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  NEWS FOR THE WEEK OF DECEMBER 5, 2005PDF Version    "Nearly Twice As Many Iraqi Security Forces Will Be Available To Guard [The Dec. 15 Election] As Were On Hand During Voting In January ..." (Robert Burns, "U.S. General Says Iraqis Will Have Nearly 100,000 More Troops Available For Election Security," The Associated Press, 12/2/05)   "[225,000] Members Of The Iraqi Army And Police Will Be Operating During This Month's Elections ... Compared To The 130,000 Fielded During Parliamentary Elections In January." (Robert Burns, "U.S. General Says Iraqis Will Have Nearly 100,000 More Troops Available For Election Security,"...

TEXT OF THE PRESIDENT'S BRIEFING ON IRAQI AIRSTRIKES. Good evening. Earlier today, I ordered America's armed forces to strike military and security targets in Iraq. They are joined by British forces. Their mission is to attack Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs and its military capacity to threaten its neighbors. Their purpose is to protect the national interest of the United States, and indeed the interests of people throughout the Middle East and around the world. Saddam Hussein must not be allowed to threaten his neighbors or the world with nuclear arms, poison gas or biological weapons. I want...

Perhaps the best explanation for the Democrats' decision to virtually shut down the Senate today can be found in one passage from CIA leak prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's news conference last Friday: This indictment is not about the war. This indictment's not about the propriety of the war. And people who believe fervently in the war effort, people who oppose it, people who have mixed feelings about it should not look to this indictment for any resolution of how they feel or any vindication of how they feel....The indictment will not seek to prove that the war was justified or unjustified....