| Annan: Israel bombed UN base for hours |
A Code Pink member (12:45 p.m. – link added) was dragged out of Prime Minister Maliki's speech this morning.
Bring the troops home now – end the occupation, was the basic message.
One has to wonder her fate if it would have happened in today's Iraq. With all
due respect to Maliki, we all know she wouldn't last very long, never mind his
nod to “women's rights” in his speech.
The Iraqi Prime Minister continued on.
Bush can't even keep security tight in the well of the House. Talk about losing
control. Speaking of that…
… Military officials said the U.S. contingent brought into Baghdad could
be as large as a brigade, which would mean 2,000 to 5,000 more troops joining
the 30,000 now deployed in the capital area. A reserve force held in Kuwait
has already moved largely into Iraq, so officials said additional U.S. forces
for Baghdad could come from areas recently passed to Iraqi control, such as
Muthanna province in the south or Mosul in the north. …Bush
to Add Troops in Baghdad, Citing 'Terrible' Sectarian Strife
After the speech, CNN's Arwa Damon talked about how bad things really are in
Iraq. As for women's roles, they are “more restricted” and being threatened
by extremists. What we get from Maliki is happy talk, no doubt inspired by Cheney's
swift boot up his rear end after yesterday's frank discussion about Israel.
But did you get those numbers? So there will now be around 35,000 troops in
Baghdad. I know our troops are the best on planet earth, but someone please
tell me why 30,000 Iraqis can't do the job. Can you imagine the violence, the
anarchy if 30,000 troops can't get the job done?
Meanwhile, back in Lebanon, there's quite a dust up over Israel's target practice
of U.N. peacekeepers.
Now I'm no fan of Kofi Annan, but here's UNIFIL's
press release from yesterday. You can find the rest of them here. UNIFIL was targeted as the enemy.
Frankly, things look grim for the Israelis. They have botched their handling
of this badly and are running out of time. They supposedly have a couple of weeks,
though I don't buy it. I think the countdown has begun and at the end of it
Hezbollah is going to come out stronger. For the life of me I don't understand
why Israel wasn't more prepared to move faster on the incursion. They had to
have known the world wouldn't sit by and watch the dismantling of Lebanon, at least not for too long.
The Bush administration and the Israelis need to come to grips with their hatred for terrorism, which we all share, and their incompetency in fighting it. These two camps can't seem to make it to the other side of their collective brain that is screaming: militarized foreign policy isn't working; time to try something else.
It's the fly syndrome. Trying the same thing day after day and not getting that it's not getting you anywhere. But we're humans, so we're supposed to be able to reason.
We've got duel tracks of terrible news for us today. First, Israel may barely
come out of Lebanon saving face for the second time. That means they'll likely
turn their embarrassment on Gaza. Good luck with that. Second, we're losing
Iraq in real time now. Both of these realities could turn our worlds upside
down, with everyone believing the U.S. and Israel have been broken on the battlefield.
Bush's solution? He's going to pass this mess on to the winner in 2008. Whomever
wants that job isn't right in the head.
Now, back to the circus. Oh, and by the way, Condi failed in Rome, or rather she got what she wanted: no ceasefire. More incompetence on top of utter ineptitude. Lovely.
I spoke to Mr Olmert and he definitely believes it was a mistake and has
expressed his deep sorrow, ” Mr Annan told a press conference in Rome.“But the shelling started in the morning and went on until after 7pm.
You cannot imagine the anguish of the unarmed men and women peacekeepers who
were there.”Annan:
Israel bombed UN base for hours· UN chief proposes joint investigation
· No sign of ceasefire agreement
· Aid agencies criticize Blair
UPDATE (10:25 a.m.): …and for those of you comparing numbers.
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