Disappointed by the election performance of Iraq's moderate parties, U.S. officials have established a more modest goal as Iraqi leaders divide power in a new government: preventing religious or nationalist parties from gaining a strong hold on the army and police.

American officials have made it a priority to persuade the winners in the election not to give top posts in the defense and interior ministries to anyone linked to armed groups such as the Shiite Muslim-controlled Badr and Al Mahdi militias, and the Kurds' peshmerga forces, U.S. and Iraqi officials say.

U.S. Goals Adapt to New Iraq - Los Angeles Times

In the past several years, American evangelicals - and I am one of them - have amassed greater political power than at any time in our history. But at what cost to our witness and the integrity of our message?

Recently, I took a few days to reread the war sermons delivered by influential evangelical ministers during the lead up to the Iraq war.

In that period, from the fall of 2002 through the spring of 2003, many of the most respected voices in American evangelical circles blessed President George W. Bush's war plans, even when doing so required them to recast Christian doctrine.
...
Jerry Falwell declared that "God is pro-war" in the title of an essay he wrote in 2004.

i thought Jesus said "love your enemy" and "turn the other cheek".
The question what would Jesus do is easy in this instance to answer. He would have offered to wash Saadam's feet, prayed for his immortal soul, have been humble, meek and tried to negiotiate peace.
I'm a bit of a lapsed Christian but I know that much. The man I was taught about, who washed feet and cured the lepers and said it was easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, was unlikely to have been a Republican. He was Jesus aka the Prince of Peace not "pro-war". "Blessed are the peace makers"!

Wayward Christian soldiers - Editorials & Commentary - International Herald Tribune

I returned recently from a six-day trip to Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan inspired by the progress that has been made in the region. Afghans and Iraqis yearn for a new beginning predicated on freedom. In both places, the keys to a new future are identical: better security and improved services. Each country is at a different point in its development on both of these fronts, and each is at an important crossroads.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, Afghanistan stands at a more difficult and precarious junction than does Iraq. With a smaller U.S. military presence, Afghanistan is bracing for a larger NATO role in administering services and policing provinces and borders. This transition comes just as the insurgency in Afghanistan is gaining momentum.

Keeping The Progress Going

How should the United States think about Iran? What explains the fanaticism of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and what can America and its allies do to change it?

Containing Tehran

That's the basis for bin Laden's truce offer. He is talking to America's far left and saying, "You know what. We're on the same side. So why don't you work on that hardhead George W. Bush?"
Bin Laden told us Thursday that our far left has been working for him. It's their poll results he quotes.
Bin Laden told us that our secret wiretapping program is something we should keep up. He's got people here already and he's got more coming and they are planning to blow us up.
In the War on Terror, a bin Laden tape is the far left's worst nightmare because it reminds Americans the war is real."

Awesome. Thanks John. You know, you've hit it just right... I *want* the terrorists to win. I *know* that George Bush is the only thing standing between us and total domination, and I speak out against his policies to get the terrorists in here even quicker.

This shit makes me fucking sick. We live in a country where demagogues like this can stand up in front of the nation and call me a traitor, compare me to Osama Bin Laden and not merely get away with it, but have half the country *applaud him*. Are people really so fucking stupid? Do they really still not understand that fearmongering and internal hatred is *exactly* the result terrorists are after? The word is terrorist for fucks sake. How much clearer can it be spelled out.

If you feel terrorized, then YOU'VE BEEN DEFEATED. If your fear leads you to hate and distrust your neighbor for disagreeing with you, YOU'RE DOING THEIR WORK FOR THEM.

I know this is just the internet and I'm just screaming into the wind here, but it truly hurts me that there are people who actually fucking believe that my political opposition to the president puts me in league with these vile murderers. It's absolutely disgusting, and the real danger this country faces. The individual attacks could be weathered. The fear and anger they breed are, apparently too difficult a challenge.

It's TOO HARD for half of America to stand by their neighbors, to embrace diversity, to withstand unchecked government power, to love their country enough to resist fear. And that's truly sad. It's destroying us.

Daily Kos: The Language Of Treason, Part II

I was in my area of town on the night before Eid, shopping for clothes. The street was bustling and crowded with families, and there actually was a traffic jam, both of which are uncommon scenes in our neighborhood on a typical evening.

The drone of generators scattered on the pavement and loud Lebanese pop music from a nearby CD store filled the air. Youngsters were checking out the girls, and a couple of National Guardsmen were munching pistachios and chatting at a nearby nut stand. The soldier seated behind the machine gun on an army pickup briefly eyed my shopping bag as I was passing by. He frowned as I gave him a quick smirk in response to his suspicious glance.

iraq blogs
the human side of life on a geopolical battlefield
metallica and imams

Day to Day in Iraq - NYT Web Journal

No one expects very much from Mr. Bush. He's currently breaking the law by spying on Americans in America without getting warrants, but for a lot of people that's just George being George. Forget the complexities of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or even the Fourth Amendment's safeguards against unwarranted (pun intended) government intrusion into matters that we have a right to keep private.

...

The U.S. is a very special place in large part because no one, not even the president, is above the law.

The Lawbreaker in the Oval Office - New York Times

China said today that its trade surplus with the rest of the world tripled in 2005 to a record $102 billion, a figure that could reignite global trade frictions and also step up pressure on the country to allow its currency to appreciate further.

the future has arrived

China's Trade Surplus Tripled in 2005 - New York Times

American Marines are a proud, tough bunch. They expect to be sent into the most dangerous battles and expect enemy fighters to come at them with everything they have. But they also expect, and have every right to expect, the Pentagon to provide them with the most effective armor available to maximize their chances of staying alive and in one piece

regardless of your view of the war this should be regarded as a scandal. Rumsfeld and his delusions about how the war and the military should be run have a lot to answer for.

Marines without armor - Editorials & Commentary - International Herald Tribune

Once again we are confronted with stories about how the Pentagon and its ubiquitous private contractors are undermining free inquiry in Iraq. "Muslim Scholars Were Paid to Aid U.S. Propaganda," reports the New York Times. Journalists, intellectuals or clerics taking money from Uncle Sam or, in this case, a Washington-based public relations company, is seen as morally troubling and counterproductive. Sensible Muslims obviously would not want to listen to the advice of an American-paid consultant; anti-insurgent Sunni clerics can now all be slurred as corrupt stooges.

There is one big problem with this baleful version of events. Historically, it doesn't make much sense. The United States ran enormous covert and not-so-covert operations known as "CA" activities throughout the Cold War. With the CIA usually in the lead, Washington spent hundreds of millions of dollars on book publishing, magazines, newspapers, radios, union organizing, women's and youth groups, scholarships, academic foundations, intellectual salons and societies, and direct cash payments to individuals (usually scholars, public intellectuals and journalists) who believed in ideas that America thought worthy of support.

It's difficult to assess the influence of these covert-action programs. But when an important Third World political leader writes that a well-known liberal Western book had an enormous impact on his intellectual evolution -- a book that, unbeknownst to him was translated and distributed in his country at CIA expense -- then it's clear that the program had value. It shouldn't be that hard for educated Americans to support such activity, even though one often can't gauge its effectiveness.

in the war against terrorism maybe the pen is mightier than the sword?

'Hearts and Minds' in Iraq