H15083
Headlines : "War on Terror"Bush sees 'encouraging news' in Iraq, Afghanistan
Casting around for something positive to say about his current military adventures, the President is reduced to gloating over the death of Haitham Sabah al-Badri, an al Qaeda leader in Iraq.
Meanwhile the U.S. army in Iraq is crumbling with terminal fatigue , the Brits have lost control of Basra and are rushing towards the exit, and the Taliban are making hay in Afghanistan.
[Posted By Watson]Republished from AP via CNN
President Bush, presiding over a nation dispirited by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, on Saturday cast both conflicts in terms of “encouraging news.”
In stating his case, the president emphasized enemy deaths.
“Our new strategy is delivering good results,” Bush said of Iraq in his weekly radio address, taped at his parents’ summer home on the rocky coast of Maine.
The president said his buildup of U.S. forces in Iraq, designed to provide security for the Iraqi government, was taking hold and showing gains.
He acknowledged again, though, that Iraq has made frustratingly slow political progress.
Posted by Watson
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From XINHUA.NET
WASHINGTON, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) — French President Nicolas Sarkozy will attend a picnic lunch with U.S. President George W. Bush and his family in Kennebunkport, Maine on Saturday, but Sarkozy’s wife Cecilia will not come due to illness, the White House said.
Cecilia Sarkozy called U.S. First Lady Laura Bush Saturday morning, saying that she and her children were not feeling well and therefore would not be attending the lunch, White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino said.
However, the spokeswoman said, “Mr. Sarkozy is still coming.”
:google:1724548370876617758
:“google”:”-1724548370876617758”
success
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1724548370876617758
LOL ... but they still went in knowing what would happen.
The more I think about it the more Iraq looks like a gamble, and US lost.
From day one.
But aint all wars gamble ? Allthough you pay price in lives…
Afghanistan: mounting attacks on US/NATO troops
OPEN QUOTE
Civilian casualties inflicted by US air strikes have been openly blamed by a British officer for the level of attacks on their forces in Helmand. An unnamed “senior British commander” told the New York Times last week that he had asked the US military to withdraw its small special forces’ units operating in the province. The indiscriminate bombing missions they call in when attacked are causing large numbers of innocent deaths. British bases and patrols bear the brunt of Afghan reprisals.
Independent researcher Michael Shaikh told the British Observer on Sunday that some 348 civilians have been killed in Helmand by US and NATO operations in the first six months of 2007. Shaikh described it as a “very bloody period” and accused the occupation troops of “indiscriminate and disproportionate” use of force.
The carnage is continuing unabated. On August 4, the puppet Afghan government in Kabul declared that 100 “Taliban” had been killed by an air strike on an alleged insurgent gathering in Helmand. Hospitals in the provincial capital Lashkar Gah and Kandahar, however, took in at least 40 wounded civilians.
The New York Times article cited accounts of recent US strikes on two villages in Helmand in response to reports of “Taliban” activity. Some 21 civilians were killed when the village of Sarwan Qala was bombed on May 8. Three days later, 18 wounded civilians from the nearby village of Sar Ghar were brought to a British base for medical assistance. The father of two seriously injured children told a journalist that men from the village were so furious that they had left to join local anti-occupation fighters.
Iranian leader in Kabul for talks
Guess who?
Iran plays the Central Asia card
Japan’s opposition flexes its muscles
OPEN QUOTE
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s party’s recent electoral defeat could spell the end for Japanese cooperation in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Opposition leader Ichiro Ozawa is adamant that the Upper House he now controls will not allow continued participation in the US-led coalition. Ozawa may be a conservative, but he doesn’t want Japan to be a handmaiden to the US.