Free Republic

The Iraq War did not Force Gadaffi's HandThe Financial Times, March 9, 2004Martin S. Indyk, Director, Saban Center for Middle East Policy Martin S. Indyk Embarrassed by the failure to find Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, President George W. Bush is trying to find another WMD-related justification for his pre-emptive war on Iraq. Bush administration spokesmen have been quick to portray Libya's December decision to abandon WMD programmes as the direct result of the US invasion of Iraq or, as Mr. Bush himself put it in his State of the Union address: "Nine months of intense negotiations succeeded with...

'Doonesbury' lists U.S. dead in Iraq By JOSEPH KAHN The Boston Globe Readers of today's comics pages may want to keep a magnifying glass handy, or else don a blindfold. Six Doonesbury panels list the names of U.S. military personnel killed in Iraq. The list covers the casualties up to April 23, the date that cartoonist Garry Trudeau submitted the strip for publication. Doonesbury serves up the names without comment. For most readers, however, decoding its antiwar message will be no harder than brewing their morning coffee. Some comic strips grind their axes with noisy fanfare. This one is...

As an avid supporter of the President's Iraq policies, the last few days have been difficult for me. The number of casualties seemed to reach a "critical mass" for me. I found myself simply not caring to sacrifice anymore of our brave soldiers for Iraqi independence and democracy. Screw 'em. I was not sure why I began to feel this way. As I said I am an avid supporter of the plan to bring an oasis of freedom and liberty to the 12th century toilet that is the middle east. It seemed to me that if we are to end...

<p>April 30, 2004 -- Tonight, ABC's "Nightline" will do something unique: It will use its entire program to show the name and face of each U.S. service member killed in Iraq, including those who died in accidents and other non-combat situations. There's nothing inherently wrong with this. Done right, it could serve as a moving tribute to those young Americans who have died in the War on Terror.</p>

NewsBlues.com is reporting [no free link] that Sinclair Broadcast Group has ordered its ABC-affiliated stations not to carry tomorrow's "Nightline," which will air the names and photos of soldiers who have been killed in combat in Iraq. Sinclair General Counsel Barry Faber tells the site: "We find it to be contrary to the public interest." The boycott will affect eight ABC-affiliated Sinclair stations.

BAGHDAD, April 26 -- It was supposed to be the perfect symbol for a new and unified Iraq: an Islamic crescent on a field of pure white, with two blue stripes representing the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and a third yellow stripe to symbolize the country's Kurdish minority. But the new national flag, presented Monday after an artistic competition sponsored by the Iraqi Governing Council, appears to have met with widespread public disapproval here...

Is the War in Iraq becoming like the War in Vietnam once was? No, if you look at the facts on the blood cost of the war. Yes, if you’re still stuck in the tie-died mind set of Woodstock. To explain: A number of apparently reputable media outlets in the United States have fostered the equation of Iraq equals Vietnam by breathlessly reporting of late that “US casualties in Iraq have reached levels not seen since Vietnam.” This demonstrates both historical ignorance and political bias. The bias is intended to promote the “quagmire” merchants. But the facts are far easier...

A friend told me a very sad story about a local TV station lying about comments of a father whose son just died in Iraq in the last couple weeks. My friend is going to talk to the friend about possibly going public. I recall that there was a similar incident in the last few weeks and I'm looking for the story or links to it on FR. As I remember, a step-father (hereafter "father") of a fallen soldier or Marine was approached by a local TV reporter (I think it was Houston, TX). Reporter asked the father if he...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US support for the conflict in Iraq is eroding, according to the latest CNN/Time survey, which found, amid a new Iraqi insurgency against US troops, that 57 percent of Americans think US military goals will fail unless a tougher stance is taken. Approval of US President George W. Bush and his administration's handling of Iraq was down to 44 percent of Americans, according to the poll, new elements of which were released Sunday, down from 51 percent surveyed March 26-28. Meanwhile, Bush's overall approval rating had sunk to a record low of 49 percent since CNN/Time started...

BROWNSVILLE -- Former President Carter on Thursday called the Bush administration's decision to wage war against Iraq "ill-advised and unnecessary," adding the resulting campaign "has turned out to be a tragedy." The former Democratic president also said Bush's environmental policies are perhaps the worst in the nation's history. Carter made the comments at the Rio R.V. Park after wrapping up a four-day birding trip with his wife, Rosalynn, in the lower Rio Grande Valley. "President Bush's war was ill-advised and unnecessary and based on erroneous statements, and has turned out to be a tragedy," Carter said. "And my prayer has...

President Bush is facing increasing dissent among leading conservative politicians and pundits in the face of mounting U.S. casualties in Iraq. The war has become the long slog that some Republicans feared. Since Sunday, 32 Americans have been killed in fighting across Iraq. American body bags are on the front page of major U.S. newspapers. The Washington Post and The New York Times brandished images of charred U.S. civilian remains last week. The networks are leading their nightly news broadcasts with stories of dead Americans. "If we have two or three more weeks of this you are going to start...

  Print this article |   Close this window There are dangers in hyperbole January 7, 2004 Some would rather the US failed than Iraq prospered, writes Tony Parkinson.A Belgian colleague of mine from the days of the 1991 Gulf War, Alain Hertoghe, has been sacked from his job at the La Croix newspaper in Paris. His crime? To have the temerity to suggest publicly that American strategy in Iraq was not the wholesale strategic disaster so many commentators, in France and elsewhere in the West, would have us believe.In his book, The War of Outrages, Hertoghe monitored war coverage by five...

<p>January 12, 2004 -- It's the all-new Baghdad Bob - he's cleaned up his act, dyed his hair and he's back on the air. Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, the Iraqi minister of disinformation who became famous for his absurd daily reports that Iraq was winning the war, has popped up on Arab television as a commentator - as these new exclusive photos show.</p>

Twelve months ago, the international community heaved a sigh of relief as the major powers appeared to reach a compromise on how to manage Iraq. But Washington's determination to act on its own cut short the role of U.N. weapons inspectors and challenged the very notion that the organization has a role to play in issues of peace and security. Today, the international scene is much altered. Bogged down in Iraq, Washington is relying on multilateral processes to address threats of nuclear proliferation in North Korea and Iran. It also has backed down on protectionist tariffs on steel imports condemned...

A study of television news coverage of the war in Iraq says ABC’s World News Tonight was the most antiwar — far more than CBS, NBC or Fox. — USA Today, September 9 Antiwar? What are we to make of that word, exactly? For starters, it brings to mind a twelve-year-old study on press coverage of the Catholic Church by the Center for Media and Public Affairs, the same outfit that did the study mentioned above. The findings then: press coverage is anti-Catholic. The center, which works to maintain a neutral image, did not use exactly those words but did...

WHY ARE WE STILL THERE?????????? It is time to take a serious look at our involvement there. Every day there are news reports about more deaths. Every night on the TV are photos of death and destruction. Why are we still there? The land is too large to secure all of it. The bad people causing this damage can roam anywhere, and we can't possibly police the whole place. Why are we still there? We occupied this land, which we had to take by force, but it causes us nothing but trouble. Why are we still there? Their government is...

The capture of Saddam Hussein is good news to virtually everyone, except those who have been looking for a quagmire in Iraq from day one. Back when the war was just getting under way last spring, a dust storm that temporarily stopped the American troops advancing toward Baghdad was loudly proclaimed as a quagmire by some media deep thinkers.With all the complaints about what has not been done yet in Iraq, we need to step back and think about the fact that less than a year has elapsed since the war began. This should be in the Guinness Book of...

PALESTINIANS today accused former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein of cowardice after the long-time hero to many in the West Bank and Gaza Strip was captured without a struggle by US troops near his hometown. Saddam's support and financial aid to the tune of thousands of dollars for the families of Palestinian suicide bombers during the three-year intifada made the former Iraqi strongman a popular figure in the occupied territories. Palestinians celebrated during the 1991 Gulf War when Saddam's forces fired dozens of Scud missiles at Israel. But today many were quick to draw a contrast between Saddam's meek surrender and...

The humiliating images of Saddam Hussein's capture by US forces risk increasing Arab support for the Iraqi resistance and sharpening their appetite for revenge, analysts said on Monday. "I felt extremely humiliated," said Egyptian writer Sayyid Nassar, who interviewed Saddam three weeks before the US-led invasion of Iraq on 20 March. "I felt it was not only a humiliation of Arabs but of all humanity. "By shaving his beard, a symbol of virility in Iraq and in the Arab world, the Americans committed an act that symbolizes humiliation in our region, where getting shaved by one's enemy means robbing him...

<p>At first I thought I was dreaming. I was half asleep and only turned on the TV for a weather report. Snow and an accompanying "wintry mix" had been forecast for the Washington area, and I was concerned about not being able to shop for family Christmas presents.</p>