Free Republic

Churchill once quipped that “a lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to put its pants on.”  On the whole, the international press has done much to advance this remark over the course of the last few weeks, telling tales of misconception as to what recently happened in Iraq’s southern port city of Basra. (James Hider, Juan Cole, and Reuters were among the worst transgressors.)              As some would have us see it, the story apparently goes something like this: Iraqi premier Nouri Maliki reluctantly sent his security forces south to reestablish control of Basra...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki complained Tuesday that the long-awaited Baghdad security operation was off to a slow start and warned insurgents are taking advantage of the delay to kill as many people as possible. But he reassured Iraqis that security forces will live up to their responsibilities. The statement came as new checkpoints were erected and increased vehicle inspections and foot patrols were reported in some neighborhoods — providing the main evidence so far that U.S. and Iraqi forces were gearing up for a major neighborhood-to-neighborhood sweep to quell the spiraling sectarian violence in the city of...

Excerpt - WASHINGTON, Oct. 21 — The Bush administration is drafting a timetable for the Iraqi government to address sectarian divisions and assume a larger role in securing the country, senior American officials said. Details of the blueprint, which is to be presented to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki before the end of the year and would be carried out over the next year and beyond, are still being devised. But the officials said that for the first time Iraq was likely to be asked to agree to a schedule of specific milestones, like disarming sectarian militias, and to a...