It's an odd grab bag of stories today, but everyone leads with Sen. John McCain's statement that most of the troops could be home by 2013, making Iraq one of the longest wars in U.S. history. (And some said it would be a "cakewalk"... A very long one, apparently.) The other big news revolves around the House bill to fund the war, while The New York Times and the Washington Post try to get some extra coverage of R&R for the troops and Arab diplomacy, respectively.
Presidential politics Michael D. Shear and Karen DeYoung of the Post report that McCain has finally offered a semi-firm date for when he hopes the war will be over: 2013, making Iraq a 10-year war. That would, amazingly, coincide with the end of the next president's first term. The statement was all part of a larger vision that has his policies cementing peace and prosperity at home and abroad. The 2013 statement is designed to blunt his "100 years" comment, which has landed him in hot water with everyone except hard-core war supporters. It's also designed to distance himself from the unpopular President George W. Bush, who has never presented a concrete vision of what would allow GIs to leave Iraq. So what's the difference now between McCain and the Democrats?...
Yon Reports "They Love Drugs, Prostitutes, and the Power of the Gun"
From MichaelYon-online.com
Blogger/journalist Michael Yon offers a revealing report from Iraq today with what he says is photographic evidence that al Qaeda in Iraq terrorists frequented brothels in the one-time AQI stronghold of Tal Afar in northwest Iraq.
Here's an excerpt from Yon's report:
These types of terrorists used to lay up with prostitutes in downtown Tal Afar, which isn’t so uncommon – for years brothels have been an excellent source of information against al Qaeda from Mosul to Baghdad. The al Qaeda terrorists don’t save themselves for...
Controversial Social Issues, Western Music Raises Clerics' Eyebrows
A radio station in Karbala is pushing boundaries in this holy Shia city by broadcasting music and cultural programming that some clerics and leaders consider inappropriate.
Originally backed by the Iraqi National Congress, a moderate party led by Ahmad Chalabi, Karbala FM launched in October 2003 from a small home in the city’s Hussein...
Marine Corps Investigates Episode After Scandalous Video Surfaces on YouTube
The Marine Corps is investigating what it calls a "shocking and deplorable" YouTube-posted video apparently showing a US Marine in Iraq throwing a live puppy over a cliff.
Now there's a dispute over what the video actually shows.
"What most of the TV and print reporters weren't really aware of was that Chalabi's people used U.S. taxpayer funding to pay all that PR and propaganda," Roston says. In fact, Chalabi and his team were so good at spin, they were even rewarded for it. Says Roston, "After the...
Shihab Muhammad al-Haiti Disappeared in Baghdad Saturday
Baghdad, Oct 30, (VOI) – An Iraqi journalist working for the weekly Baghdad al-Yawm newspaper who was reportedly kidnapped last Saturday was found dead in northern Baghdad, a statement by the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory (JFO) said.
"Last Saturday Iraqi security forces found the body of Shihab Muhammad al-Haiti, a journalist, in northern...
Ricardo Sanchez Profiles Muqtada al-Sadr; Bush, Gates also Make List
The controversial one-time U.S.-led coalition commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, pens a brief profile of Moqtada al-Sadr for the new Time 100 list of the most influential people on the planet.
Sadr is the only Iraqi on the Time 100 list.
Here is the last graph of Sanchez's Sadr profile:
As a fierce opponent of what he calls "the American occupation," al-Sadr, 34, appeals to the poor Shi'ite masses and thereby controls the stability of southern Iraq. By turning up the level of violence at will, he is able to control the coalition war-fighting environment, disrupt Iraq's political progress and affect American public opinion. Today, as Iraq moves toward provincial elections, he is in a position to alter world events. He will inevitably...
To the Fallen Follows Hip Hop CD With New Ones Performed by Active Duty and Vets
The only record label solely devoted to promoting the music of military artists added two more titles to its shelf today, releasing compilation albums of rock and country.
To the Fallen Records was founded last year by OIF veteran Capt. Sean Gilfillan and his friend Sydney DeMello to establish a musical outlet for active duty and veteran servicemembers. Named after the tattoo Gilfillan had put on his back to commemorate the friends of his killed in Iraq, the label plans to donate a portion of the proceeds to charities that assist wounded troops.
DeMello writes on their website about the particular...
Bureau's Retrospective on Five Years of War Coverage
Screenshot from the online Reuters presentation "Bearing Witness."
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As the five-year mark since the beginning of the US-led invasion of Iraq approaches, Reuters, which has covered the conflict from inside Iraq since the beginning of operations, has launched a multimedia tribute to its staff's work.
Richard Betts Urges Fiscal Discipline for Military Spending
"Powerful armed forces are necessary for U.S. national security, but they should be tailored to counter the threats and vulnerabilities the country actually faces, not to satisfy hubristic ambitions of remaking the world," writes Richard K. Betts, Director of the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University, in the latest issue of Foreign Affairs.
The budget request for DOD operations in FY 2008 is $505 billion, with the supplemental $142 billion requested for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, that adds up to a defense budget of $647 billion--almost...
Visser: Crackdown Could Radicalize Current, Opportunity for Constructive Role
A new report published by the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, authored by Reidar Visser, a close watcher of southern Iraqi affairs, discusses the role of the Sadrist Current in Basra and the Iraqi south.
The abstract of the report, entitled "The Sadrists of Basra and the Far South of Iraq: The Most Unpredictable Political Force in the Gulf’s Oil-Belt Region?" appears below:
The argument in this paper is two-fold: on the one hand, the oil-rich far south of Iraq has a special potential for radical and unpredictable millenarianism by discontented Sadrists; on the other hand, developments among the Sadrist leadership nationally suggest that many key figures – including Muqtada al-Sadr himself and some of his lieutenants with links to Basra – still prefer a more moderate course and will seek to hold on to a veneer of...
