The Flashlight, August 11-17, 2007
THE FLASHLIGHT, August 11-17, 2007
Iraq
NY Times 8-12. The leading Democratic candidates for President (Clinton, Obama, and Edwards) are now saying that leaving Iraq may take years. They express fears of wider war, genocide, and an Al-Qaida takeover in case of complete withdrawal. But Bill Richardson is saying, “Just get out.” [and so is Dennis Kucinich].
NYTimes Editorial 8-13. Any plan to stay in Iraq in reduced numbers outside of the cities in order to train Iraqi security forces just won’t work. No Iraqi government will be able to control the cities any time soon. As the US draws down its forces, attacks on them will increase, judging from the current British experience.
CNN 8-13. Michael Ware: the US is cutting deals with Sunni Baathists to fight Al-Qaida in northern Iraq, and Al-Qaida attacks have been cut 50%. But that is a move toward a wider war, in which the US sides with Sunnis instead of Shias. [The Shias have been getting military help from Iran.] Baghdad is now ethnically segregated, or “cleansed,” but there are still about twenty torture deaths discovered every morning.
Guardian 8-14. A terrible attack on three villages 75 miles west of Mosul with fuel trucks called at least 250 and wounded over 300 persons. The victims were ethnic Kurds but members of a religious minority, the Yezidis. Moslems and Yezidis are endogamous: they are forbidden to marry only outside their own religious group. The Yezidi religion is pre-Islamic in origin, and contains elements of Zoroastrianism and Mithraism. One of their religious symbols is the peacock. They have tended to support the American occupation of Iraq.
According to the Iraqi police, the massacre was incited by a love affair between a seventeen year old Yezidi girl and a Muslim man; the girl converted to Islam. In revenge, the Yezidis stoned her to death. [The Muslims would have done the same if the roles had been reversed: this is an expression of the honor/shame concept that is cross-cultural around the Mediterranean Basin.]
US News
NY Times. Spending lavishly, Mitt Romney won the Iowa Republican straw poll with 32% of the votes. Huckabee, who spent
little, won 18%. The latter is an effective public speaker.
Guardian 8-13. The US rate for life expectancy has fallen from eleventh place in the world 20 years ago, to forty second place today.
Some attribute this to the lack of health insurance of 45 million Americans and that one-third of American adults are obese.
NY Times 8-13. Karl Rove resigned as deputy chief of staff and senior Advisor to President Bush as of August 31. He “needed to spend more time with his family.”
Iraq
NY Times 8-12. The leading Democratic candidates for President (Clinton, Obama, and Edwards) are now saying that leaving Iraq may take years. They express fears of wider war, genocide, and an Al-Qaida takeover in case of complete withdrawal. But Bill Richardson is saying, “Just get out.” [and so is Dennis Kucinich].
NYTimes Editorial 8-13. Any plan to stay in Iraq in reduced numbers outside of the cities in order to train Iraqi security forces just won’t work. No Iraqi government will be able to control the cities any time soon. As the US draws down its forces, attacks on them will increase, judging from the current British experience.
CNN 8-13. Michael Ware: the US is cutting deals with Sunni Baathists to fight Al-Qaida in northern Iraq, and Al-Qaida attacks have been cut 50%. But that is a move toward a wider war, in which the US sides with Sunnis instead of Shias. [The Shias have been getting military help from Iran.] Baghdad is now ethnically segregated, or “cleansed,” but there are still about twenty torture deaths discovered every morning.
Guardian 8-14. A terrible attack on three villages 75 miles west of Mosul with fuel trucks called at least 250 and wounded over 300 persons. The victims were ethnic Kurds but members of a religious minority, the Yezidis. Moslems and Yezidis are endogamous: they are forbidden to marry only outside their own religious group. The Yezidi religion is pre-Islamic in origin, and contains elements of Zoroastrianism and Mithraism. One of their religious symbols is the peacock. They have tended to support the American occupation of Iraq.
According to the Iraqi police, the massacre was incited by a love affair between a seventeen year old Yezidi girl and a Muslim man; the girl converted to Islam. In revenge, the Yezidis stoned her to death. [The Muslims would have done the same if the roles had been reversed: this is an expression of the honor/shame concept that is cross-cultural around the Mediterranean Basin.]
US News
NY Times. Spending lavishly, Mitt Romney won the Iowa Republican straw poll with 32% of the votes. Huckabee, who spent
little, won 18%. The latter is an effective public speaker.
Guardian 8-13. The US rate for life expectancy has fallen from eleventh place in the world 20 years ago, to forty second place today.
Some attribute this to the lack of health insurance of 45 million Americans and that one-third of American adults are obese.
NY Times 8-13. Karl Rove resigned as deputy chief of staff and senior Advisor to President Bush as of August 31. He “needed to spend more time with his family.”
posted by THE FLASHLIGHT at 7:59 AM
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