U.S. could cut troops if it better armed Iraqi forces: al-Maliki
The U.S. could "drastically" cut its presence in Iraq within three to six months if it were to provide sufficient weapons to the Mideast country's security forces, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said.
"If we succeed in implementing the agreement between us to speed up the equipping and providing weapons to our military forces, I think that within three to six months our need for American troops will dramatically go down," al-Maliki said in an interview published Thursday in the British newspaper The Times.
"That is on condition that there are real, strong efforts to support our military forces and equipping and arming them," said al-Maliki, who has been heading the Shia-dominated coalition government since April.
The Americans have been wary of providing weapons for fear that they will end up in the hands of insurgents.
Apparently, even al-Maliki has an exit strategy that Bush is ignoring.
Bush Chides Iraq Over Recent Executions
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush said Tuesday the unruly execution of Saddam Hussein ``looked like it was kind of a revenge killing,'' making it harder to persuade a skeptical U.S. public that Iraq's government will keep promises central to Bush's plan for a troop increase.
In his toughest assessment yet, Bush criticized the circumstances of Saddam's hanging last month, as well as Monday's execution of two top aides, including Saddam's half brother.
``I was disappointed and felt like they fumbled the - particularly the Saddam Hussein execution,'' the president said in an interview with PBS' Jim Lehrer.
I guess all those right-wingers who said those who criticized the handling of these executions were disloyal to our country can now count their icon Bush as another disloyal American.
Off the Mark
"Obama's First Blunder," the headline said.
It turned out instead to be Dick Morris's first blunder of the 2008 campaign.
The political strategist turned Fox News commentator had a column in The Hill yesterday, accusing Barack Obama of an "inexplicable pro-nepotism vote."
The Illinois Democrat's offense? "He joined only a handful of Democrats in opposing a Senate reform banning the increasingly widespread practice of legislators hiring their family members on their campaign or PAC payrolls," Morris wrote. And: "The public will not take kindly to a senator who pledged to clean up the political process" voting in this fashion.
"Why did he vote against it?" Morris added on "Hannity & Colmes." "Because Jesse Jackson's son has his wife on his House payroll, and he didn't want to get him mad at him."
A pretty good issue, if true. But Obama voted for the amendment in question. Morris was flat-out wrong.
This is not really news. Dick Morris is always wrong, but the story is still amusing.
Pentagon official apologizes for remarks about terror suspect lawyers
WASHINGTON – A senior Pentagon official publicly apologized Wednesday for criticizing lawyers who represent terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and for suggesting their firms be boycotted.
Charles “Cully” Stimson, deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs, said his criticism of the lawyers on a local radio program last week did not reflect his “core beliefs.”
“My comments left the impression that I question the integrity of those engaged in the zealous defense of detainees in Guantanamo,” Stimson said in a letter to the editor published in The Washington Post.
Stimson drew outrage from the legal community – and a disavowal from the Defense Department – after he said he found it shocking that lawyers at many of the nation's top law firms represent detainees held at the U.S. military prison in Cuba. He suggested some were being untruthful about doing the work free of charge and said companies might want to consider taking their business to other firms that do not represent suspected terrorists.
He originally was vaguely accusing defense lawyers of Guantanamo Bay detainees of being terrorist sympathizers. He forgot how our justice system works. He forgot about ideals like "innocent until proven guilty" and the right to have a fair trial. Apologies like this are rare, so I appreciate that he made it.
Evangelicals, Scientists Join on Warming
Saying they share a moral purpose, a group of evangelicals and scientists said Wednesday they will work together to convince the nation's leaders that global warming is real.
We are getting closer to the point where Bush and the oil companies are the only ones who still believe that Global Warming is not real and not our fault. Already, they are probably the only ones who think we should still be in Iraq.
Officer facing court-martial denounces war
The nation's first Army officer to refuse deployment to Iraq urged the public in a statement Wednesday to "stop the war so that the death and sacrifices of American soldiers will not be in vain" after a major legal setback in his court-martial proceedings.
First Lt. Ehren Watada, who is based at Ft. Lewis near Seattle, faces six years in prison for failing to deploy to Iraq last year with his Stryker brigade and for criticizing President Bush and the war in statements to the media and at a peace convention.
The 28-year-old Honolulu native has argued that the war is illegal because Bush did not obtain proper authorization for it, and that Army rules and the Nuremberg principles adopted after World War II required Watada to disobey orders to participate.
On Tuesday, however, Lt. Col. John M. Head, the military judge in the case, rejected Watada's request to debate the legality of the war at his court-martial next month. Although Watada's attorney, Eric Seitz, had sought to open the question so the soldier could explain why he defied his deployment orders, Head ruled that the war's legality was a political question irrelevant to the charges at hand.
Head also rejected motions to dismiss charges of "conduct unbecoming an officer" related to Watada's criticism of Bush and the war.
Seitz had argued that the 1st Amendment protected Watada's remarks. But Head disagreed in his written decision, saying that courts have ruled that soldiers do not enjoy the same degree of free-speech protections as civilians.
Watada is standing up for what is right in the face of immense adversity, and he may be punished for doing the right thing. I wish there was more I could do to support him. I hope and pray for him and his cause.
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