In opinion, the Journal prints an op-ed by Fouad Ajami who argues that the Libby trial was about the Iraq war all along, so therefore Bush should grant a pardon, and Daniel Schorr wonders just what all these new American bases are for in Iraq.
The 24 civilian deaths in Iraq yesterday included two college professors from Baghdad’s Islamic University, the head of the Education Ministry’s Research and Development Department, and Sahar al-Haideri, a journalist for the Voices of Iraq/Aswat al-Iraq news agency, who was fatally shot in Mosul. John Ward Anderson reports in the Post that gunmen stormed a barbershop in Basra, killing the barber and wounding three of his customers. The barber was the 18th killed in Basra alone this year, Anderson writes, noting that extremists have targeted barbershops as symbols of Western customs. A suicide truck bomb in Ninewa Province’s Rabiya killed nine, and four British security contractors were killed by a car bomb in Baghdad. Another suicide truck bomb killed here policemen at traffic police HQ outside Ramadi, and a falafel restaurant in Baghdad’s eastern Talibiya neighborhood killed at least five. Yet another truck bomb in Abu Ghraib destroyed a Shi'a mosque and damaged a nearby Sunni mosque, killing two Iraqi soldiers and a civilian.
Referring to five UK nationals abducted last week, British ambassador Dominic Asquith said in a statement, “We have people here in Iraq who are ready to listen to any person about this incident, or any person who may be holding these men and who may wish to communicate.” An embassy spokeswoman later clarified that the intention was to open communication, not to arrange a negotiation for the release of the five. Three US soldiers’ deaths brought the US troop death numbers to 3,504, while a UK soldier’s death in Basra brought the British tally to 150. According to US forces, an airstrike killed 19 insurgents in a house near Ba'quba, after a ground battle with a US-Iraqi patrol that killed two Iraqi soldiers.
The bombing attack in Rabiya was a coordinated assault in which a bus packed with 500 pounds of explosives detonated minutes after a suicide bomber exploded himself as officers attempted to prevent his entering the police station, Damien Cave writes in the Times. “This is a new tactic for us,” an Iraqi Army captain said, “to start with one explosion and then have the second bigger than the first.” 32 bodies were recovered in Baghdad. The US military said it detained 11 people “with ties to senior leaders” in the al-Qa'ida in Iraq organization.
An important article missed in yesterday’s column bears a mention here: The Journal’s Yochi Dreazen advances a story first broken by David Phinney on IraqSlogger, whose investigation found that First Kuwaiti, a construction contractor building the new US embassy complex in Baghdad, had committed numerous labor violations in the project, including deceptive hiring, labor trafficking, and confiscation of workers’ passports. Dreazen learns that the US Department of Justice is conducting an investigation into the allegations. See IraqSlogger’s Christina Davidson for an amplification. Regrets for the error.
From Diyala province, Jim Michaels writes in USAT that the US has mounted efforts to ally with tribal leaders in the last several months, as part of an increased attention to provincial areas in its program. “"One of the concerns that I've had ... was whether we had focused too much on central government construction in both Iraq and Afghanistan and not enough on the cultural and historical, provincial, tribal and other entities that have played an important role" in both countries, Sec. Gates said recently. With the US claiming success against militant groups in Anbar province by allying with local tribal militias, the military is seeking to replicate that strategy in other restive provinces.
Across the northern borders
The Monitor’s Scott Peterson files from Istanbul, pointing out that while recent rumors of a Turkish raid into Iraqi territory seem to be false, the rumors may have serious intent: “Analysts say news of the raid is a warning to both the US and Iraqi Kurds, nominally in control in northern Iraq, to clamp down on the PKK.” While Turkey has found good reasons not to invade since 2003, a diplomat observes, the calculus may be changing, Petserson writes. Metehan Demir, editor of the Turkish daily paper Sabah, points out that the relationship between the US and Turkey is straining under the tension as anti-US sentiment grows in Turkey. Demir adds that Turkey also faces high risks: If Turkey follows through on its threats to invade, it might find itself clashing with US or Kurdish forces, occupying a chunk of Iraq in the longer term, or withdrawing only to see the cycle repeat itself.
Sabrina Tavernise, formerly on the Times Baghdad bureau before relocating to Turkey, travels to the southeast of the country to scope out the tensions along the Turkish-Iraqi border. The Turkish military has established “security zones” along the border, she write, and Turkish forces are deployed in force along the border. The Turkish military insists that it would not move into Kurdish Iraqi areas without parliamentary approval, but other observers say anything could happen. As the security situation in Iraq deteriorates, and as US forces are pressured to withdraw from Iraq, the Turkish leadership doesn’t know “what comes next,” one Western diplomat told the Times. Meanwhile residents of the region seem to be as wary of the increasing Turkish security presence as they are of the armed Kurdish groups that the presence is meant to quash. “It’s going to be hard,” said a local herdsman: “People will investigate and stop us. If we go to the bathroom, they’ll write down our names.”
Times editors write that “Turkey’s government needs to know that it will reap nothing but disaster” if it cross the border in a large-scale invasion. The eds back the Bush administration’s call for Turkey to stand down, but also call for more American leadership to keep Turkey from invading.Suggesting that the Turkish-Kurdish conflict in the north are linked to the issues of Kirkuk and to regional geopolitics, the editors close, “Turkey’s leaders must understand that a major military operation in Iraq could touch off a series of regional wars and realignments that would harm Turkey far more than anything the P.K.K. could possibly cook up.”
Lute hearings
Confirmation hearings for Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, nominated by the president to be the DC point person on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars were convened
The nominee “told senators at a confirmation hearing that Iraqi factions ‘have shown so far very little progress’ toward the reconciliation necessary to stem the bloodshed. If that does not change, he said, ‘we're not likely to see much difference in the security situation’ a year from now,” Peter Baker and Karen DeYoung write in the Post, noting that Lute’s views mirrored the assessment of US intelligence officials who spoke to the Senate Armed Services Committee last month. Lute also said that he would be Steven Hadley’s “teammate on Iraq and Afghanistan,” not replacing the national security advisor in the policy circuit.
Tom Vanden Brook writes in USAT that many of the senators on the committee said they would support Lute’s nomination, for the “czar” position, formally known as deputy national security advisor. When pressed, Lute also said that he did not believe the recent debate in Congress over funding the war affected troop morale.
In other coverage:
NEW YORK TIMES
Paul von Zielbauer continues his coverage of the hearings stemming from the November 2005 event now known simply as “Haditha.” From Camp Pendelton, Calif., von Zielbauer writes that two images of the officer accused of failing to investigate the slayings of 24 Iraqi civilians by the Marines under his command. Supportive testimony has portrayed Col. Jeffrey Chessani as a man of faith, leadership, and integrity. Marines prosecutors, however, “have used testimony from Colonel Chessani’s subordinate and superior officers to portray him as a touchy and incurious field commander who, instead of investigating, sent deceptive reports about the Haditha killings up the chain of command.” Click through for the full portrait. The hearings will decide if Chessani is to face a former court-martial.
Stephen Benjamin, a former military Arabic translator due to deploy to Iraq was dismissed from the service before he was due to ship out, after review of his chat history on monitored military messenger revealed references to his social life that suggested he was gay. Benjamin writes in a contributed op-ed that he would be eager to work in translation in Iraq were it not for the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
USA TODAY
In the context of a larger set of articles on water issues, USAT prints a short unsigned article on a few dry cleaners in Baghdad. While overall the number of cleaners has dwindled, USAT suggests that business is decent for those who remain. Common stains include ring-around-the-collar in the summer months, and motor oil. There is the problem of storing the clothes of those who fled the area without picking them up.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Fouad Ajami contributes an op-ed to the Journal, arguing that the Libby trial is indeed about the Iraq war, “This case has been, from the start, about the Iraq war and its legitimacy. Judge Walton came to it late; before him were laid bare the technical and narrowly legalistic matters of it. But you possess a greater knowledge of this case, a keen sense of the man caught up in this storm, and of the great contest and tensions that swirl around the Iraq war. To Scooter's detractors, and yours, it was the "sin" of that devoted public servant that he believed in the nobility of this war, that he did not trim his sails, and that he didn't duck when the war lost its luster.” Arguing that Libby was a faithful soldier to the end, Ajami calls for a pardon.
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Tom Peter reviews the case of three Marines in the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) whose participation in the antiwar movement has sparked disciplinary hearings in the Marines. Peter points out that the IRR is a “gray area” where the rules of conduct are unclear. For those who haven’t been following the case, Peter presents a useful overview.
Daniel Schorr takes up the “Korea analogy” in his column, writing that “President Bush used to be fond of saying that American troops would stay in Iraq as long as needed and not a day longer. He isn't saying that anymore.” Schorr suggests that the “plan for permanent bases in Iraq must have been long in the making,” looking back to at least last year. “The building of four bases along with a gigantic new American embassy in the Green Zone on the Tigris River has been moving along rapidly. The bases will have runways two miles long to accommodate the largest American planes. The Balad base north of Baghdad covers 14 square miles,” he writes. “These huge installations must be intended for more than Iraqi stabilization,” Schorr argues, noting ex-President Carter’s remark that the US invaded Iraq in order to establish bases, and adding that “few are missing the point that bases in Iraq will keep American might on Iran's doorstep.”
