THE US, THE UN AND THE IRAQIS THEMSELVES, V. 7.0

(note correct use of apostraphe )

amazing

I can use the apostrophe, but everyone is too kind to point out I can't spell it.

The fact that former UN ambassadors object to his nomination should only reinforce the fact that Bolton is the right man for the job. That organization needs to be shaken up, and Bolton might be the guy to do it.

"Bolton might be the guy to do it."

What's he going to do if he doesn't get his way, resign?

He's been nominated ambassador, not secretary general.

Ticomaya wrote:

The fact that former UN ambassadors object to his nomination should only reinforce the fact that Bolton is the right man for the job. That organization needs to be shaken up, and Bolton might be the guy to do it.

According to AP 59 former US-American diplomats opposed Bolton.

(Besides, the UN does have personal with diplomatic passports, but no explicit ambassadors as far as I could find out.)

Yes, Walter ... I know. Bolton is nominated to be a "UN Ambassador" in the same sense those folks were.

Acrimony dominates Iraqi assembly session

Newly elected lawmakers fail to agree on speaker

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The Iraqi National Assembly failed to choose a speaker Tuesday after arguments broke out among lawmakers and reporters were ordered to leave the session.

Assembly members expressed outrage that no agreement had been reached after two sessions.

"The Iraqi people who defied the security threats and voted -- what shall we tell them? What is the reason for this delay?" politician Hussein al-Sadr told Reuters. Al-Sadr is a member of the coalition led by interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.

Eventually, the assembly's acting speaker ordered reporters out of the session and cut off a video feed from the proceedings. Members then huddled in a closed-door meeting.

A Western diplomat watching the session called the decision to cut the video feed "an embarrassment."

Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, the interim national security adviser, said he expected the 275-member transitional body to reconvene Sunday and pick a Sunni Arab for speaker before proceeding to choose a president and confirm a prime minister and Cabinet.

Al-Rubaie said the Sunnis have a chance to put forth a consensus candidate before then. If they don't, the assembly will go forward and vote for one of the 17 Sunnis in the assembly.

Hashim al-Hasani, the interim industry and minerals minister and a Sunni, said Sunnis plan to meet over the next few days to decide on a candidate.

The assembly has failed to form a new government since the January 30 election of its members. Naming a speaker was to be the first step forward.

Millions of Iraqi voters risked attacks by insurgents to vote in the election.

Taxi driver Mohammed Ahmed Ali told Reuters: "It is a farce. If they couldn't form a government till now, how will they lead a country?"

On Monday, acrimony heightened when interim President Ghazi al-Yawar, a Sunni Arab Muslim, declined an invitation to the speaker post by members of the United Iraqi Alliance and Kurdish bloc, which placed first and second, respectively, in the January vote.

Officials from these coalitions had expressed a desire to have a Sunni Arab as speaker, who serves as assembly president, to broaden the Sunnis' participation in the new government.

Most Sunnis, who held power under Saddam Hussein, stayed away from polling places in January. Much of the insurgency is taking place in the so-called Sunni Triangle, west of Baghdad.

Assembly sources said that 80 percent to 90 percent of positions for a new government already have been negotiated, with a few key security posts up for grabs.

Attacks target security forces

Insurgents struck Iraqi security forces Monday, killing the head of a Baghdad police station and four other officers in separate attacks, police said.

Col. Abdul Kahrim Fahad, head of the Balat al-Shouhada police station, and his driver were gunned down in a drive-by shooting.

Earlier Monday, a roadside bomb exploded near an Iraqi police patrol in southwestern Baghdad, killing one Iraqi policeman and wounding five other people, including three Iraqi police.

In another attack Monday, a suicide bomber on a motorcycle killed three police officers and wounded two civilians south of Baghdad in Musayyab, said Hilla police chief Qais Al-Azzawi. The police were protecting pilgrims walking to the holy Muslim cities of Najaf and Karbala, he said.

Also south of Baghdad in Salman Pak, Iraqi security forces Monday came upon what the U.S. military called "a large terrorist base." The forces encountered light resistance and captured more than 90 suspects, the military said.

Other developments

A U.S. soldier was killed Monday in a "nonhostile" incident, the military said. No other details were immediately available. Since the start of the Iraq war, 1,528 U.S. forces have been killed in Iraq.

Insurgents armed with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades engaged American soldiers conducting a weapons search in the northern city of Tal Afar on Monday, the military said. The soldiers returned fire and killed one of the insurgents, the military said. During Tuesday operations, the soldiers arrested four people in nearby Mosul. On Monday, five people were arrested south of Mosul and another in Tal Afar.


Three Romanian journalists were kidnapped Monday night in Baghdad, said their employer, Prima TV, and a Western security source. (Full story)

An independent U.N. investigative committee is expected to clear Secretary-General Kofi Annan of a conflict of interest in the now-defunct Iraqi oil-for-food program. But it is expected to criticize his oversight of the aid program, a source familiar with the report said Monday. (Full story)

CNN's Kevin Flower, Ayman Mohyeldin, Aneesh Raman and Zoran Stevanovic contributed to this report.

Terrorist training camps were established in an area of Iraq beyond the Iraqi government's control at the time. The Kurds who had de facto control over the area were well prepared to deal with these terrorists. It was the US that ultimately hindered their move against these terrorists. The invasion and occupation of the entire country in the name of removing an isolated group of terrorists in an isolated area of Iraq was ham-handed and gross overkill. The invasion and occupation of the entire country in presumption that no more terrorists will establish there is asinine.

1. The justification for our invasion of Iraq is derived from the proposition, facts and logic that follow.

2. Proposition: Our government cannot secure our lives, our liberties and our pursuits of happiness by attempting to exterminate al Qaeda terrorists without removing those governments that knowingly provide sanctuary for al Qaeda terrorist bases.

I assume Al Qaeda terrorist bases are necessary for the successful perpetration by al Qaeda terrorists of al Qaeda terrorism.

3. President Bush announced to the nation, Tuesday night, 9/11/2001, that our war was not only with the terrorists who have declared war on us, it is also with those governments that “harbor” terrorists. President Bush announced to the nation, to Congress and to the rest of the world, Thursday night, 9/20/2001, that our war was not only with the terrorists who have declared war on us, it is also with those governments that “support” terrorists.

Source: 9/11 Commission Report.

4. On 9/11/2001 there were terrorist training bases in both Afghanistan and Iraq. The terrorist training bases in Afghanistan were established in 1988 after the Russians abandoned their war in Afghanistan. The terrorist training bases in Iraq were re-established in 2001 after the Kurds had defeated them a couple of years earlier.

Source: 9/11 Commission Report.

5. We invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 without obtaining UN approval and removed Afghanistan's tyrannical government, because that government refused to attempt to remove the terrorist bases from Afghanistan.

Source: 9/11 Commission Report.

6. We invaded Iraq in March 2003 without obtaining UN approval and removed Iraq's tyrannical government, because that government refused to attempt to remove the terrorist bases from Iraq.

Sources: 9/11 Commission Report; Secretary of State Colin Powell’s speech to UN 2/5/2003.

7. We are attempting to secure a democratic government of the Afghanistanis own design in Afghanistan primarily because such a government is presumed less likely to permit the re-establishment of terrorist bases there.

Source: 9/11 Commission Report.

8. We are attempting to secure a democratic government of the Iraqis own design in Iraq primarily because such a government is presumed less likely to permit the re-establishment of terrorist bases there.

Source: 9/11 Commission Report.

9. I think that only after this enormously difficult work is completed successfully, will the US again possess sufficient means to seriously consider invasions to remove any other tyrannical governments that refuse to attempt to remove terrorist bases from their countries.

Cyclo You made some good points about the dollar/euro factor being a big influence on the war. You've probably seen this, but its well worth reading for anyone such as Ican who hasn't.
http://www.feasta.org/documents/review2/nunan.htm

"One sees things from a much different perspective at an altitude of 45,000 feet."
One certainly does Ican, in your case I would suggest lack of oxygen.

Lack of perspective as well; we all look like ants from up there, and who cares about ants? Cycloptichorn