Curfew marks fall of Baghdad

Officials in Baghdad have imposed a curfew as Iraq marks the fifth anniversary of Baghdad’s capture by US forces, but fighting continues to plague the city.

There were at least three mortar attacks reported on Wednesday morning, with at least one rocket or mortar shell fired into the Green Zone, home to the US embassy, eyewitnesses said.

Baghdad’s streets were empty of cars and trucks after the authorities declared a 5am to midnight (0200 GMT to 2100 GMT) vehicle curfew to prevent car bomb attacks.

Al Jazeera’s James Bays, reporting from Baghdad, said the curfew was in place but that sporadic fighting continued.

“The streets are absolutely deserted,” Bays reported. “The current Iraqi government is taking no chances at all – the curfew is in place, but it hasn’t stopped the violence.”

Clashes were reported between Shia fighters and US and Iraqi forces in Baghdad’s Sadr City district, a poverty stricken district with strong support for the al-Mahdi Army, on Wednesday.

At least six people were killed, the AFP news agency reported an unnamed medical worker as saying.

In Tikrit, the hometown of Saddam Hussein, the former Iraqi president who was ousted in the US invasion, a day-long curfew was also in place, according to reports from the AFP news agency.

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US snipers allowed to kill Ukrainians during Bush’s visit

Throughout the last week the members of the Ukraine
Ministry of Home Affairs and the Special Forces have
been checking public organizations and parties. Their
aim was to prevent them from participating in protest
actions against the arrival of the US president in Kiev.

Starting form the Crimea and the South-East of the Ukraine, such “information war” with the opposition has spread to Kiev. During the last days all heads of the parties that have at least once taken part in public meetings, protests and marches have been invited for a serious talk with the authorities. Some representatives of such parties that have already been talked to say they were forced not to participate in any protest actions and not to appear anywhere close to the places where the US president might be.

Full story:
http://english.pravda.ru/world/americas/01-04-2008/104742-us_snipers_ukrainians%20-0

Operation Cassandra

Admiral Fallon’s (forced?) resignation was the last
warning we are likely to get of an attack on Iran.
It does not mean an attack is certain, but the U.S.
could not attack Iran so long as he was the
CENTCOM commander. That obstacle
is now gone.

Vice President Cheney’s Middle East tour is another indicator. According to a report in The American Conservative, on his previous trip Cheney told our allies, including the Saudis, that Bush would attack Iran before the end of his term. If that report was correct, then his current tour might have the purpose of telling them when it is coming.

Why not just do that through the State Department? State may not be in the loop, nor all of DOD for that matter. The State Department, OSD, the intelligence agencies, the Army and the Marine Corps are all opposed to war with Iran. Of the armed services, only the Air Force reportedly is in favor, seeking an opportunity to show what air power can do. As always, it neglects to inform the decision-makers what it cannot do.

Full story:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/lind/lind137.html

US government exercises double standards again

The US government proudly displays its
double standard policies to the whole
world. This time the selective approach
to international issues touches upon the
recognition of small republics. Having
recognized Kosovo, the US administration
looks right through the similar right of the
republic of South Ossetia. The US
Department of State continues to emphasize
the uniqueness of the “Kosovo phenomenon.”

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has recently released a statement on South Ossetia. Speaking about a possibility for this Caucasian republic to declare independence, Mrs. Rice strongly rejected a similarity between its sovereignty and the Kosovo problem.

While on her way to Brussels, Belgium, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was asked by a journalist if she thought that South Ossetia’s independence was inevitable.

Full story:
http://english.pravda.ru/world/americas/06-03-2008/104390-usa_double_standards-0

Iran just won’t stay isolated

The U.N. Security Council on Monday passed a third round
of sanctions against Iran. But at the same time that the
United States and its European allies were building support
for the new U.N. resolution, Iran’s president was making an
official visit to Iraq, the first such visit since the Islamic
Revolution in 1979. The upshot is that despite the tightening
of U.N. sanctions, the West’s efforts to contain Iran are
crumbling where it matters most: in the Middle East.

While Washington continues to press for a stark policy of political isolation and military containment, the Arab states of the Persian Gulf are overtly pursuing a new strategy of engagement. Even the Iraqi government, despite its ostensible alignment with the Bush administration, has opened its doors – hence President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s red carpet treatment in Baghdad. If U.S. policy toward Iran is to yield results, Washington must adjust its approach to the reality that its closest allies in the Middle East have effectively broken with U.S. strategy.

Full story:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-kupchan4mar04,0,6278910.story

60% of officers feel military is weaker now than five years ago

Today, the U.S. military is engaged in a campaign that is
more demanding and intense than anything it has
witnessed in a generation. Ongoing wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan, now entering their fifth and seventh years
respectively, have lasted longer than any U.S. military
engagements of the past century, with the exception of
Vietnam.

More than 25,000 American servicemen and women have been wounded and over 4,000 killed. Additional deployments in the Balkans, on the Korean Peninsula, and elsewhere are putting further pressure on the military’s finite resources. And, at any time, U.S. forces could be called into action in one of the world’s many simmering hot spots—from Iran or Syria, to North Korea or the Taiwan Strait.

Yet, even as the U.S. military is being asked to sustain an unprecedented pace of operations across the globe, many Americans continue to know shockingly little about the forces responsible for protecting them. Nearly 70 percent of Americans report that they have a high level of confidence in the military, yet fewer than 1 in 10 has ever served. Politicians often speak favorably about people in uniform, but less than one quarter of the U.S. Congress has donned a uniform. It is not clear whether the speeches and sound bites we hear from politicians and experts actually reflect the concerns of those who protect our nation.

Full story:
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4198

The Air Force Reaches for the Sky

The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have worn down
the nation’s ground forces, stretching those serving
in the Army and Marines and wearing out their gear
at an unprecedented rate. So, it’s no surprise that the
nation’s ground-pounders would be seeking the most
from the ever-cooperative members of the House
Armed Services Committee. For years, that Pentagon-
pleasing panel has asked the services to send it a wish
list – lawmakers prefer to call it an “unfunded
requirements list” – of budget items they desire but
which have not been approved by their penny-
pinching civilian overseers, i.e. the Defense
Secretary and the President.

Earlier this month, the Army stepped up to the plate and asked for $4 billion more than the $141 billion it is slated to receive in 2009. The Marines asked for $3 billion more than their proposed ration of $25 billion. The Navy asked for $5 billion to be added to its bottom line of $124 billion. But all those sums added together don’t equal the – hold your breath, dear taxpayer – $19 billion that the Air Force wants over and above its $144 billion request. 

Full story:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20080222/us_time/theairforcereachesforthesky 

The Kosovo precedent

Amid the kerfuffle around Kosovo’s declaration of
independence, few have paused to note what an
extraordinary document it is. It is so hedged with
conditions, obligations and reservations, so replete
with commitments to consult, honor and obey the
province’s international patrons, that it is also a
declaration of dependence.

Its last paragraph begins: “We hereby affirm, clearly, specifically and irrevocably, that Kosovo shall be legally bound to comply with the provisions contained in this declaration, including, especially, the obligations for it under the Ahtisaari Plan” (my italics; that’s U.N. Special Envoy Martii Ahtisaari). You can almost hear the Western advisor dictating over the Kosovar draftsman’s shoulder.

The reality on the ground will, of course, be rather different from the words on paper. The Kosovar Albanians have taken an important stride toward self-government. On Sunday night, they had something to celebrate on the streets of Pristina.

I would not like to be a Kosovar Serb living in one of the enclaves south of the Ibar River in the years ahead. The position of the Serbs north of the Mitrovica bridge over the Ibar is a different story. Despite NATO’s temporary closing of the border between them and Serbia, their daily social, economic and cultural integration with Serbia will continue.

Full story:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-ash21feb21,0,6880108.story

New record of oil prices sends stock markets down again

Oil prices have finally overcome the landmark psychological
barrier and reached the level of $100.01 per barrel in New
York yesterday. The price marked the new all-time record
of the oil market and exceeded its previous record of
January 3 by one cent.

In the beginning of January a market member purchased 1,000 barrels of oil for $100 per barrel to immediately sell the fuel for $99.4 and eventually lose $600 on the deal. Experts say that someone wanted to become famous in an instant. It was a far-fetched increase in oil prices, specialists believe.

The current situation is different. The price has overcome the level of $100 due to a whole list of reasons. First and foremost, the new prices appeared as a result of the conflict between the government of Venezuela and the USA’s Exxon Mobil. Venezuela has virtually ousted Exxon Mobil from the country, which made it suffer immense losses. President Hugo Chavez said that the opposition with the oil company may eventually force Venezuela cease their oil shipments to the USA. The court hearings on the case will start on February 22 in London.

Full story:
http://english.pravda.ru/world/americas/20-02-2008/104156-oil_prices-0

Bush makes case to dump more US tax dollars into Africa

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania – President Bush is betting
Congress will hear him better from the heart of Africa
than it does from down the street in Washington.

Foreign aid programs that Bush sees as crowning achievements — and which he holds dear — are having their spending levels questioned on Capitol Hill. By visiting Africa for six days to showcase their results, Bush aims to change that in the short term and secure the programs’ future beyond his presidency.

His first stop Saturday was Benin, a tiny sliver on West Africa’s coast. Hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars are helping to pay for an aggressive anti-malaria campaign, the training of tens of thousands of teachers and reforms to Benin’s judiciary, port and financial systems.

Full story:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080216/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_africa

Lingering dollar decline comes to its end

The two-year long decline of the dollar finally comes
to its end, Bloomberg’s enquiry into the international
currency market suggests. Some reputable currency
traders consider that the last two interest rate cuts
in the USA (total 1.25 percent) were enough to stop
the downward tendency of the dollar By the end of
this year the dollar is supposed to gain about 5.4
percent (by $1.40) against the euro. In 2009, this
figure is expected to be on the level of six percent
(€ 1 will be worth $1.32).

The most unexpected reduction of the interest rate during the last seven years supports the economic growth in the USA, BNP Paribas SA experts believe. The European economy is expected to slow down and to see a 1.6 percent rise in 2008. In the USA, the figure will be 1.9 percent. The Deutsche Bank analysts expect the rise of the DGP in the USA and in the euro zone by 2.6 and 1.9 percent respectively.

Full story:
http://english.pravda.ru/business/finance/07-02-2008/103922-dollar_decline-0

US military to deploy thousands of its interceptor missiles globally

Not only does this threaten Russia, but every other country
not aligned with the Washingon-London-Tel Aviv Axis. -Ed.

Russia ’s Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov believes
that the US administration plans to deploy elements of
its missile defense system in many countries of the world.

“Most likely, we will hear them talking about hundreds and even thousands of interceptor missiles in different parts of the globe, including Europe,” Lavrov said in and interview with the Polish Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper. 

Full story:
http://english.pravda.ru/news/russia/kremlin/08-02-2008/103957-interceptor_missiles-0 

AIPAC Political Cartoon

Source:
http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/2008/02/06/israel-declared-the-winner-in-us-primary-elections/#comment-7101