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All but the most intransigent radical critics of the president agree that the United States must "stay the course." Even if the war was unnecessary, even if it was based on flawed (perhaps deceptive) intelligence, even if the current mess was the result of foolish -- not to say nonexistent -- planning, it would be wrong to simply walk way from chaos that we created. We cannot abandon the people. We cannot risk our credibility as the only superpower in the world. We cannot make fools of ourselves. We must not become the laughingstock of the world. That paragraph summarizes...

WASHINGTON - (KRT) - Despite persistent complaints about President Bush's policy in Iraq, few leading Democrats want to bring the GIs home anytime soon. The closest the party's presidential hopefuls have to a consensus approach would leave American troops in Iraq indefinitely and hope for more international help - not strikingly different from Bush's policy. The result is that the Democrats are in a box, eager to rip Bush for sending troops to Iraq without the support of many allies, but unwilling to advocate a withdrawal that they think would leave Iraq in turmoil, U.S. standing damaged abroad and their...

Iraqis Shouldering More of Security Mission By Jim GaramoneAmerican Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Nov. 6, 2003 – While the number of U.S. forces in Iraq will drop by May 2004, the security capability in the country will increase, DoD officials said today. Part of this is because the United States is placing different capabilities in the country, but the main reason is because the Iraqis are shouldering an increasing portion of the security burden. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Joint Chiefs Chairman Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers have always said it's important for Iraqis to pick up...

Washington - Democratic presidential contender Wesley Clark said on Thursday the United States should resist pressure for an early exit in Iraq, and called for a new Atlantic Charter to re-invigorate the security partnership with Europe. Clark, in the fourth and last in a series of policy speeches designed to sketch out his largely unknown positions on domestic and foreign policy, recommended the United States appoint an allied representative to guide Iraq's reconstruction while shifting the military operation to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) forces under US command. Clark, a retired general and former Nato commander, called for an...

The U.S. chief administrator in Iraq L. Paul Bremer, left, speaks as the U.S. military commander Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez listens during a news conference in Baghdad Saturday Nov. 1, 2003. Bremer said the coalition will accelerate the training of the Iraqi army and police to cope with new security threats. (AP Photo/Greg Baker) BAGHDAD, Iraq - The U.S.-led coalition will speed up the training of Iraqi soldiers and police to cope with new security threats following the stepped up attacks by insurgents, the chief administrator said Saturday. L. Paul Bremer told reporters that new money from Congress would allow...

Next year's election is now Bush's main focus. Analysis by Marian Wilkinson in Washington. George Bush does have an exit plan for Iraq, and its blurry outline was unveiled this week as the worst violence since the fall of Saddam Hussein exploded in the country. Bush flagged his strategy in a rare news conference on Tuesday. It calls for rapidly increasing the "Iraqification" of the conflict. By Thursday the Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, were spelling out what this meant. The idea is to push many more Iraqi police and security officials into the front lines...

...Yet it would be wrong for the United States to conclude, as its enemies no doubt hope it will, that the time has come to embrace an exit strategy. There is no basis to believe that the U.S. goals of stabilizing Iraq under a representative government cannot be achieved. In much of the country there is little violence and coalition authorities have the support of most of the population. Even in Baghdad, there has been measurable progress in recent months: More power is on, the curfew is lifted, streets and shops are usually full. Most important, the coalition authority and...

It is no small irony that the neocons who denounced this magazine as “isolationist” when we argued against invading and occupying Iraq have left America more isolated than ever before in its history. We are virtually friendless in Baghdad. Our NATO allies, Brits and Poles excepted, have left us to stew in our own juice. Russia will not help. Japan will not help. The president’s UN address, sandwiched as it was between speeches by Kofi Annan and Jacques Chirac, earned perfunctory applause, while they received ovations. Were it not for our contributions that subsidize the salaries, expense accounts, and pensions...

Since we successfully removed Saddam Hussein from power, there's been a tremendous amount of pressure from those on the far left in the press, Congress, and in Europe that we must create a new constitution and turn things over to the Iraqis ASAP. The White House has failed to sufficiently drive home the analogy of Japan and Germany, but they've also overlooked the fact that 2 and a half years after the war in Afghanistan, we still haven't given them control back and they still haven't even released a draft of a constitution. So why is the left so concerned...

<p>NEW YORK &#8212; The United States circulated a new draft resolution calling on Iraq's Governing Council to set a timeline by Dec. 15 for the transfer of power to Iraqis and increasing the role of the United Nations "as circumstances permit."</p>

October 1, 2003 What the War Revealed By David Quinn In the run-up to the recent Gulf War, I received a letter from a reader of the Irish Catholic, for which I was at that point still editor, declaring that if I kept up my support for the United States’s position with regard to Iraq, I would find myself automatically excommunicated from the Church. I had previously heard of Catholics who supported the war being described as dissidents, but to say that such people could consider themselves excommunicated was to take things to a new level entirely. My reader’s reasoning...

<p>It took the Erie Bomb Squad fewer than 14 minutes to mobilize, get in a truck and speed up thronged Peach Street on Aug. 28.</p> <p>But three members of the squad — two of whom were off duty when they got the call — could only get within 1.3 miles of pizza deliveryman Brian Wells before the bomb locked around his neck exploded, killing him.</p>

1941 - The Shah's pro-Axis allegiance in World War II leads to the Anglo-Russian occupation of Iran and the deposition of the Shah in favour of his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. 1950 - Ali Razmara becomes prime minister and is assassinated less than nine months later. He is succeeded by the nationalist, Mohammad Mossadeq. 1951 April - Parliament votes to nationalise the oil industry. The Anglo-Iranian Oil Company is unable to continue operations and as a result Britain boycotts the purchase of Iranian oil. A power struggle between the Shah and Mossadeq ensues. 1953 22 August - With the help...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The deadly 2001 U.S. anthrax attacks may have been carried out by someone who did not intend to cause any harm, a top FBI official said on Monday. Of the possibility that a scientist wanted to issue a wake-up call about the bioterrorism threat and it went out of control, FBI Assistant Director Michael Mason told a news conference, "That's a possible theory, but it's all conjecture." Asked why their had been no other attacks, Mason said, "I suppose the leading thought might be the person didn't intend to cause harm, and did." The FBI has been...

I am attempting to put together a comprehensive list of terror attacks against the US, other western coutries, their troops citizens, or assets. I need help from freepers who know of other attacks that could be listed or resources where I could find more info. I have excluded any attacks within Israel since these are too numerous to track. The list will be on my website along with the terrorist scorecard and the Iraqi leadership scorecard.

Chronology of events leading to Friday's filing of assault count: June 30: Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant and three associates check into The Lodge & Spa at Cordillera, a $360- to $700-a-night resort hotel in Edwards, about 10 p.m. 10:15 p.m.: Bryant moves around the lobby. 11 p.m.: A 19-year-old woman who works at the hotel as a concierge and receptionist goes off duty. 11:13 p.m.: A phone call lasting a few minutes is placed from Bryant's room to what is believed to be his Newport Beach, Calif., home, where his wife, Vanessa, and young daughter are staying. Before...

Red Robin case timeline How events in the case against Chuck Sigerson and Pat McPherson unfolded: Jan. 11: Chuck Sigerson, who was Omaha City Council president at the time, complains about a 11/2-hour wait for a table during a Red Robin VIP opening. Feb. 7: Sigerson accepts a limo ride and free dinner for eight to make up for his wait. A 17-year-old girl dressed as a Red Robin mascot complains that she was groped by Douglas County Election Commissioner Pat McPherson and that Sigerson grabbed her costume. Feb. 24: The Nebraska State Patrol tickets McPherson for third-degree sexual assault,...

<p>An Iraqi citizen tips off the military about the location and planning begins. The first phase of the operation is "setting the conditions for us to conduct the assault," Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of ground forces, later says.</p> <p>10 a.m. Forces commence a "cordon-and-knock" operation, in which an interpreter, using a bullhorn, orders the occupants to come out. Forces receive no response.</p>

Events of September 11, 2001. 8:48 a.m. American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767 en route from Boston's Logan Airport to Los Angeles International with 92 people onboard, slams into the north tower, 1 World Trade Center. 9:05 a.m. Approximately 18 minutes later, United Airlines Flight 175, also a Boeing 767 enroute from Boston to Los Angeles with 65 people onboard, hits the south tower, 2 World Trade Center. 9:21 a.m. New York City Port Authority closes all bridges and tunnels in New York City. 9:24 a.m. President Bush calls the crashes "an apparent terrorist attack on our country." 9:32...