Archives for December 2005

Guest Editorial by Fisher: State Dept. Replaces DoD in Iraq IRAQ RECONSTRUCTION: STATE IN, PENTAGON OUT By William Fisher After a thousand days of widely acknowledged failure in the job of rebuilding Iraq, the Department of Defense has quietly been relieved of that responsibility, with the State Department taking over as America’s lead reconstruction agency […]

Sunnis Seek Negotiations with Shiite Parties Saddam says Americans Lied Saddam Hussein took advantage of being before the cameras again on Thursday to engage in some grandstanding. He reiterated charges that he had been beaten and tortured by the Americans, allegations that Washington had denied. He called the Bush administration congenital liars, pointing to their […]

Iraq Update Bulgaria and the Ukraine began their pull-out of troops from Iraq. For real news, go to the San Francisco Chronicle. Robert Scheer points out that Iran yet again won the Iraqi elections. (It should be remembered that Jalal Talabani, the Kurdish leader, is also a close ally of Tehran.) Private militias continue to […]

A Republic, If you Can Keep It Congress has banned harsh treatment of terrorism suspects in US custody and demanded a quarterly report on such activities. People like Dick Cheney who favor an imperial presidency should remember that Congress funds the government, and they don’t have to fund unconstitutional measures. that Dick had to interrupt […]

Shiite Religious Parties dominate 10 of 18 Provinces Talabani calls for Government of National Unity The Los Angeles Times reports that the secular Iraqiya list of Iyad Allawi so far seems only to have 8% of the seats in the new parliament, though that tally may increase slightly when the 230,000 or so votes of […]

Fundamentalist Shiites Will Dominate New Parliament Secularists Lose Badly Bush Poll Numbers on Iraq Fall The American public is not in a mood to be swayed by mere speeches or yet more “milestones” like the election in Iraq. All the recent brouhaha has not improved Bush’s poll numbers. As always, it is best to click […]

Arato Guest Editorial on the Election Election, Government Formation and the Question of Historic Compromise in Iraq Andrew Arato “In the midst of the great noise of December 15, 2005 the electoral outcome is rather predictable, within a small range. Not so government formation where even small differences in electoral results could make a huge […]

Demonstrations over Fuel Price Increases in Iraq Al-Zaman: Now that the elections are safely over, the government of Ibrahim Jaafari has tripled the price of gasoline and made substantial increases in the price of gas and heating oil, in contravention of its campaign promises. Hundreds of demonstrators came out in Kut and Karbala to protest […]

The Bushist Police State and Interlibrary Loan “Alice: While you talk, he’s gone!More: And go he should, if he was the Devil himself, until he broke the law!Roper: So now you’d give the Devil benefit of law!More: Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?Roper: I’d […]