American EntropyAmerican EntropyA progressive political blog with a focus on foreign affairs. Articles
Links for 2008-03-18 [del.icio.us]
2008-03-19 06:00:00 Sunnis Boycott Iraq Reconciliation Event [Progress?] Iraq's main Sunni bloc boycotted a conference Tuesday aimed at reconciling the nation's sectarian groups, a sign of the deep schisms still facing this country. Members of the Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front said they would not participate in the More About: Links , 2008
Links for 2008-03-14 [del.icio.us]
2008-03-15 06:00:00 Petraeus: Iraqi Leaders Not Making 'Sufficient Progress' Pretty sure David "pants on fire" petraeus said that the Iraqi gov't was using the surge to progress... Must be time to face congress again. More About: Links , 2008
Links for 2008-03-12 [del.icio.us]
2008-03-13 06:00:00 Data on violence point to stalemate in Iraq Newly declassified statistics on the frequency of insurgent attacks in Iraq suggest that after major security gains last fall in the wake of an American troop increase, the conflict has drifted into at least a temporary stalemate, with levels of violence More About: Links , 2008
Links for 2008-03-07 [del.icio.us]
2008-03-08 07:00:00 McCain's Consistent Folly on Iraq McCain portrays himself as uniquely clear-eyed about the war. In fact, those eyes have often been full of stars. More About: Links , 2008
Links for 2008-02-27 [del.icio.us]
2008-02-28 07:00:00 Iraqi Council Strikes Down Key Law ...a major setback to U.S.-backed efforts to promote national reconciliation. The ruling came despite a reported last-minute telephone call by Vice President Dick Cheney to the main holdout on the three-member panel, which has to sign off on laws passed b More About: Links , 2008
Links for 2008-02-21 [del.icio.us]
2008-02-22 07:00:00 Religious hard-liners out in Pakistan voters in turbulent North West Frontier Province, which borders Afghanistan, gave their support to secular parties that promised to pave the streets, create jobs and bring peace through dialogue and economic incentives to the extremists. That may conflict More About: Links , 2008
Links for 2008-02-20 [del.icio.us]
2008-02-21 07:00:00 For McCain, Self-Confidence on Ethics Poses Its Own Risk A female lobbyist had been turning up with McCain at fund-raisers, visiting his offices and accompanying him on a client’s corporate jet. Convinced the relationship had become romantic, some of his top advisers intervened to protect the candidate from h US: Bombers Didn't Have Down Syndrome The U.S. military said Wednesday that two women used as suicide bombers in attacks earlier this month had undergone psychiatric treatment but there is no indication they had Down syndrome as Iraqi and U.S. officials initially had claimed. More About: Links , 2008
Links for 2008-01-24 [del.icio.us]
2008-01-25 07:00:00 Second Baker-Hamilton waiting on Baker Legislation pushed by Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), which is now law, directs the U.S. Institute of Peace to support a second version of the commission that would send former Rep. Lee Hamilton and former Secretary of State James Baker III and two other commiss More About: Links , 2008
Links for 2008-01-23 [del.icio.us]
2008-01-24 07:00:00 Study: False Statements Preceded War President Bush and top administration officials issued hundreds [935] of false statements about the national security threat from Iraq in the two years following the 2001 terrorist attacks. Pentagon Weighs Top Iraq General as NATO Chief The Pentagon is considering Gen. David H. Petraeus for the top NATO command later this year, a move that would give the general, the top American commander in Iraq, a high-level post during the next administration More About: Links , 2008
SC Dem Debate Live Thread
2008-01-22 02:05:00 Has been started here...and here...Posted by Geoff More About: Debate , Live , Thread
Myrtle Beach Debate II
2008-01-21 23:18:00 So I'm in the press filing center waiting to eat our free meal. I'm surrounded by the "liberal media" if you listen to the goofball behind me. An anti-Hillary guy is running around here trying to push the Central America-CIA-cocaine connection... Anyway. This debate is crucial. The polls predict an Obama win Saturday but you have to remember New Hampshire. The most recent polls have Obama at around 45%, Hillary in the 30s and Edwards in the teens. Grain of salt. I'd be interested in a poll of people in SC that are undecided going into this debate and the primary. I personally am hoping Obama does well. I saw him first as an intern at the Center for America Progress and was impressed. since then he grew on me. The fact that he did not vote for the authorization to use force on/in Iraq all but wins him my vote. But the idea of another Clinton presidency scares me. I'm tired of Bush and Clintons running our country. We had the end of Reagan which was basically a H. ... More About: Beach , Debate , Myrtle Beach , Myrtle
The Democratic Primary Debate in Myrtle Beach, SC
2008-01-21 19:05:00 As I indicated a few days ago, I'm working the SC Democratic Debate with SCETV and will be doing some blogging along the way...First things I noticed this morning is how different this is when compared to the first SC debate I covered (here is the first post from that debate). For one thing the world will be watching as this is the last debate in SC before the Democratic Primary this coming Saturday. Another is the weather. It's nice here. Sunny, beautiful clear blue sky. And near freezing. The candidates should be used to this considering Iowa and New Hampshire's weather this time of the year, but I'm sure they were hoping for some warmer weather as a break. Well they aren't going to get it. It's cold here. Standing water is frozen. Coats are mandatory.So far I've only picked up our credentials and visited the debate hall. This event is being held in the Myrtle Beach tourist-trap known as Broadway on the Beach. Along 17 near where Planet Hollywood is. The press ... More About: Myrtle Beach
Links for 2008-01-17 [del.icio.us]
2008-01-18 07:00:00 Iraqi Spending to Rebuild Has Slowed, Report Says [More lies? Noooo...] ...the administration said, Iraq had spent some 24 percent of $10 billion set aside for reconstruction that year. ...the accountability office said official Iraqi Finance Ministry records showed that Iraq had spent only 4.4 percent Awakenings Update More About: Links , 2008
Another Republican aiding and abetting the enemy?
2008-01-17 18:29:00 This is yet one more instance in which a Republican operative or politician is accused of supporting terrorist activities. First it was Yasith Chhun, a member of and fund raiser for the Cambodian Freedom Fighters. The CFF is designated a terrorist organization by the State Department and Chhun is charged with "attempting to kill the prime minister, attack government buildings and launch small-scale attacks on karaoke bars and fuel depots" in order to destabilize the Cambodian government. Chhun also raised $6,550 for the National Republican Congressional Committee and had a role on the NRCC Business Advisory Council.Then there's the case of Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari. This individual was arrested in February 2007 for terrorism financing and material support of terrorism. He was also a NRCC fund raiser and a lifetime member of the National Republican Senate Committee's Inner Circle. (Read more here and here.) Ali Alishtari raised $15,000 for the Republican party in the 2... More About: Enemy , The Enemy
Republican-voting squirrel-eating truck drivers
2008-01-16 18:08:00 Well Mike Huckabee may be a very spiritual guy and a potential Republican presidential candidate but he has at least two other contenders in his party with a legitimate bead on the nomination as well and maybe more in the coming weeks. This includes South Carolina. For the most part the religious right loves him. There are many reasons for this including the Baptist Minister card and the Ayatollah-esque proclamation to amend the Constitution to fit his impressions of what "God's standards". These points indicate that he'll do well in SC Saturday. To be sure, someone, on his behalf, started push-polling SC voters and criticizing Huck's rivals. One would hope citizens in SC have learned to see through such tactics (which SC law prohibits, by the way). Or perhaps people will consider that these tactics are illegal and hold that against the Huck-ster. I'm not holding my breath.But none of this really matters. SC is Huck territory, according to Huck:"South Carolina's a grea... More About: Drivers , Truck , Voting , Eating
Links for 2008-01-15 [del.icio.us]
2008-01-16 07:00:00 New Iraqi Law on Baath Worries Ex-Baathists The headlines are all saying that the law permits Baathists back into public life. It seems actually to demand that they be fired or retired on a pension, and any who are employed are excluded from sensitive ministries. Ex-Baathists Get a Break. Or Do They? the legislation is at once confusing and controversial, a document riddled with loopholes and caveats to the point that some Sunni and Shiite officials say it could actually exclude more former Baathists than it lets back in, particularly in the crucial s More About: Links , 2008
Blowback: Once in Pakistan. Twice in Pakistan. Next from Iraq?
2008-01-15 20:14:00 I'm not the first one to suggest that the so-called "Anbar Awakening" is precisely the type of policy that invites blowback (read here for more about blowback) and I won't be the last.Time will tell if the Awakening is as bad a move as many believe it is. Don' get me wrong, it's an improvment but is it thought out? One of the big problems with this administration is that is lives in the present. It wants only to look good now and doesn't care about consider what will happen down the road (long or short). It used to be that they could spin their error around using the media and their devotees like Fox News and conservative bloggers. now they'll just pass it along to the next administration. Who ever the next president is will have plenty to deal with coming out of Iraq .Retuning to blowback, this NYT article highlights one point: Blowback is not an American phenomon.Here's a snip:Pakistan ’s premier military intelligence agency has lost control of some of the networks of ...
Links for 2008-01-14 [del.icio.us]
2008-01-15 07:00:00 Iraq Eases Curb for Former Officials of Hussein’s Party The Iraqi Parliament passed a bill on Saturday that would allow some former officials from Saddam Hussein’s party to fill government positions but would impose a strict ban on others. The legislation is the first of the major so-called political benchma More About: Links , 2008
Photos: Barack Obama visits the College
2008-01-14 16:18:00 I'm a bit late on this but here are some pics I snapped while filming the recent visit by Senator and presidential candidate-hopeful Barack Obama to the College of Charleston (full video at the Bully Pulpit website).If you're interested, here are some photos from the July Democratic debate and the Citadel in Charleston: Pre-debate, Part I, Part II and Part III.On that note. There is a good possibility that I'll be at the next Democratic debate in Myrtle Beach a week from now. Stay tuned...Posted by Geoff More About: Photos
Links for 2008-01-11 [del.icio.us]
2008-01-12 07:00:00 Bush Offers Peacemaking Checklist ["Checklist"??? I guess it isn't politically expedient to call them Benchmarks... considering how those Benchmarks are coming along in Iraq.] More About: Links , 2008
Links for 2008-01-10 [del.icio.us]
2008-01-11 07:00:00 Bush Predicts Mideast Treaty Completion President Bush on Thursday predicted that a Mideast peace treaty would be completed by the time he leaves [office]... More About: Links , 2008
Baghdad, Iraq: The City of Sectarian Lights
2007-12-12 03:49:00 AP:Strings of bulbs festooning the Imam Kazim shrine's four majestic minarets light up the sky over Baghdad 's Shiite Kazimiyah neighborhood, attracting thousands of nighttime worshippers. Coffee houses and restaurants are packed with customers along nearby streets, where turbaned clerics, chador-clad women and families buy furniture, toys and clothes in teeming shops. The district's gold market, the largest in the city, does brisk business until well after dusk.But a drive from Kazimiyah over an unlit Tigris River bridge into Azamiyah, a Sunni stronghold, reveals only darkness and no signs of life along the main road. What nightlife does exist is confined to a walled area of about two square miles heavily patrolled by U.S. troops. One glaring exception: Kasrah, a Shiite enclave, with its lively outdoor market and coffee houses.Night is the time when the Shiite dominance of the capital becomes most apparent following the sectarian "battle of Baghdad," which displaced tens of ... More About: Iraq , City , Lights , Baghdad, Iraq
Links for 2007-11-27 [del.icio.us]
2007-11-28 07:00:00 U.S. Scales Back Political Goals for Iraqi Unity the Bush administration has lowered its expectation of quickly achieving major steps toward unifying the country US, Iraq Deal Sees Long-Term US Presence The agreement between Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki confirms that the United States and Iraq will hash out an "enduring" relationship in military, economic and political terms. Details of that relationship will be negotiated in 2008, with More About: Links
Links for 2007-11-20 [del.icio.us]
2007-11-21 07:00:00 Iraqi Kurds flex muscles over black gold reserves The [Kurdish] authority has signed 20 contracts during the last three months and shows no sign of changing course Northern Iraq Most Violent Region Despite a decline in violence in Iraq, Northern Iraq has become more violent than other regions as al-Qaida and other militants move there to avoid coalition operations elsewhere... Victory Will Come as in Cold War, Rumsfeld Predicts Mr. Rumsfeld said the current war is similar to the Cold War, and that America's victory depends on assisting moderate Muslims against extremists and on reforming the domestic and international institutions forged after World War II. More About: Links
Links for 2007-11-17 [del.icio.us]
2007-11-18 07:00:00 In Basra, violence is a tenth of what it was before British pullback, general says [one point for strategic redeployment, zero for the Bush administrations "surge"... actually -1; they've allowed hundreds of our soldiers to be killed.] More About: Links
Links for 2007-11-16 [del.icio.us]
2007-11-17 07:00:00 U.S. Is Looking Past Musharraf in Case He Falls foreign diplomats and aides to both leaders said the chances of a deal between the leaders were evaporating 11 days after General Musharraf declared de facto martial law. Several senior administration officials said that with each day that passed, more ad US General: Iran Sticking by Pledge Iran seems to be honoring a commitment to stem the flow of deadly weapons into Iraq, contributing to a more than 50 percent drop in the number of roadside bombs that kill and maim American troops, a U.S. general said Thursday. The Associated Press: IAEA: Iran Generally Truthful on Nukes A report from the U.N nuclear watchdog agency on Thursday found Iran to be generally truthful about key aspects of its nuclear history, but it warned that its knowledge of Tehran's present atomic work was shrinking. [but it is continuing to enrich uranium More About: Links
Links for 2007-11-14 [del.icio.us]
2007-11-15 07:00:00 Musharraf to Quit Army This Month President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said for the first time Wednesday that he expects to quit as chief of Pakistan's army by the end of November, heralding a return to civilian rule. More About: Links
Links for 2007-11-13 [del.icio.us]
2007-11-14 07:00:00 64% say President George W. Bush has abused his powers as president 55% of voters believe that George W. Bush has abused his powers in a way that rises to the level of impeachable offenses. 52% of voters believe that the same is true of Vice President Dick Cheney. More About: Links
Links for 2007-11-12 [del.icio.us]
2007-11-13 07:00:00 The Associated Press: US Military Reversing Iraq Troop Surge As the U.S. troop reductions proceed, it should become clear whether the so-called "surge" strategy that increased the U.S. troop presence in and around Baghdad resulted in any lasting gains against sectarianism. [ummm... no. Reconciliation...???] More About: Links
Links for 2007-11-08 [del.icio.us]
More articles from this author:2007-11-09 07:00:00 Pakistan to Vote by Mid-February Pakistan's parliamentary elections will he held by mid-February, a month later than planned, the country's military ruler said Thursday, a day after President Bush urged him to hold the vote on time. More About: Links 1, 2, 3 |
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