Actually there is a very good compromise available. The U.S. will not be selling Iraq any military equipment that NATO member Turkey has not been deploying for years. The Turks, as the big economic winner of the Iraq war, already have a big commercial presence in Iraq and can provide any necessary training.
I think my post below might at least partially answer your question. I have been in conversion with a few DOS personnel at the American "Vatican" in Baghdad. They are laughable over staffed and have almost nothing constructive to do. (see http://www.amazon.com/We-Meant-Well-American-Project/dp/0805094369 ) My PSC friends are nothing like Blackwater's out of control cowboys, they are professional and go out of their way to be culturally sensitive and maintain good relations with the local Iraqis. Yet even they say the Iraqis are probable not going to tolerate white faces with guns driving pavement crushing armored convoys on Iraqi streets and highways after the first of the year. What ever the State Department may be planing, the Iraqis may have other ideas.
Looks like we may have Eric Prince and Judge Ricardo Urbina to thank for getting the military completely out of Iraq once and for all. I bet they also put the kibosh on most of the DOS plans for future operations in Iraq. I have a friend who is currently doing DOS personal security details in Basra and the GOI has got them on a very very tight leash.
Sorry I prefer to believe my own lying eyes thank you very much. Too bad we won't get to see any of those videos that would support your ridiculous contentions. All foreign journalists are in the process of being expelled and domestic journalists are being violently attacked and jailed by the regime.
This is all heady stuff and of absolutely historic significance but I was wondering if you might spare at least one post to give your impression of the powder keg that is about to blow in Pakistan.
I find it interesting that the New York Times about a week ago stopped publishing stories based on the Wikileaks. They stopped cold turkey after the gas bags in Congress started making threatening noises. The New York Times has become a shriveled up caricature of the great journalistic institution it once was.
Thankfully we still have the British papers and blogs like this one that can run with stories as important as the BP story unquestionably is while The New York Times can go right along safely publishing the official government line.
It's a shame but as long as the $Billions keep flowing from U.S. taxpayers to the Israeli treasury the Israelis won't give a rip what the rest of the world thinks.
Actually there is a very good compromise available. The U.S. will not be selling Iraq any military equipment that NATO member Turkey has not been deploying for years. The Turks, as the big economic winner of the Iraq war, already have a big commercial presence in Iraq and can provide any necessary training.
I think my post below might at least partially answer your question. I have been in conversion with a few DOS personnel at the American "Vatican" in Baghdad. They are laughable over staffed and have almost nothing constructive to do. (see http://www.amazon.com/We-Meant-Well-American-Project/dp/0805094369 ) My PSC friends are nothing like Blackwater's out of control cowboys, they are professional and go out of their way to be culturally sensitive and maintain good relations with the local Iraqis. Yet even they say the Iraqis are probable not going to tolerate white faces with guns driving pavement crushing armored convoys on Iraqi streets and highways after the first of the year. What ever the State Department may be planing, the Iraqis may have other ideas.
Looks like we may have Eric Prince and Judge Ricardo Urbina to thank for getting the military completely out of Iraq once and for all. I bet they also put the kibosh on most of the DOS plans for future operations in Iraq. I have a friend who is currently doing DOS personal security details in Basra and the GOI has got them on a very very tight leash.
Sorry I prefer to believe my own lying eyes thank you very much. Too bad we won't get to see any of those videos that would support your ridiculous contentions. All foreign journalists are in the process of being expelled and domestic journalists are being violently attacked and jailed by the regime.
This is all heady stuff and of absolutely historic significance but I was wondering if you might spare at least one post to give your impression of the powder keg that is about to blow in Pakistan.
I find it interesting that the New York Times about a week ago stopped publishing stories based on the Wikileaks. They stopped cold turkey after the gas bags in Congress started making threatening noises. The New York Times has become a shriveled up caricature of the great journalistic institution it once was.
Thankfully we still have the British papers and blogs like this one that can run with stories as important as the BP story unquestionably is while The New York Times can go right along safely publishing the official government line.
You just don't get it. Palestinians have been squatting for a thousand years on land that God says belongs to right wing Russian Jewish immigrants.
It's a shame but as long as the $Billions keep flowing from U.S. taxpayers to the Israeli treasury the Israelis won't give a rip what the rest of the world thinks.