Skip to main content

The First Breach in the Dike?

Rumsfeld is in Australia pontificating on how well things are going in Iraq. Lord Downer of Baghdad [speaking this morning on ABC referring to his having "spoken to Condi" the other day - a little big-noting?] rabbits on to the same tune. Meanwhile, those in the know - that is on the ground - keep on saying that things are far, far from going well in Iraq.

With George Bush having being Commander in Chief and the American propensity to give their President a degree of veneration which defies belief, the US Administration has thus far been able to basically keep the nation behind the Iraq war effort. No more! The majority no longer trust Bush.

Now comes news that the dike may have been broken - for the first time! A leading Democrat, who initially supported the war and who has an impecable track-record in many areas, has called for an end to the war and recalling the troops. He is the first politician to openly do so. Read the NYT report here.

It is interesting to speculate whether any politician in Australia or the UK is prepared to follow suit. Of course, in the USA Cheney [who can't really have any credibility - if he ever had any in the first place] was this morning banging on how George Bush and the Administration were being wrongly maligned with lies. Lies? An accusation of lying by Cheney? A little rich!

Also read this most interesting article by James Fallows on the Iraq "story-line" in The Huntington Post and who said what and when.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Robert Fisk's predictions for the Middle East in 2013

There is no gain-saying that Robert Fisk, fiercely independent and feisty to boot, is the veteran journalist and author covering the Middle East. Who doesn't he know or hasn't he met over the years in reporting from Beirut - where he lives?  In his latest op-ed piece for The Independent he lays out his predictions for the Middle East for 2013. Read the piece in full, here - well worthwhile - but an extract... "Never make predictions in the Middle East. My crystal ball broke long ago. But predicting the region has an honourable pedigree. “An Arab movement, newly-risen, is looming in the distance,” a French traveller to the Gulf and Baghdad wrote in 1883, “and a race hitherto downtrodden will presently claim its due place in the destinies of Islam.” A year earlier, a British diplomat in Jeddah confided that “it is within my knowledge... that the idea of freedom does at present agitate some minds even in Mecca...” So let’s say this for 2013: the “Arab Awakening” (the t...

The NPT (Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) goes on hold.....because of one non-Treaty member (Israel)

Isn't there something radically wrong here?    Israel, a non-signatory to the NPT has, evidently, been the cause for those countries that are Treaty members, notably Canada, the US and the UK, after 4 weeks of negotiation, effectively blocking off any meaningful progress in ensuring the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.    IPS reports ..... "After nearly four weeks of negotiations, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference ended in a predictable outcome: a text overwhelmingly reflecting the views and interests of the nuclear-armed states and some of their nuclear-dependent allies. “The process to develop the draft Review Conference outcome document was anti-democratic and nontransparent,” Ray Acheson, director, Reaching Critical Will, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), told IPS. “This Review Conference has demonstrated beyond any doubt that continuing to rely on the nuclear-armed states or their nuclear-de...

#1 Prize for a bizarre story.....and lying!

No comment called for in this piece from CommonDreams: Another young black man: The strange sad case of 21-year-old Chavis Carter. Police in Jonesboro, Arkansas  stopped  him and two friends, found some marijuana, searched put Carter, then put him handcuffed  behind his back  into their patrol car, where they say he  shot himself  in the head with a gun they failed to find. The FBI is investigating. Police Chief Michael Yates, who stands behind his officers' story,  says in an interview  that the death is "definitely bizarre and defies logic at first glance." You think?