Iraq – News Stories About Iraq - Page 96

Mar 28, 2007 7:48 AM CDT

Senate Backs Troop Pullout Timetable

Bill ties troop funding to March 2008 withdrawal deadline

(Newser) - Democrats in the Senate pulled off a surprise victory yesterday in their bid to force President Bush to bring troops home from Iraq—deflecting a GOP effort to kill the troop withdrawal plan. The Democrats’ proposal sets a March 2008 deadline for ending the conflict and is folded into a...

War Games Should Include Media, Civilians

Mar 27, 2007 1:45 PM CDT

War Games Should Include Media, Civilians

"I yearn for the days when 'Battleship' reflected real war"

(Newser) - Modern warfare calls for modern war games, and that means the players can't be just armies and navies, but also civilians, the media, and the international community. Gary Anderson, the Marines' first director of war gaming, writes that victory in post-Cold War combat is no longer determined by battlefield fighters,...

Sadr City Safest Spot in Baghdad

Mar 27, 2007 12:54 PM CDT

Sadr City Safest Spot in Baghdad

(Newser) - Six weeks into the surge the vast Baghdad slum called Sadr City is the safest and best-run part of the city—but not because of the stepped-up efforts on the part of government forces. Moqtada al-Sadr is said to be somewhere in Iran, but his representatives run hospitals, school,...

Bush Is Worse Than a Lame Duck

Mar 27, 2007 10:04 AM CDT

Bush Is Worse Than a Lame Duck

(Newser) - The FT catalogs a litany of the obstacles for President Bush achieving anything meaningful in his last 22 months in office. At the core of it all is the Iraq war, which has reduced Bush’s popularity to the point where he has no more political capital to spend.

Records
Reveal Hawkish Hillary

Mar 27, 2007 7:59 AM CDT

Records Reveal Hawkish Hillary

Iraq vote may not have been anomaly

(Newser) - Hillary may be more hawkish than liberal supporters realize, Michael Crowley concludes after a lengthy look at the senator's history. Many assume she supported the Iraq war to look tough and won’t back down to avoid the label of flip-flopper. But long before 9/11, she was scornful of those...

Sunni Baghdad
Lies in Ruins as Shiites Rebuild

Mar 26, 2007 12:05 PM CDT

Sunni Baghdad Lies in Ruins as Shiites Rebuild

Insurgents target efforts to provide food, fuel, services

(Newser) - Baghdad's Sunni neighborhoods are in collapse, lacking food, fuel, electricity and health care even as their Shiite neighbors have regained basic services, Alissa Rubin reports. In Shiite areas, the Mahdi Army fills in for the government by keeping order and organizing resources, but Sunnis now find themselves under attack...

Blair Blasts Seizure of British Patrol

Mar 26, 2007 8:17 AM CDT

Blair Blasts Seizure of British Patrol

Iran said to be looking for swap deal

(Newser) - Tony Blair is furious over Iran's capture of 15 sailors and Marines, but so far, diplomatic efforts have not even yielded where they are being held. “I hope the Iranian government understands how fundamental an issue this is for us,” Blair sputtered at a European summit,...

Fake Raids Test Iraqi Reconstruction

Mar 22, 2007 11:13 AM CDT

Fake Raids Test Iraqi Reconstruction

U.S. aid to small businesses works only if it's invisible. Otherwise, companies get 'immediately shot or blown up.'

(Newser) - The American military is staging fake raids on Iraqi small businesses to confirm that US aid is being well spent—without tipping off insurgents that they have any US connection. "The only way things will work is if the US contribution is totally invisible," says a civil-affairs officer,...

Iraqi Refugees Flood Into Syria and Jordan

Mar 21, 2007 12:38 PM CDT

Iraqi Refugees Flood Into Syria and Jordan

Iraqis are fleeing to their neighbors by the millions, while the U.S. sits pretty

(Newser) - The Iraq war has created nearly two million refugees, and they're going largely ignored by world governments, the UN warns. "There has been an abject denial of the impact, the humanitarian impact, of the war," says a UN refugee agency spokesperson. Most of the refugees stream into neighboring...

Iraqi Bombers Use Kids to
Get Through Checkpoint

Mar 21, 2007 9:00 AM CDT

Iraqi Bombers Use Kids to Get Through Checkpoint

(Newser) - Insurgents in Baghdad used two children in the backseat of a car to lower suspicion at an American security checkpoint, then blew up the car, with the children in it. Once they cleared the checkpoint, the bombers parked near a school, ran from the car, and detonated the bomb,...

SADDAM'S
VP HANGS

Mar 20, 2007 10:09 AM CDT

SADDAM'S VP HANGS

Taha Yassin Ramadan is executed, despite protests of lack of evidence

(Newser) - Saddam’s loyal vice president was hanged today for the same crimes as his boss. Taha Yassin Ramadan became the fourth to be executed in Iraq for the 1982 massacre of Shias in the city of Dujail. Ramadan’s original sentence of life in prison was found on appeal to...

The Man Who Toppled Saddam Has Second Thoughts

Mar 19, 2007 9:52 PM CDT

The Man Who Toppled Saddam Has Second Thoughts

Says US rule is worse than Hussein's

(Newser) - The former Iraqi weightlifting champion who used a sledgehammer to topple the infamous 20-foot-tall bronze statue of Saddam Hussein four years ago now feels remorse at his symbolic role in the US victory. "I really regret bringing down the statue," Kadhim al-Jubouri says. "The Americans are worse...

Kelley: Bush Offspring
Should Be Serving in Iraq

Mar 19, 2007 3:40 PM CDT

Kelley: Bush Offspring Should Be Serving in Iraq

(Newser) - While the president has been busy assuring Americans that Iraq is a "noble" war, among those who haven't been listening are his wife, his children and his nieces and nephews, observes Kitty Kelley, who chronicled the Bush clan in 2004. The first family is AWOL on the war effort,...

U.S. Stiffs Brits in Friendly Fire Investigation

Mar 18, 2007 11:08 PM CDT

U.S. Stiffs Brits in Friendly Fire Investigation

British coroner calls soldier's 2003 death "criminal"

(Newser) - The British government is taking aim at the U.S. military for its role in covering up the 2003 friendly-fire death of a British solider in Iraq. A coroner’s report Friday ruled Lance Cpl. Matty Hull’s death at the hands of American pilots avoidable—and criminal—but the...

The Uncontainable Kurds

Mar 18, 2007 8:43 PM CDT

The Uncontainable Kurds

(Newser) - Tehran resident and frequent commentator on Iran, Christopher de Bellaigue, travels west to Turkey to examine the status of Kurds in Turkey. He describes how some have become the fully assimilated Turks that the government so much wanted them to become; but that many have maintained a separate ethnic and...

The Women's War

Mar 18, 2007 8:41 PM CDT

The Women's War

The Unprecedented Deployment of Women's in the Iraq War Has Created Unprecedented Challenges for Them and the Armed Forces

(Newser) - Sara Corbett writes in The New York Times Magazine about the role of women soldiers in the Iraq war and the extraordinary toll it is taking on many of them.

Gunmen Ambush Sadr City Mayor

Mar 16, 2007 12:07 PM CDT

Gunmen Ambush Sadr City Mayor

Target was key figure in U.S. efforts to disarm militia, create jobs

(Newser) - The mayor of Sadr City was wounded and his police chief killed in an ambush yesterday, creating new challenges for the U.S. military effort to bring security to the Shiite stronghold and rein in the Mahdi Army. The mayor, Rahim al-Daraji, has been a key figure in negotiating with...

British Torture
Trial Backfires

Mar 14, 2007 9:30 AM CDT

British Torture Trial Backfires

Acquittal in case that mirrors Abu Ghraib sparks public outrage

(Newser) - The prosecution of a group of British soldiers for mistreating Iraqi detainees—one of whom died under questioning—has backfired on the British government. Four soldiers have been acquitted of various crimes after a three-year investigation. Now the knives are out for leading members of the British government over the...

Pace: Homosexuality Is "Immoral"

Mar 13, 2007 10:10 PM CDT

Pace: Homosexuality Is "Immoral"

(Newser) - "Don't ask, don't tell" works fine for Gen. Peter Pace, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, because "homosexual acts are immoral" and should not be condoned any more than adultery within the ranks. Pace defended the Pentagon's current policy on gays to the Chicago Tribune, opposing proposed...

Pentagon Exit Strategy Relies on Advisers

Mar 12, 2007 11:03 AM CDT

Pentagon Exit Strategy Relies on Advisers

Hopes for surge waning, DoD plans to replace troops with teams of advisers

(Newser) - Pentagon top brass preparing an exit strategy for Iraq should the troop surge fail are following the outlines set by the Iraq Study Group, using a small team of military advisers to replace troops as they stand down. It mirrors the strategy the military used in El Salvador in the...