violent attacks involving mass casualties" from July to December, the period covered in the report. It applauded the Iraqi government's decision to ratify the United Nations convention against torture and the government's efforts to alleviate overcrowding in prisons, and it took note of new judicial safeguards for detainees.

Author : Erica Goode
Source : New York Times

03/04/2008

The high hopes, the thunder run, the victory and then the cost

It was the party of the Baghdad summer season of 2003. A dustier, hotter version of the bar on the Titanic. Assembled on the lawn of the Ottoman-era British embassy, sipping cocktails, exchanging gossip and self-consciously keeping a stiff upper lip, le tout Baghdad assembled as the rest of the Iraqi capital dissolved into chaos. Soldiers in combat uniform, neo-conservative advisers in suits and boots, portly Iraqi exiles and diplomats from the “coalition of the willing" gathered for what they believed would be the first of many such receptions, as life inevitably returned to normal in post-invasion Iraq. Five years on and memories of that spectacle on the banks of the Tigris seem more surreal than ever. Many of those who attended the garden party have now retired, some in disgrace. Others never made it out of the country alive.

Author : Tom Whipple
Source : The Times

03/04/2008

Military missions 'under-funded'

The Government has been accused of years of under-funding military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan following the disclosure that the costs have almost doubled over the past 12 months to more than £3bn. Ministers said that the increased costs reflected the need to purchase new defensive equipment to protect troops against the constantly changing insurgent threat. But the Tories said the decision to pour in extra cash amounted to a belated recognition by ministers that for years operations in the two countries were not properly funded. The Commons Defence Committee, which revealed the increases, expressed "surprise" that the cost of operations in Iraq was rising at a time when British troop numbers there were falling.

Author : Press Association
Source : Yorkshire Evening Post

03/04/2008

US Army Chief: 'The War In Iraq Is Noble'

The commander of US forces in Iraq has told Sky News the war in Iraq is "a very noble cause". General David Petraeus gave an exclusive interview to political editor Adam Boulton on Sunday Live. He said coalition forces had given "the greatest gift" to the Iraqi people - freedom from the tyrannical reign of Saddam Hussein. Asked about the sectarian violence that continues to claim lives - 160 people were killed in February alone - he said that deaths overall had dropped over the last eight months. "That is not to say that anyone is doing victory dances in the end zone because we're not," he said.

Author : Adam Boulton
Source : Sky News

03/04/2008

Spare a thought for the Iraqis

As the US presidential race intensifies, it is becoming clear that the campaigns of the leading candidates are largely defined by two absences: the absence of a fundamentally different Democratic approach to the war from that of the Bush administration, and the absence of the Iraq war and its Iraqi victims. To be sure, the three leading candidates in the US presidential campaign - the Republican John McCain, and the two democratic contenders Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama, have talked about Iraq.

Author : Adel Safty
Source : Gulf News

03/01/2008

Iraq Crisis Threatens Bush-Petraeus "Surge" Strategy As Bankrupt

Central to the Bush-Petraeus Iraq strategy is to pacify and confuse American public opinion during the 2008 elections, an approach Gen. Petraeus calls "slowing down the American clock" to gain time for the counterinsurgency to continue. This week's events in Basra suggest that US strategy is collapsing amidst its own contradictions. This is the most important opportunity for critics to question the "surge" since it began last year. Here is what is happening. To quell the Sunni insurgency and create an image of gradual progress, the US has insisted provincial elections be held in Iraq this October, one month before the American elections. The expectation is that disenfranchised groups who boycotted the 2005 elections will gain significant representation in the Iraqi parliament, a prospect that threatens the sectarian coalition of Shi'a and Kurdish parties now controlling the regime. The Shi'a bloc includes Maliki's Dawa and the former Supreme Command of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq [SCIRI]. Their rivals are the impoverished Shi'a followers of Moktada al-Sadr of Sadr City and many towns in the South, whose military forces are known as the Mahdi Army.

Author : Tom Hayden
Source : Yahoo News

03/04/2008

Shiite-vs.-Shiite fighting underscores failed policy

Al-Maliki's decision to send troops into Basra and root out the "criminal gangs" that controlled the city was praised by the White House as a bold move to assert the Iraqi government's sovereignty. In reality, though, it looked more like an attempt to boost al-Maliki's political standing by dealing a blow to the Mahdi Army -- the biggest and most powerful Shiite militia -- and its leader, the cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Iraqi forces launched their offensive and were immediately met by what al-Maliki's defense minister called unexpectedly strong resistance. In other words, they ran into a buzz saw. Al-Maliki went to Basra to personally oversee military operations. History will not confuse him with Napoleon.

Author : Eugene Robinson
Source : Colombus Dispatch

03/04/2008

British troop withdrawal from Iraq delayed

The Defence Secretary today announced the abandonment of a planned withdrawal of 1,500 British troops from Iraq amid a dramatic upsurge in violence in the southern city of Basra. Des Browne announced that the Prime Minister's pledge, made last October, of bringing the troops home would not be fulfilled because the Iraqi Army required surveillance and logistical support to bring Shia militia affiliated to the radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr under control. He added, however, that even before last week's escalation in fighting, military assessments had concluded that Mr Brown's pledge was untenable and that planned redeployments would have to be slowed down.

Author : David Byers
Source : The Times

03/04/2008

MOAB and the pain ray - Iraq's war-missing wonder weapons

Five years ago, as we hurtled unstoppably towards war with Iraq, I was busy with an alternative weekly column called "Weapon of the Week." At the time journalists were being fed - and in general, were happily eating - a stream of marketing for the weapons and ideas that would make the coming war neat and painless. Well, we know how the main event turned out - but whatever became of the pin-ups? And of the mindset and the people who promoted them? They weren't hard to track

Author : George Smith, Dick Destiny
Source : The Register

03/04/2008

From Baghdad to Britain

They come to Britain fearing for their lives back home, hoping for a new beginning. But for thousands of Iraqi asylum seekers there is no welcome and instead they face misery and destitution before they are deported. Hannah Godfrey hears their stories

Author : Hannah Godfrey
Source : The Guardian

03/04/2008

Bush insists Iraq war was a success as bin Laden threatens Europe on anniversary

President Bush marked five years since ordering the invasion of Iraq by proclaiming yesterday that American troops had achieved “undeniable" success and predicted that the war “will end in victory". Osama bin Laden was also planning to commemorate the event, according to an Islamist website. A five-minute audio message attributed to bin Laden was posted on a militant website and was accompanied by a still image of the al-Qaeda leader brandishing an AK47.

Author : Tom Baldwin
Source : The Times

03/04/2008

Exhaustive review finds no link between Saddam and al Qaida

An exhaustive review of more than 600,000 Iraqi documents that were captured after the 2003 U.S. invasion has found no evidence that Saddam Hussein's regime had any operational links with Osama bin Laden's al Qaida terrorist network. The Pentagon-sponsored study, scheduled for release later this week, did confirm that Saddam's regime provided some support to other terrorist groups, particularly in the Middle East, U.S. officials told McClatchy. However, his security services were directed primarily against Iraqi exiles, Shiite Muslims, Kurds and others he considered enemies of his regime.

Author : Warren P. Strobel
Source : McClatchy Newspapers

03/04/2008

Iraq and Afghan costs 'to double'

The costs of military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq this year are likely to almost double to £3.297bn, a committee of MPs has warned. The Commons defence committee said operational costs for this financial year were now forecast to reach £3.297bn - a 94% increase on last year. This included a 72% rise in spending on Iraq to £1.648bn, despite ongoing falls in troop numbers. The government says the money is needed for force protection. Last year's total spending on the two conflicts was £1.698bn.

Author :
Source : BBC

04/03/2008

Iraq: for once there's hope

A lot of Iraq is not functioning well, but all around you today are encouraging signs It is the last day of my month in Baghdad and one of the Times drivers is bringing his children to meet me in my hotel. Nowhere else in the world would that be noteworthy, but in Iraq it is remarkable. I had not seen his family since November 2003, a few months after the US invasion, when I visited their house in western Baghdad. Shortly after that, Iraq began its slide into mayhem. Westerners faced kidnapping and execution. Our driver and his family were forced from their home by sectarian death threats. They returned when the US troop “surge" finally restored a modicum of order last summer, but even then the children were locked inside the house. As I await their arrival, I reflect that in five years of visiting Iraq this is the first time I have left feeling anything but deeply pessimistic. Even ardent opponents of the US invasion - myself included - could not deny that daily life for most Iraqis is now better, or at least markedly less awful, than it was.

Author : Martin Fletcher
Source : The Times

04/03/2008

Complete Withdrawal Of Foreign Troops Only Solution To Iraq's Problems

The complete withdrawal of foreign troops is the only solution to Iraq's intractable problems, the Guardian's senior foreign correspondent, Jonathan Steele believes. In a lecture Iraq: The Way Out, organised by the London Middle East Institute at London University's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) Steele described the invasion of Iraq as Britain's worst foreign policy blunder since Suez. He pointed out that terrorist car bombs are given prominent media coverage since most take place in Baghdad where photographers and reporters have immediate access to the scenes of carnage. As a result, readers and TV viewers have the impression that car bombs are the main danger for Iraqis. In fact, away from the cameras in the smaller towns and the countryside the Americans are taking more lives.

Author : Jonathan Steele
Source : Mathaba.net/The Guardian

04/03/2008

Ahmadinejad in historic Iraq visit

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Iraq on Sunday for a two-day visit - the first such trip by an Iranian president. Although he was invited by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, it is a controversial and potentially divisive state visit, as well as a security challenge. Many Sunni Arabs find it deeply objectionable that Iraqi hospitality is being offered to a man they suspect of covertly helping to finance and arm Shia militia groups. Those groups have killed hundreds of Iraqis in gruesome attacks that often involve torture with electric drills. One Sunni tribal leader believes the Iranian president is coming here "to organise more terrorist operations in Iraq".

Author : Hugh Sykes
Source : BBC

04/03/2008

Jousting with the Lancet: More Data, More Debate over Iraqi Deaths

It's one of the most controversial questions today: How many Iraqis have died since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion? That there is no definitive answer should not come as a surprise, given the chaotic situation in Iraq. Still, it's an important question to ask, for obvious humanitarian, moral and political reasons. Theoretically, the public health surveys and polls that have been conducted in Iraq -- at great risk to the people involved -- should help inform and further the debate. But the data is complicated by different research approaches and their attendant caveats. The matter has been further confused by anemic reporting, with news articles usually framed as a "he said / she said" story, instead of an exploration and interpretation of research findings.

Author : Diane Farsetta
Source : CMD

04/03/2008

U.S. expects 140,000 troops in Iraq after drawdown

The United States expects to have about 140,000 troops in Iraq even after completing a planned drawdown of combat forces in July, the Pentagon said on Monday. The forecast, which prompted swift criticism from Democrats, means there will still be 8,000 more U.S. troops in Iraq than when President George W. Bush ordered a surge of extra forces in January 2007 to curb violence. Army Lt. Gen. Carter Ham, director of operations for the U.S. military's Joint Staff, also said it was too soon to predict if troop numbers could go below the pre-surge level of 132,000 any time this year.

Author : Andrew Gray
Source : Reuters

04/03/2008

Talks urged as Turkey and PKK clash in N.Iraq

Turkish troops and Kurdish PKK rebels fought battles in northern Iraq on Sunday that left scores dead on the fourth day of a major ground offensive Baghdad and Washington fear could further destabilise Iraq. Iraq's government said Turkey should withdraw its troops as soon as possible and urged Ankara to sit down with Baghdad for talks to resolve the crisis over the PKK. Ankara launched the land offensive on Thursday after months of aerial bombardment of PKK targets in the remote, mountainous region. It accuses rebels of using northern Iraq as a base to stage attacks inside Turkey.

Author : Shamal Aqrawi
Source : The Mirror/Reuters

04/03/2008

Iraq Kurds slam US over Turkish incursion

Iraq's Arbil-based regional government says United States responsible for Turkish attacks. Iraq's Kurdish region, usually one of Washington's closest friends in the region, on Saturday attacked the United States for green-lighting a Turkish incursion onto its territory. "We place responsibility for the military operations on the US government because without its consent Turkey would not be allowed to violate the land and air sovereignty of Iraq," said regional government spokesman Falah Mustafa. "The regional government condemns these military operations and the air bombing targeting infrastructure," he said.

Author :
Source : Middle East Online

04/03/2008

Arab League chief expresses concern over Turkish action in Iraq

The Arab League General Secretary Amr Mussa expressed concern Saturday over Turkey's military operations in northern Iraq, according to an official Arab League statement. Mussa called for Iraqi sovereignty to be respected, and urged Turkey and Iraq to abide by all treaties signed over the issue. He emphasised the importance of resolving the situation peacefully, saying the Iraqi government should act against all terrorist activities aimed at destablising either country.

Author :
Source : Monsters and Critics

04/03/2008

Turkish army launches land offensive in Iraq

Thousands of Turkish troops have crossed into northern Iraq and thousands more are at the border ready to join them in their hunt for Kurdish PKK guerrillas, a senior military source said today. Turkey's military said the land offensive - the first major incursion in a decade - had fighter aircraft in support, and Turkish television reported that 10,000 troops had entered Iraq. "The Turkish Armed Forces, which attach great importance to Iraq's territorial integrity and stability, will return home in the shortest time possible after its goals have been achieved," the General Staff said in a statement posted on its website. The military source based in southeast Turkey told Reuters: "Thousands of troops have crossed the border and thousands more are waiting at the border to join them if necessary."

Author :
Source : The Independent/Reuters

04/03/2008

UK sought to keep criticism of Israel secret

An early draft of a pre-war British weapons dossier on Iraq included concerns over Israel's nuclear capability, but the government fought to suppress the reference before publication, The Guardian reported on Thursday. The newspaper said the Foreign Office convinced a tribunal to keep secret the handwritten mention of Israel in the margin of the dossier, which was drawn up to justify going to war in Iraq. The reference, suggesting Israel had disregarded the will of the United Nations like Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, was removed before the draft was released this week under Britain's Freedom of Information Act.

Author :
Source : Reuters

04/03/2008

In Iraq forever?

Battle expected in Congress over Bush's long-term Iraq stay The online activism group MoveOn.org has launched an Iraq/Recession campaign, aiming to make sure that politicians and pundits understand what voters already know: As long as we keep pouring that money down the drain in Iraq, we won't have the money we need to solve our economic woes. With the war costing Americans more than $338 million a day, MoveOn says, The tradeoffs are stark: Bombs or unemployment insurance for people laid off as the economy slows? Billions for Halliburton and Blackwater, or help for people on the verge of losing their homes because of the subprime meltdown? Urging people to raise the issue in letters to their local newspapers, MoveOn says, More and more Americans are making the connection between the billions we've spent over there and the crumbling economy here at home.

Author : Susan Webb
Source : People's Weekly World Newspaper

04/03/2008

Consultation Paper - "War Powers & Treaties: Limiting Executive Powers" - Peacerights PDF

Author :
Source : Peacerights

04/03/2008

The three trillion dollar war

The cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts have grown to staggering proportions The Bush Administration was wrong about the benefits of the war and it was wrong about the costs of the war. The president and his advisers expected a quick, inexpensive conflict. Instead, we have a war that is costing more than anyone could have imagined. The cost of direct US military operations - not even including long-term costs such as taking care of wounded veterans - already exceeds the cost of the 12-year war in Vietnam and is more than double the cost of the Korean War. And, even in the best case scenario, these costs are projected to be almost ten times the cost of the first Gulf War, almost a third more than the cost of the Vietnam War, and twice that of the First World War. The only war in our history which cost more was the Second World War, when 16.3 million U.S. troops fought in a campaign lasting four years, at a total cost (in 2007 dollars, after adjusting for inflation) of about $5 trillion (that's $5 million million, or £2.5 million million). With virtually the entire armed forces committed to fighting the Germans and Japanese, the cost per troop (in today's dollars) was less than $100,000 in 2007 dollars. By contrast, the Iraq war is costing upward of $400,000 per troop. Most Americans have yet to feel these costs. The price in blood has been paid by our voluntary military and by hired contractors. The price in treasure has, in a sense, been financed entirely by borrowing. Taxes have not been raised to pay for it - in fact, taxes on the rich have actually fallen. Deficit spending gives the illusion that the laws of economics can be repealed, that we can have both guns and butter. But of course the laws are not repealed. The costs of the war are real even if they have been deferred, possibly to another generation.

Author : Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes
Source : The Times

04/03/2008

General David Petraeus reveals plans to scale back Iraq troops

General David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq, is drawing up plans to pull more troops out of the country after July on the back of a sharp drop in attacks and long-awaited progress on the political front. The suggestions, which will depend upon conditions on the ground, are due to be presented as part of a new report on Iraq to George Bush, the US President, towards the end of next month, which will be put before Congress by early April. All aboard for hope on the Basra express We have been tasked to provide input to the Central Command, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the [Defence] Secretary and the President on the way ahead, obviously on recommendations with respect to further draw-downs beyond those that will be complete by July, General Petraeus told The Times.

Author : Deborah Haynes
Source : The Times.

20/02/2008

Turkey Plans To Invade Northern Iraq

he Turkish military said it is setting the ground work for a large-scale ground invasion into northern Iraq targeting the Kurdistan Workers' Party. The military said the ground operation is the final strike against the Kurdistan Workers' Party, known by its Kurdish language initials of PKK. The operation follows airstrikes on the group in late 2007 and military officials said the operation is scheduled for mid-March, the English language Turkish daily, Today's Zaman said Monday.

Author :
Source : Post Chronicle

20/02/2008

Mosul Army commander asks Baath Party for help

Reported on Fatehoon, the commander of Mosul's campaign personally contacted the Baath Party military Bureau asking for help to mediates for the return of former army officers to fight al-Qaeda in the province. The news site reported that the commander gave assurances to those who are undecided that they will not be followed by the government after the campaign.

Author :
Source : uruknet.info

20/02/2008

US army 'stretched thin' by Iraq war

The Iraq war has strained the US military to the extent that America could not fight another large-scale war today, according to a new survey of military officers. Nine in 10 officers said the war had stretched the ­military “dangerously thin". However, 56 per cent disagreed with the suggestion that the conflict had “broken" the armed services, while 64 per cent said morale was high. More than 3,400 current and retired officers, including more than 200 generals and admirals, participated in the survey by Foreign Policy magazine and the Center for a New American Security, a centrist think-tank. The results underscore the concerns of officers about the strain that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have placed on the military. Of respondents, 60 per cent said the military was weaker today than five years ago.

Author : Demetri Sevastopulo
Source : FT

20/02/2008

US to have more troops in Iraq this summer

The United States will probably have more troops in Iraq this summer than it did before pouring in forces last year - even after a planned drawdown, a US general said on Friday. There were some 132,000 US troops in Iraq before Bush ordered a surge of about 30,000 more to curb rampant violence that threatened to plunge the country into all-out civil war. “It's likely that... the (total) number will be a little bit larger than the 132,000 or so that was the number of personnel on the ground pre-surge," said Army Lt. Gen. Carter Ham, director of operations on the Pentagon's Joint Staff. Sattler said he could not be more precise yet as commanders had still to complete their plans, but a Pentagon source said the number could be as high as 140,000. reuters

Author :
Source : Daily Times

20/02/2008

US 'surge' likely to end with more troops in Iraq than before: general

The US "surge" is likely to end in July with more troops in Iraq than the 132,000 that were there before five extra combat brigades were sent in more than a year ago, a senior Pentagon official said. Lieutenant General Carter Ham said that support forces and trainers that went in with the surge will still be needed to back up Iraq's expanding security forces after the last of the extra combat brigades leaves. "It's likely that the number will be a little bit larger than the 132,000 or so that was the number of personnel on the ground pre-surge," said Ham, who is the operations director of the Joint Staff. About 8,000 support troops were deployed to Iraq as part of the surge. Ham would not say whether 140,000 troops would be the upper limit of the post-surge US force.

Author : AFP
Source : Yahoo! News

20/02/2008

Delay for US-Iranian talks in Baghdad - but Ahmadinejad will visit

Iraqi and US officials said on Thursday that Tehran had asked for a delay in talks expected this week in Baghdad between the United States and Iran on the future of Iraq, while the Iraqi government later said that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would come to Baghdad on March 2 for the first visit ever by an Iranian president to the country. "The Iranian president will be visiting for two days, from March 2. He will be meeting with President Jalal Talabani and with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki," government spokes-man Ali al-Dabbagh told AFP. "He will be accompanied by a number of ministers."

Author : AFP
Source : Daily Star Lebanon

20/02/2008

The Three Trillion Dollar War

The Bush administration has spent a lot of money in Iraq since White House economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey was fired in 2002 for daring to predict the war might cost as much as $200 billion. An estimate issued last August by the Congressional Budget Office suggested the war will have cost at least $1 trillion before it's over. A September report (PDF) by the Democratic staff of Congress's Joint Economic Committee pegged the cost at $1.3 trillion. Now a new book by a Harvard professor and a Nobel Prize winner in economics claims the true cost could be more than twice that-as high as $3 trillion dollars. If you wanted to pay that off with a single wad of $1,000 bills, your billfold would have to be almost 240 miles wide. In The Three Trillion Dollar War, Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard's Linda Bilmes claim to have laid out the "true cost of the Iraq conflict." Instead of simply including appropriations costs and the estimated costs for the future care of soldiers, as most estimates do, Stiglitz and Bilmes take many other factors into account. They include the costs of paying the interest on the money we've borrowed to finance the war; the increased costs of recruiting and retaining soldiers given the fact there is a war on; the macroeconomic costs, like part of the increase in the cost of oil and the lost economic productivity from spending the money overseas instead of reinvesting it at home; and the cost to the economy of the loss of the dead and the seriously wounded and their caretakers, using a metric called a "Valued Statistical Life."

Author :
Source : Mother Jones

20/02/2008

Lords hear mothers' plea for Iraq inquiry

The mothers of two soldiers killed in Iraq are seeking an independent review of the legal grounds for joining the invasion Two grieving mothers whose sons were killed fighting for the British army in Iraq took their long-running battle to force a public inquiry into the legality of the war to the House of Lords this morning. Lawyers for Beverley Clarke and Rose Gentle will argue before an enlarged panel of nine law lords that the Government is obligated to hold an independent review of the decision to go to war under Article 2 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), which protects the "right to life". They will argue that the Government is bound by the convention to safeguard soldiers' lives by not sending them to fight in an illegal war. If the mothers win their appeal, it could result in Tony Blair, Lord Goldsmith, QC, the former Attorney-General, and Geoff Hoon, the former defence minister, called upon to give evidence in public.

Author : Michael Herman and PA
Source : The Times

20/02/2008

UK has left behind murder and chaos, says Basra police chief

Blunt assessment delivered as British hand over security to Iraqis The full scale of the chaos left behind by British forces in Basra was revealed yesterday as the city's police chief described a province in the grip of well-armed militias strong enough to overpower security forces and brutal enough to behead women considered not sufficiently Islamic. As British forces finally handed over security in Basra province, marking the end of 4½ years of control in southern Iraq, Major General Jalil Khalaf, the new police commander, said the occupation had left him with a situation close to mayhem. "They left me militia, they left me gangsters, and they left me all the troubles in the world," he said in an interview for Guardian Films and ITV.

Author : Mona Mahmoud, Maggie O'Kane and Ian Black
Source : The Guardian

20/02/2008

Minister signals inquiry into invasion

A government minister yesterday gave the clearest signal yet that there will be an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding Britain's participation in the US-led invasion of Iraq. Lord Malloch-Brown, the Foreign Office minister, told peers: "The time may come and, I suspect, definitively will come where such an inquiry is necessary. We ... have not yet reached that point. We still come back to the issue of not if there is an inquiry but when." Malloch-Brown, a former senior UN official and opponent of the invasion, said there needed to be "distance and perspective" to allow an inquiry to offer a "non-partisan source of analysis and advice for the future" that would "stand the test of time".

Author : Richard Norton-Taylor
Source : The Guardian

20/02/2008

Publish the secret document on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, ministers are told

Ministers were ordered yesterday to make public a secret document about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction that could shed light on the origins of the Government's claim that Saddam Hussein needed just 45 minutes to launch non-conventional warheads at British troops. The unpublished draft document was drawn up by John Williams, who in 2002, before the invasion of Iraq, was the head of information at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and one of the senior government spin-doctors. Yesterday the Information Tribunal ruled that the Williams report should be made public so that people could make their own judgment as to whether its contents could have influenced the official dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), including the 45-minute claim.

Author : Michael Evans
Source : The Times

20/02/2008

Only a full inquiry can avert another disaster like Iraq

The government must open up to find out why it could not foresee - and barely considered - the outcomes of occupation The two main opposition parties will make another valiant effort today in the House of Lords to persuade the government to hold an inquiry into why its pre-war analysis of Iraq was so badly wrong. Valiant, because several previous attempts, including in the Commons, have failed. The last try came close. The government defeated a motion by Welsh and Scottish nationalists by just 298 to 273 votes. That was in October 2006, and the then foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, used the spurious argument that an inquiry could send a dangerous signal to insurgents that Britain did not have the determination to stick it out in Iraq. It was the worst kind of macho plea: "Don't give aid and comfort to the enemy", an unmerited claim of security in order to censor discussion. The Beckett argument, even taken at face value, doesn't hold water. Britain has abandoned its military positions in central Basra in the year and a quarter since she spoke. Its remaining troops are huddled at the airport. They play only a minimal role. For Britain to hold an inquiry into the government's Iraq deliberations of 2002 and 2003 will make no difference to the safety of the last 2,500 troops still there. The government's other argument is that there have been at least four Iraq inquiries already: the Hutton inquiry, the Butler inquiry, and hearings by two parliamentary select committees. True, but they focused on only one part of the story - the accuracy of the intelligence on Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction and the way Downing Street used it.

Author : Jonathan Steele
Source : The Guardian

20/02/2008

Foreign Office told to give up WMD draft

An early draft of the government's discredited Iraq weapons dossier written by John Williams, a former journalist and head of the Foreign Office news department, must be released, the Information Tribunal ordered yesterday. The government has said the dossier was entirely the work of the intelligence agencies. Williams' role in the affair was not disclosed to the Hutton inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death of David Kelly, the government weapons expert who questioned the way the dossier was drawn up. The tribunal dismissed FCO claims that the release of the draft was not in the public interest. It said: "We do not accept that we should, in effect, treat the Hutton Report as the final word on the subject ... "Information has been placed before us, which was not before Lord Hutton, which may lead to questions as to whether the Williams' draft in fact played a greater part in influencing the drafting of the dossier than has previously been supposed. We make no comment on whether it did so in fact."

Author : Richard Norton-Taylor
Source : The Guardian

23/01/2008

General Says al-Qaida on the Run in Iraq

A top U.S. military commander in Iraq said Tuesday that troops have al-Qaida on the run but will never completely be finished chasing them "because they may always come back." Army Maj. Gen. Mark P. Hertling, commander of coalition forces in northern Iraq, said some 40 military operations in his area since the last week of December have killed more than 130 militants and netted more than 370 prisoners, including 40 so-called "high-value individuals." Expanding security in the four-province area has "caused significant damage" to al-Qaida, Hertling told a Pentagon news conference. And commanders have intelligence indicating the insurgents are "looking for a place to hide." "A year ago, we were often reacting to al-Qaida and what they were going to do next," Hertling said by videoconference from Iraq. "Now I think the tables have turned a little bit and they are attempting to react to where we're going to go next - and that's a critical difference."

Author : PAULINE JELINEK
Source : AP

23/01/2008

We're Fighting the Wrong War

Pity the U.S. presidential candidates. They had their positions on Iraq all worked out by last summer and have repeated them consistently ever since. But events on the ground have changed dramatically, and their rhetoric feels increasingly stale. They're fighting the Iraq War all right, but it's the wrong one. The Democrats are having the hardest time with the new reality. Every candidate is committed to "ending the war" and bringing our troops back home. The trouble is, the war has largely ended, and precisely because our troops are in the middle of it. From 2003 to 2005 the war in Iraq was defined by an insurgency. After the bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra in February 2006, it became largely a sectarian conflict. Now the dominant feature of the war is the proliferation of local ceasefires across the country. The real questions that candidates need to answer are these: How do they interpret this new reality? What would they do to maintain the new stability? What does all this mean for U.S. foreign and military policy in the next few years?

Author : Fareed Zakaria
Source : NewsWeek

23/01/2008

The tide has turned

Defeat in Iraq? Jonathan Steele has to make the picture fit his premise, but on the ground the surge is making a future without tyranny possible Jonathan Steele's account of the defeat of western intervention in Iraq must have seemed a good idea in conception. Steele now has to make the best of the circumstance that, while his book was in press, events undermined him. Barring a fleeting reference to the multinational force's success in suppressing al-Qaida, his article this week might have been written a year ago for all its acknowledgement of Iraq's recent history. I supported the Iraq war and would do so again. It was - to invoke Talleyrand's terminology - neither a crime nor a blunder to overthrow a gangster regime that was in breach of the UN security council resolutions (among many others) that marked the conditions for ceasefire in the first Gulf war in 1991. But it was nearly a failure. Culpable negligence by the Bush administration left post-Saddam Iraq without a functioning state. The combined forces of Baathism and jihadism (grotesquely lauded by some columnists on this newspaper as the "resistance") opportunistically filled that vacuum, with unmitigated barbarism and an appalling civilian death toll.

Author : Oliver Kamm
Source : The Guardian

23/01/2008

Britain 'as inept as US' in failing to foresee postwar Iraq insurgency

The government's top foreign policy advisers were as inept as their US counterparts in failing to see that removing Saddam Hussein in 2003 was likely to lead to a nationalist insurgency by Sunnis and Shias and an Islamist government in Baghdad, run by allies of Iran, the Guardian has learned. None of Whitehall's "Arabists" warned Tony Blair of the difficulties which have plagued the occupation. The revelation undermines the British claim that it was US myopia which was to blame for the failure to foresee what would happen in postwar Iraq. "Everyone was unprepared for the aftermath," a former ambassador, who served in the region at the time, told the Guardian. "To my shame I was in the complacent camp [in the Foreign Office]. We underestimated the insurgency. I didn't hear anyone say, 'It'll be a disaster, and it'll all come unstuck'. People felt it was a leap in the dark but not that we were staring disaster in the face."

Author : Jonathan Steele
Source : The Guardian

23/01/2008

Guys, I'm afraid we haven't got a clue ...

In the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, experts warned Tony Blair that occupying the country and trying to impose a western-style democracy was doomed to failure. He dismissed their objections, convinced that victory was a formality. In the first of three extracts from his new book, Jonathan Steele looks at how Britain went to war unbriefed, unprepared and with no idea of the fallout that would ensue On November 19 2002, four months before the invasion of Iraq, Tony Blair made a rare attempt to seek out expert views beyond the circle of his official advisers. Six distinguished academics were invited to Downing Street: three specialists on Iraq, and three on international security. George Joffe, an Arabist from Cambridge University, and Charles Tripp and Toby Dodge, who had both written books on Iraq's history, made opening statements of about five minutes each. They decided not to alienate the prime minister by discussing whether an invasion was sensible or necessary, but only what its consequences might be.

Author : Jonathan Steele
Source : The Guardian

23/01/2008

Both Tehran and Washington must swallow the rhetoric and seek a deal

If the US can reach an accommodation with Iran before quitting, there is still the chance of a tolerable outcome in Iraq A few months ago, I suggested here that all of us who are sceptics about Iraq should subject ourselves to regular brain scans, just in case we were wrong. That is to say, enthusiasm to see George Bush's nose rubbed in his follies must never tip over into eagerness for US failure in Iraq. Its consequences for the world, and above all for the Iraqi people, are far too grave to indulge schadenfreude. There are three reasons today to revisit our thinking about Iraq even if, at the end of the process, we end up back where we started. James Forysth rightly remarked in the Guardian's media pages yesterday that the British press has under-reported the success of the US troop surge. It is a notable achievement by General David Petraeus and his forces that insurgent attacks have fallen by two-thirds, and civilian fatalities have declined steeply. Second, Gordon Brown told British troops outside Basra at the weekend that their role is almost over. Within weeks responsibility for security in the southern province will pass to local Iraqi forces. Finally, last week's amazing US national intelligence estimate, which declared that Iran has no current nuclear weapons programme, could carry critical significance for Iraq. It removes the overriding obstacle to dialogue between Tehran and Washington, which itself is indispensable to stabilising Iraq.

Author : Max Hastings
Source : The Guardian

23/01/2008

New study says 151,000 Iraqi dead

One of the biggest surveys so far of Iraqis who have died violently since the US-led invasion of 2003 has put the figure at about 151,000. This is about a quarter of the figure given in a disputed Lancet article, but nearly three times higher than that of the Iraq Body Count campaigning group. The result is based on interviews with over 9,000 families across Iraq carried out by the health ministry for the WHO. The survey says more than half of all violent deaths were in Baghdad.

Author :
Source : BBC

23/01/2008

US targets al-Qaida insurgents with massive air strikes

The US launched a major air strike this morning against what it claimed were al-Qaida hideouts on the southern outskirts of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. Planes dropped 40,000lb (18,100kg) of explosives during a 10-minute blitz on 40 targets, according to a military statement. The attack, involving B-1 bombers and F-16 fighters, was part of operation Phantom Phoenix, a campaign launched on Tuesday against al-Qaida insurgents who have regrouped following the "surge" around Baghdad. "Thirty-eight bombs were dropped within the first 10 minutes, with a total tonnage of 40,000 pounds," the statement said.

Author : Matthew Weaver and Ian Black
Source : The Guardian

23/01/2008

Many diplomats disagree with US Iraq policy

Some 48% of US diplomats who would refuse to volunteer to work in Iraq cited disagreement with President George W Bush's policy as a factor, according to a survey released on Tuesday. That reason ranked behind separation from family and security concerns, according to a survey by their union, the American Foreign Service Association. In the survey in which 4,300 of the 11,500 US Foreign Service members responded, some 68% opposed forced assignments as unnecessary and undesirable. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stirred controversy late last year when she warned diplomats they would be forced to serve in Iraq or risk dismissal if not enough came forward. In the end, there were enough volunteers.

Author :
Source : Gulf Times

23/01/2008

Iraq's danger signals

The narrative of progress in the "war on terror" is belied by immediate events and longer-term trends in Iraq, Afghanistan and Algeria. The mood-music for several weeks in November-December 2007 has been of the cautious improvement of military and political prospects in the various leading fronts of George W Bush's "war on terror". The United States military surge in Iraq was clearly having some success; a febrile political situation in Pakistan was nonetheless contained, with violence in areas such as Swat being addressed; the winter was expected to see an easing of the conflict in Afghanistan; the Annapolis summit could be presented as a signal of progress in middle-east negotiations; and Iran's recalcitrance over its nuclear programmes meant that there seemed a real possibility of maintaining pressure on Tehran (via an economic squeeze, international support for a third round of United Nations sanctions, and the ultimate threat of military force). In combination, the domestic political impact of these events and trends in the US - especially when given a positive gloss by the establishment media - could be regarded as positive for the Republicans in the 2008 presidential campaign (albeit without agreement yet on the party's likely candidate).

Author : Paul Rogers
Source : Open Democracy

23/01/2008

A surge of their own: Iraqis take back the streets

Attacks plummet as Shias join Sunnis in neighbourhood patrols to tackle militants and reunite communities Under the embers of the wintry evening sun the Tigris river, usually as brown as old boots, had turned almost blood red. Its waters were calm but its oily sheen was disturbed by the oars of a rower as he sculled his way through the city's fractured heart. Alone and apparently indifferent to the threat of a sniper's bullet, Muhammad Rafiq eased up on his stroke rate and tacked over to the shore. He hauled his craft up the bank to a mosque - the temporary headquarters for his rowing club since US soldiers had commandeered its real boathouse in 2003. Inside the courtyard, his forehead beaded with sweat, Muhammad laid a few old blankets over his upturned boat and padlocked the oars to a railing. "My friends said I was mad when I started rowing," said the 22-year-old former science student. "They said I would be sharing the river with dead bodies and that people would shoot at me. But it keeps me fit and it keeps me focused for my night work." As dusk fell, he checked the contents of his kit bag, slung it over his shoulder and jumped into a waiting taxi.

Author : Michael Howard
Source : The Guardian

23/01/2008

Basra residents blame UK troops

More than 85% of the residents of Basra believe British troops have had a negative effect on the Iraqi province since 2003, an opinion poll suggests. The survey for BBC Newsnight of nearly 1,000 people also suggests that 56% believe their presence has increased the overall level of militia violence.

Author :
Source : BBC

23/01/2008

The way out of war: A blueprint for leaving Iraq now

Staying in Iraq is not an option. Many Americans who were among the most eager to invade Iraq now urge that we find a way out. These Americans include not only civilian “strategists" and other “hawks" but also senior military commanders and, perhaps most fervently, combat soldiers. Even some of those Iraqis regarded by our senior officials as the most pro-American are determined now to see American military personnel leave their country. Polls show that as few as 2 percent of Iraqis consider Americans to be liberators. This is the reality of the situation in Iraq. We must acknowledge the Iraqis' right to ask us to leave, and we should set a firm date by which to do so. We suggest that phased withdrawal should begin on or before December 31, 2006, with the promise to make every effort to complete it by June 30, 2007.

Author : George S. McGovern and William Roe Polk
Source : Harpers

23/01/2008

What is the point of our last troops in Iraq, ask MPs

The presence of only 2,500 British troops in Iraq from next spring could make it impossible for them to carry out any useful function other than to protect themselves from attack, a committee of MPs said yesterday. The Commons Defence Committee cast doubt on the Government's plan to reduce the number of troops from 5,000 to 2,500 next year. The cutback was announced by Gordon Brown in the Commons last month. The committee's scepticism was supported yesterday by a senior army commander who told The Times: “There is no point in having just 2,500 troops in Iraq. The minimum you need both for force protection and for continuing with training the Iraqi security forces is around 5,000. So you either keep 5,000 there or you withdraw the lot, which is what we suggested to the Government.

Author : Michael Evans
Source : The Times

23/01/2008

Undiagnosed brain injury - the hidden legacy of Iraq

MoD begins study amid fears that up to 20,000 soldiers may be affected The Ministry of Defence is conducting a major study into brain injury in troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan amid fears that thousands of soldiers may have suffered damage after being exposed to high-velocity explosions. The US army says as many as 20% of its soldiers and marines have suffered "mild traumatic brain injury" (mTBI) from blows to the head or shockwaves caused by explosions. The condition, which can lead to memory loss, depression and anxiety, has been designated as one of four "signature injuries" of the Iraq conflict by the US department of defence, which is introducing a large-scale screening programme for troops returning from the frontline.

Author : Matthew Taylor and Esther Addley
Source : The Guardian

23/01/2008

We will fight to the death, Kurdish rebel leader vows from his hideout

War will spread to Turkish cities if his Iraq bases are attacked, PKK chief tells The Times Sipping milky coffee from a glass mug as he sat crosslegged on a cushion, the Kurdish rebel commander cut more of a kindly father figure than that of a fighter preparing to defend his cause to the death against Turkey.

Author : Deborah Haynes
Source : The Times