Juan Cole - August 2 & 3, 2005

Straw Admits Coalition Troops a Problem
Seven Marines Killed in Western Iraq
At Least 41 Others Killed Tuesday

First the Polish Prime Minister didn't have the talking points from Karl Rove. Now the UK Foreign Minister, Jack Straw, has had an attack of frankness:

' First there is Iraq. “Things are not good there at the moment,” he says, acknowledging the strength of the terrorist insurgency. But he believes a new Iraqi constitution can be agreed by the deadline of the middle of next month. “The more certainty you have on that, the more you can have a programme for the draw-down of troops which is important for the Iraqis,” he says. “Because – unlike in Afghanistan – although we are part of the security solution there, we are also part of the problem.” '

He said what? It looks to me as though Blair really is determined to get most British troops out of Iraq during the coming year, if his defense minister is making such a huge admission.

Fisking the "War on Terror"

Once upon a time, a dangerous radical gained control of the US Republican Party.



Reagan increased the budget for support of the radical Muslim Mujahidin conducting terrorism against the Afghanistan government to half a billion dollars a year.



One fifth of the money, which the CIA mostly turned over to Pakistani military intelligence to distribute, went to Gulbuddin Hikmatyar, a violent extremist who as a youth used to throw acid on the faces of unveiled girls in Afghanistan.