Today in Iraq

War News for January 27, 2004 Bring 'em on: US convoy attacked, relief force ambushed in Khaldiyah. Three US soldiers killed. Bring 'em on: Polish headquarters attacked in Karbala. One Iraqi policeman killed. Bring 'em on: CPA headquarters in Baghdad rocketed. Bring 'em on: Seven Iraqi police officers killed in two attacks in Ramadi. Bring 'em on: One Iraqi civilian wounded by roadside bomb in Baghdad. Bring 'em on: Two Iraqi policemen killed in attack on checkpoint near Al-Amiriyah. Bring 'em on: Two Iraqi civilians killed by roadside bomb in Baghdad. Bring 'em on: Drive-by shooting at home of Karbala police chief kills one Iraqi policeman. Bring 'em on: US troops in Kirkuk mortared for second day. Analysis: Insurgency a result of botched US occupation. Bushies squabbling over Operation Cut and Run. "Vice President Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld favor a proposal to turn over power early - by April 1 - to the Governing Council, a body of U.S.-installed Iraqi leaders, said two senior U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity… The State Department, the National Security Council staff, and the CIA oppose the idea, the officials said. National security adviser Condoleezza Rice and senior U.S. diplomats prefer a 'go slow' approach, said the second senior U.S. official." Now who do you suppose will make a decision on this issue? IGC interim interior minister says Iraq not stable enough for elections. I wonder if he ever got his suitcase full of new dinars back from the Beirut customs office? Analysis: Sunni instability in Iraq. "The downfall of Saddam Hussein has exposed deep-rooted centrifugal forces in Iraq. One of the achievements of the former Baathist regime was its tentative success in submerging the inherent tensions of Iraqi identity into a wider pan-Arab unity. The rapid disintegration of the regime after the US military onslaught and Saddam’s humiliating capture arguably destroyed the last surviving plank of Arab nationalism." Report on female US soldiers serving in Iraq. Bremer's CPA has the ponies running again. Who says I don't report the success stories? Death of an Iraqi policeman. Compensation for Iraqis. "Nooraddin, 72, has been visiting United States military offices and waiting for word for nearly four months, trying to win compensation under the Foreign Claims Act (FCA) after his 38-year-old son, Mazen, was shot and killed by US soldiers on June 28 as he waited for a taxi near his home. Mazen was sprayed by bullets fired by a US soldier in response to a machine gun attack by men standing more than 100 feet away. A 200-foot wide swath of bullet holes is still evident on the walls and houses of the street where Mazen was killed." In comparison, I wonder how are Halliburton's reimbursement and compensation claims are handled? Short-timers in Mosul. Commentary Editorial: How to lose the war on terror. "The vice-president of the United States, Dick Cheney, spoke rather elegantly this weekend in Davos, Switzerland, about the strategic importance of promoting democracy throughout the Middle East. He said that 'encouraging the spread of freedom and democracy” in the Middle East “is the right thing to do, and it is also very much in our collective interest. Helping the peoples of the greater Middle East to overcome the freedom deficit is, ultimately, the key to winning the broader war on terror. It is one of the great tasks of our time and will require resolve and resources for a generation or more.' We agree. But we’re also getting slightly worried that the American government may feel that promoting democracy in the Middle East is primarily the responsibility of eloquent speechwriters in Washington, rather than a function of American policies on the ground in the region itself." Opinion: The fiasco in Baghdad is Bush's blue dress. "In no previous instance of presidential malfeasance was so much at stake, both in preserving constitutional safeguards and national security. This egregious deception in leading us to war on phony intelligence overshadows those scandals based on greed, such as Teapot Dome during the Harding administration, or those aimed at political opponents, such as Watergate. And the White House continues to dig itself deeper into a hole by denying reality even as its lieutenants one by one find the courage to speak the truth." Opinion: Did Baghdad Bob write Bush's SOTU? "Like with Baghdad Bob, you had to laugh out loud at the difference between the phony world painted by George Bush and the real world most Americans live in. There are, indeed, two Americas: George Bush’s America and the real America. And, as we learned in the State of the Union, the two are worlds apart." Editorial: It's time to formally investigate Bush's deceitful WMD claims. "It seems that President Bush cannot deliver a State of the Union address without deceiving the American people. Or, at the least, trying to deceive them." Casualty Reports Local story: New Hampshire soldier killed in Iraq. Local story: Texas soldier killed in Iraq.