From the NYT

A 2-Month Debate on Iraq, Capped by ‘the Big Push’

By JIM RUTENBERG, DAVID E. SANGER and MICHAEL R. GORDON
Published: January 12, 2007

WASHINGTON, Jan. 11 — Even before the November elections, President Bush and his national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, were informally discussing what Mr. Hadley was calling “the big push” — whether it made sense to make a show of increased American force in Baghdad to take back the city.

 

and from the Washington Post

Bush Tells a Tale

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Friday, January 12, 2007; 5:14 PM

President Bush is pushing a revisionist explanation of how he came to support an escalation of troop strength in Iraq.

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Gus: Our little george's nose is getting longer faster than ever... and Condi's is so long — that it would touch the ground should she look down, when she tells us that the US is not "escalating" the war...

But the mess in Iraq created by the removal of Saddam is likely to place the Shia (mostly aligned with Iran) in complete charge with the Sunnis having to do desperate things... with other characters playing double deadly games...Civil war, may be not... Uncivil war, sure.

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from the Guardian

Inside Baghdad's civil war
'The jihad now is against the Shias, not the Americans'

As 20,000 more US troops head for Iraq, Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, the only correspondent reporting regularly from behind the country's sectarian battle lines, reveals how the Sunni insurgency has change"

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Gus: It seems Little George was prepared to wash his hands of the sectarian violence, BUT with THE OIL WELLS WELL GUARDED for the Multinational companies to exploit without hitches ... that would:

a) expose the obvious purpose of the war

b) abandon the Iraqis to themselves and external forces which may interfere with the pumping...

c) go against the next possibility of hitting Iran, which needs a few more troops on the ready... But, should the huge Iranian army have uranium tipped artillery shells, then the conventional contest might be a bit more even than against Saddam's troops... Thus the only option left for the US would be the nuclear one, god forbid... and I am an atheist.

If 2006 was not such a great year for peace, 2007 is going to take the cake with our little George lying his way to an escalation of war (despite the "reassuring" words of Madame La Rice)... The sad part is that no one will be the winner... No one can be... The dynamics of such a war would totally reshape alliances and blow away any shred of the little goodwill the US may have with the rest of the world...

See, I remember this childrens book I read when I was a kid... It was a frightening book... It was "good" snowmen versus "bad" snowmen. they had a fierce battle in which many were dismembered and "killed"... but eventually when the sun came up, they ALL melted...

A pleasant surprise to learn Gary Shearston is still turning out his music. Shades of the 60s! I wonder how Sometime lovin' would sound in Arabic.

For Melburnians, Michael Leunig has a beaut piece in the A4 section of Saturday's The Age. He did a stint on the killing floor of an abattoir as a youth, and his father was a slaughterer with the skills of a shochet.

Leunig concludes:

I dare say there's something foul, creepy and disgraceful emerging in the character of corporate and political leadership in "Western civilisation", and I sense it's substantially the result of an insipid masculinity problem.

The insatiable need for heartless power and ruthless control is the telltale sign of an uninitiated man - the most irresponsible, incompetent and destructive force on earth.

Another cartoonist, Andrew Weldon, cited Leunig in an article for AJN.

...

But they might also want to ask Ms Rice whether the plan to send 20,000 more American troops to Iraq will make their problems worse, not better. After all, the most serious challenges they face were, to a large degree, made in America during the period in 2002 and 2003 when the White House and the Pentagon were planning for war in Iraq, but not thinking too hard about what would happen after they reached Baghdad.

Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states have bloodshed on their doorsteps, and that is not comfortable. Iraq has become a base for Sunni extremists who despise the Gulf rulers who are in the American camp.

from the BBC
US warns Iran on Iraq 'meddling'
Iran was "fishing in troubled waters", Mr Cheney told US TV. US Vice-President Dick Cheney has warned Iran not to interfere in Iraq.

The US government thought it was very important that the Iranians should "keep their folks at home", he said.

His comments come after US forces detained several Iranians in northern Iraq on suspicion of aiding insurgents, accusations rejected by Tehran.

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more form the BBC

The new US and Iraqi strategy has about two to three months to start showing results - in terms of real improvements in security for people in Baghdad.

That is the timeframe Western and Iraqi officials here have mentioned in discussions about the strategy.

None will make any predictions for what will happen if those improvements do not come.

One way of assessing its chances is to look backwards, to Operation Together Forward.

That was the last big push to quell the surging violence in Baghdad.

'More forces'

It was last summer and like this new plan, it was a joint Iraqi and US initiative.

But it failed. Attacks rose by 20%.

....... 

Gus: ... Cheney's sardines are cooked in OIL and it ain't olive oil... 

Yes Gus, the usual bushit smell from the outhouse …..

The White House says that Iranians “are aiding the insurgency in Iraq” and the US has the authority to pursue them because they "put our people at risk."

"We are going to need to deal with what Iran is doing inside Iraq," national security adviser Stephen Hadley said.

Added Vice President Dick Cheney: "Iran is fishing in troubled waters inside Iraq."

Earlier Sunday, the US military in Baghdad said five Iranians arrested in northern Iraq last week were connected to an Iranian Revolutionary Guard faction that funds and arms insurgents in Iraq.

Raids that President Bush has approved against Iranian targets in Iraq are part of broad efforts to confront Tehran's aggression, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Saturday while in Jerusalem.

"We do not want them doing what they can to destabilize the situation inside Iraq," Cheney said.

White House Defends Pursuit Of Iranians

Of course, what the deluded, deceitful war criminal in the outhouse doesn’t remind us of is that more than two years ago, Iran hawks in the Pentagon prepared a draft national security directive on Iran that reportedly would have had the president authorize all efforts short of direct war to destabilize Iran.

Under pressure from the CIA and State Department and the nascent insurgency emerging in Iraq, the White House reportedly postponed signing off on any such directive at the time. But current language used in describing the emerging Bush administration policy to Iran echoes that old directive.

With Democrats in charge of Congress and members of both parties newly emboldened to challenge the administration on foreign policy, there is every likelihood that bushit & his fanatical neo-conning-crazy-cronies are conspiring to provoke a wider conflict in the middle east, in order to forestall attempts by Congress to reign-in the excesses of the current crazed bushit foreign policy agenda.

Whilst the outhouse works overtime to demonise Iran, just as they did with Iraq, & urged on by the Zionists, the voices of those who debunk the accusations are lost in the noise, whilst the mainstream media obediently remains silent.

Just a few examples …..

”Top U.S. Military Official: No Evidence of Iran Involvement in Iraq”

Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff, said today he has no evidence the Iranian government has been sending military equipment and personnel into neighboring Iraq.

Top US Military Official: No Evidence Of Iran Involvement In Iraq

”British Find No Evidence Of Arms Traffic From Iran”

Maj. Dominic Roberts of the Queen's Dragoons said: "We have found no credible evidence to suggest there is weapons smuggling across the border."

British Find No Evidence Of Arms Traffic From Iran

”No proof of Iran nuclear arms"

The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has not found conclusive evidence that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, a US magazine has reported.

'No Proof' Of Iran Nuclear Arms

Can there be any doubt who the real terrorists are?

Iraqis will never accept this sellout to the oil corporations


The US-controlled Iraqi government is preparing to remove the country's most precious resource from national control

Kamil Mahdi
Tuesday January 16, 2007
The Guardian

Today Iraq remains under occupation, and the gulf between those who profess to rule and those who are ruled is filled with blood. The government is beholden to the occupation forces that are responsible for a humanitarian catastrophe and a political impasse. While defenceless citizens are killed at will, the government carries on with its business of protecting itself, collecting oil revenues, dispensing favours, justifying the occupation, and presiding over collapsing security, economic wellbeing, essential services and public administration. Above all, the rule of law has all but disappeared, replaced by sectarian demarcations under a parliamentary facade. Sectarianism promoted by the occupation is tearing apart civil society, local communities and public institutions, and it is placing people at the mercy of self appointed communal leaders, without any legal protection.