Today in Iraq

War News for March 30, 2004 draft Bring ‘em on: Arab newspapers report six US soldiers killed by roadside bomb in Samarra. This is the only source reporting this story. Bring ‘em on: One US soldier killed in roadside bomb ambush near Fallujah. Bring ‘em on: Two British soldiers wounded in Basra rioting. Bring ‘em on: Iraqi policeman wounded in Baghdad grenade attack. (Last paragraph.) Bring ‘em on: Suicide bomber attempted to assassinate Iraqi police chief near Hilla. Bring ‘em on: Three Iraqi policemen wounded in Najaf riots. Bring ‘em on: Two killed in attempted assassination of Iraqi police chief near Mosul. Bring ‘em on: One US soldier wounded by RPG fire in Diyala province. CPA forced newspaper closure causes protests in Baghdad. Islamic fundamentalists target Iraqi academics. A rise of religious fundamentalism is terrorizing the Iraqi academic community, and threatening to roll back the gains in academic freedom made by university presidents and their advisers from the United States since the end of the war. Sounds like the conservative fundies at our very own Campus Watch. Remember that BBC poll? So how did ORI weight its sample for class and religion, to achieve results that, according to the BBC, ‘reflected Iraq's distribution of population, balance between men and women, and religious and ethnic mix’? It didn't. Director Christoph Sahm said it was weighted by governorate (Iraq's 18 regions), by distribution between urban and rural areas, and by age. So there was no weighting by social factors? ‘How would you do that?’ he says.” Check out Chalabi’s popularity vis-à-vis Saddam Hussein at the end of the article. Prime Minister Chalabi. "If Chalabi's fast track to power is not derailed and he becomes prime minister in July, the president won't be able to fire him unless his two deputies agree. The provisional constitution seems tailor-made for Chalabi to call the shots into 2005. As head of the Governing Council's economic and finance committee, Chalabi has already maneuvered loyalists into key Cabinet positions in the provisional authority -- finance, oil, and trade. The Central Bank Governor, the head of the trade bank and the managing director of the largest commercial bank also owe their positions to Chalabi's influence." Clueless “From the state of Iowa, the Deutsch family received a perfectly folded American flag that flew for one day in Michael's honor above the Capitol in Des Moines. And from the White House came a letter of condolence signed by President Bush. Two letters, actually. ‘The exact same one, twice,’ Wayne Deutsch noted dryly, sitting at the kitchen table of their wood-frame house in Dubuque's working-class North End neighborhood. ‘What does that tell you? It was a form letter.’… Ilene Deutsch listened to her husband's lament as she stood by the kitchen stove. For several hours, she had politely refrained from answering questions about the politics of the war. She was afraid of what she might say. Now it came flooding out, along with the tears. ‘They didn't have a clue what was going to happen once the war was over. No anticipation. Bush had no idea,’ she said. ‘I don't like George Bush. We are listed as independents, but I will never vote for him. Surely he didn't look at the long range. . . . He didn't have a clue.’” Commentary Analysis: “The spectacle speaks for itself. If President Bush wants to install democracy, as he claims morning and evening, what is happening on the ground is proving the contrary. The law of the jungle, assassinations, liquidation, violations of the social fabric in this predominantly Arab country, with a gradual slide towards its historic fragmentation, and it is no secret that the odor of civil war is becoming strong. Sunnite ulema have been killed and mosques burned. In the same way, Shiite imams have been shot down and husseiniyat have been set on fire.” Analysis: The President, influenced by the spectacle of collapsing skyscrapers, had barely declared his ‘War on Terrorism’ when his closest advisor, Karl Rove, often referred to as ‘Bush's brain,’ began developing a campaign strategy. The 2002 midterm elections and, more importantly, the President's campaign for reelection two years later, were to be conducted entirely ‘within the context of the war.’” Casualty Reports Local story: Florida soldier killed in Iraq. Local story: Texas Marine killed in Iraq. Local story: Massachusetts Marine killed in Iraq. Local story: New Jersey soldier killed in Iraq. Local story: Texas Marine killed in Iraq. Local story: New York Marine dies in Kuwait. Local story: New Jersey soldier dies in Iraq. Local story: Florida soldier wounded in Iraq. Local story: Texas Marine wounded in Iraq. Local story: Illinois Department of the Army civilian wounded in Iraq.