Iraq war

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Al-Sadr Orders His Militia Off Streets of Basra
Al-Sadr Orders His Militia Off Streets of Basra
Updated

Al-Sadr Orders His Militia Off Streets of Basra

He offers weakened Maliki a truce deal as violence continues

(Newser) - Iraqi Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his fighters to leave the streets of Basra and other cities, reports the BBC, in an effort to end clashes with security forces. “Anyone carrying a weapon and targeting government institutions will not be one of us,” Sadr said, but minutes after...

21 Wins Big at Box Office
21 Wins Big at Box Office

21 Wins Big at Box Office

Iraq war flick Stop-Loss stumbles in at no. 8

(Newser) - Gambling flick 21 played to win this weekend and banked $23.7 million, scoring top spot at the box office, Variety reports. But it failed to revive overall ticket sales, which are down 17% from last year's frame and about a third for the year. Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a ...

Protest Songs Get Tuned Out
 Protest Songs Get Tuned Out 

Protest Songs Get Tuned Out

Downloading, disconnection leaving generation without a soundtrack

(Newser) - So where are all the anti-war anthems? Opposition to the Vietnam War spawned a genre of classic counterculture songs, but not so the Iraqi war, despite widespread opposition. The main reason, Politico notes, is the narrowed scope of the music industry today. Singers still sing protests songs, but only their...

Brits Join the Fight in Basra
Brits Join the Fight in Basra

Brits Join the Fight in Basra

US widens its airstrikes, and Sadr tells followers to keep their weapons

(Newser) - As the Iraqi army struggles to combat militias in Basra, British troops for the first time directly joined the fight, and American forces expanded their bombing beyond the militia stronghold. The Brits, who had previously provided only logistical and air support to the Iraqis, fired on an insurgent mortar team...

Criticism Dogs Basra Battle
Criticism Dogs Basra Battle

Criticism Dogs Basra Battle

US influence limited in potential quagmire, fight likely to drag on: military officials

(Newser) - As US troops are drawn deeper into the four-day-old Iraqi crackdown on militants in Basra,  critics see a long and difficult road ahead. While President Bush praised the operation as a "defining moment in the history of a free Iraq," military officials murmured that the battle "...

Pundits Spar Over McCain as Dubya Redux
Pundits Spar Over McCain as Dubya Redux
OPINION

Pundits Spar Over McCain as Dubya Redux

Righty says speech shows foreign policy shift; lefty has deja vu

(Newser) - John McCain’s foreign-policy address Wednesday split watchers, with David Brooks, in the New York Times, declaring the Republican candidate a breath of fresh air and Glenn Greenwald, in Salon, seeing four more years of George W. Bush. Brooks says the “personal, nuanced and ambitious speech” shows McCain to...

Stop-Loss Earnest But Flawed
 Stop-Loss Earnest But Flawed 
movie review

Stop-Loss Earnest But Flawed

Movie about Iraq war loses steam stateside

(Newser) - While some critics are calling Stop-Loss, Kimberly Peirce’s long-awaited Boys Don’t Cry follow-up, earnest and, at times, riveting, none of them seem to see it as the definitive Iraq war film. But the picture, about some GIs who’ve completed their tours of duty only to be told...

Bush Praises Iraqi Offensive
 Bush Praises Iraqi Offensive 

Bush Praises Iraqi Offensive

President scolds Congress' calls for withdrawal

(Newser) - President Bush praised the government of Iraq today for the offensive launched three days ago against militias in Basra, painting it as a sign of progress toward the goals of the US war, the AP reports. Bush also criticized Congress for calling for troop withdrawals so the military’s attention...

Saddam's Last Days Revealed
 Saddam's Last Days Revealed 

Saddam's Last Days Revealed

CNN tours the former dictator's US detention cell

(Newser) - The dictator who ruled with a murderous fist spent his time writing in his journal and tending to a small garden his captors allowed him in the prison courtyard. And on his execution day, the man known as "Vic" told guards to tell his daughter he was going to...

Saddam Paid for Lawmakers' Trip to Iraq

Three congressmen unaware he financed visit in 2002

(Newser) - Saddam Hussein secretly paid for a trip made by three congressmen to Iraq in 2002  just ahead of the US invasion, the AP reports. The congressmen, all of whom opposed the war, did not know Saddam financed the trip because he funneled the money through a nonprofit group in Michigan....

Brown: World Needs US to Lead
 Brown: World Needs US to Lead

Brown: World Needs US to Lead

PM will exhort global leadership to presidential candidates

(Newser) - British PM Gordon Brown plans a landmark speech in Boston next month, calling on the US to once again provide inspiration to a world in need of American "values and leadership." The address will be aimed at John McCain, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama—not President Bush, the...

Obama's Foreign Policy Would Be Radical Overhaul
Obama's Foreign Policy Would Be Radical Overhaul
ANALYSIS

Obama's Foreign Policy Would Be Radical Overhaul

Advisers talk up breaking from orthodoxy with 'dignity' doctrine

(Newser) - Barack Obama provides “the most sweeping liberal foreign-policy critique” from a presidential contender in decades, writes Spencer Ackerman in the American Prospect—focusing not on fear, but rather on what advisers call “dignity promotion.” Ackerman credits the candidate's brain trust with cutting through “Democratic timidity” to...

Pa. Primary Turns Politics of Race On Its Ear

Prominent Dems cross racial lines to back their candidates

(Newser) - The upcoming primary in Pennsylvania pits two of the state's prominent young Democrats against each other in a battle that seems to defy the normal conventions of race and politics, USA Today reports. Philadelphia's popular black mayor is pushing hard for Clinton in the city, where Obama is nearly a...

Bush: 4,000 US Lives 'Were Not Lost in Vain'

Prez suffers worse 'burden' than military families, Cheney says

(Newser) - President Bush sympathizes with the families of 4,000 Americans slain in Iraq, he said today. They "were not lost in vain. One day, people will look back at this moment in history and say, 'Thank God there were courageous people willing to serve,'" CNN reports. In an...

FBI Recovers 2 US Contractors in Iraq

4 others still missing after severed fingers put focus on hunt

(Newser) - The FBI said today it has the bodies of two US contractors who were kidnapped in Iraq, the AP reports. John Roy Young, a security worker, and Ronald Withrow, employed by an IT firm, were two of six contractors kidnapped in Iraq over the past 2 years. Journalists shone attention...

Security Comes to Fallujah With Saddam-Like Iron Fist

US hails progress, but top cop relies on brutal tactics, says democracy not for Iraq

(Newser) - Fallujah, a hotbed of violence that has shown signs of stability, is trumpeted by the US as a success story of the Iraq war effort. But the security achieved there, largely the work of Faial Ismail al-Zobaie, the city’s police chief and a former insurgent, is the result of...

US Death Toll in Iraq War Hits 4,000

Latest roadside bombing kills 4 American servicemen

(Newser) - A roadside bomb yesterday killed 4 US servicemen, hiking the American death toll in the Iraq war to at least 4,000, AP reports. Another soldier was wounded in the blast, which came less than a week after the fifth anniversary of the war. At least 61 other people died...

Military Death Payments Trouble Families

$500,000 windfalls for next of kin can cause confusion, discord

(Newser) - The military pays $500,000 to the next of kin of every soldier killed in Iraq or Afghanistan, but the sudden injection of cash during a time of grief often throws survivors off balance. Young military spouses can struggle with money management and long-lost friends and relatives sometimes appear asking...

Va. Senator Not the Firebrand Many Expected

Mr. Webb goes to Washington and plays nice

(Newser) - Virginia Sen. James Webb hasn’t played the part of hot-tempered agitator many expected in his freshman term, the Washington Post reports. Making friends and taking legislative strides, Webb “has vaulted to a position of influence,” said one colleague. But "the job of getting out and speaking...

Numbers Tell the Tale in Iraq
 Numbers Tell the Tale in Iraq 

Numbers Tell the Tale in Iraq

As US deaths approach 4,000, here's a look behind the statistics

(Newser) - As US troop losses in Iraq near 4,000, USA Today profiles the dead: 98% were male, and the most common age among those killed was 21—but one in six was younger. The bloodiest day was Jan. 26, 2005, when a helicopter crash killed 31 and six died in...

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