Today in Iraq

War News for Sunday, November 21, 2004 Bring ‘em on: Oil wells sabotaged near Kirkuk. Bring ‘em on: Five US soldiers wounded in car bombing on Baghdad airport road. Bring ‘em on: Two US Marines killed, four wounded in ambush near Fallujah. Bring ‘em on: Nine Iraqis killed in heavy fighting near Ramadi. Bring ‘em on: Iraqi police general survives assassination attempt in Hilla. Bring ‘em on: Seven Iraqis killed by US fire in Ramadi. Bring ‘em on: Two ING soldiers wounded by roadside bomb near Samarra. Bring ‘em on: Fighting reported in Latifiyah after insurgents demolish bridge, power lines. Cheneyburton. “Halliburton Co. truck drivers Tim Bell and Bill Bradley disappeared April 9 when their convoy was attacked west of Baghdad. Did they die at the scene? Were they captured? Is there reason for hope? No one will say. Like those of many contractors caught in the violence of Iraq, their fates are shrouded in mystery. The Army has conducted an investigation into the ambush, but the report is classified. Pentagon officials refused to discuss its contents, directing questions to Halliburton. The company referred questions back to the Pentagon. ‘We have done everything in our power to find information and found that we are hitting a brick wall,’ Bradley's family wrote in an e-mail to the Houston Chronicle. ‘We are crushed.’” Progress report. “After the rate of acute malnutrition among children younger than 5 steadily declined to 4 percent two years ago, it shot up to 7.7 percent this year, according to a study conducted by Iraq's Health Ministry in cooperation with Norway's Institute for Applied International Studies and the U.N. Development Program. The new figure translates to roughly 400,000 Iraqi children suffering from ‘wasting,’ a condition characterized by chronic diarrhea and dangerous deficiencies of protein.” Migration. “’Iraq is my country, and I didn't want to leave,’ he added as he took his son for a haircut in one of the wealthy Amman neighborhoods favored by Jordan's new refugees. ‘If the situation gets better, I will go back, but I think it will get worse.’ In recent months, tens of thousands of Iraqis have made similar decisions, some spurred by the hazards of daily life in Iraq, some by their personal experiences of kidnapping or armed robbery, and others simply because they see no future in a country that seems to grow more violent with each passing day. Many of those who are leaving are taking with them the skills, the capital and the expertise that Iraq will need whenever the country becomes stable enough to start the still-stalled process of reconstruction.” Commentary Opinion: “Kerry's studiously confused position was not, or not just, a politician stratagem. It was an accurate reflection of the views of his constituency. Most of them deplore the war, but only a tiny fraction favor an immediate pullout. Anyone who opposes the war but isn't ready to demand peace needs to answer the question ‘Why on Earth not?’ There are answers, possibly even adequate answers. But none of them shines with the kind of obvious truth that makes the question unnecessary, let alone uninteresting, which is how it is being treated. The answers fall in two categories, each associated with a secretary of state.” Analysis: “Gonzales is perhaps best known for a controversial January 2002 memorandum to the president in which he argued that Geneva Convention proscriptions on torture did not apply to Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners, and that the conventions are, in fact, ‘obsolete.’ This interpretation of international law, which many have linked to the abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison, will no doubt be a focus of confirmation hearings. Senators might also want to quiz Gonzales about a less well-known June 1997 memo involving another treaty, the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. Written when Gonzales was counsel to then-Gov. George W. Bush, the memo puts forward the novel view that because the state of Texas was not a signatory to the Vienna Convention, it need not abide by the treaty. Or, put another way, Texas is not bound by Article VI of the Constitution, which states that U.S. treaties are ‘the supreme Law of the Land.’” Casualty Reports Local story: Florida Marine killed in Iraq. Local story: New Jersey Marine killed in Iraq. Local story: Florida Marine killed in Iraq. Local story: Indiana Marine killed in Iraq. Local story: West Virginia Marine killed in Iraq. Local story: Nevada soldier wounded in Iraq. Local story: Connecticut Marine wounded in Iraq. Local story: Ohio soldier wounded in Iraq. Local story: Florida Marine wounded in Iraq. Local story: Idaho Marine wounded in Iraq. Local story: Massachusetts Marine wounded in Iraq. Local story: Indiana soldier wounded in Iraq. Local story: Louisiana Marine wounded in Iraq. Local story: Two Ohio soldiers wounded in Iraq.