CENTCOM Boss: Stop calling it a "long war"

It looks like this isn't going to be an endless global war in terror after all. Fresh off of Reuters News:

President George W. Bush used the phrase ["long war"] in his State of the Union address last year.

"Our own generation is in a long war against a determined enemy," he said.

But [General John] Abizaid's successor, Adm. William Fallon, has decided the term sends the wrong message to the Middle East, the area covered by his headquarters, by suggesting intense combat with many U.S. troops will continue there for a long time to come.

"The idea that we are going to be involved in a 'Long War', at the current level of operations, is not likely and unhelpful," Lt. Col Matt McLaughlin, a Central Command spokesman, said in an e-mail message on Tuesday.

"We remain committed to our friends and allies in the region and to countering al Qaeda-inspired extremism where it manifests itself, but one of our goals is to lessen our presence over time," he said.

"We didn't feel that the term 'Long War' captured this nuance," McLaughlin said.

McLaughlin said Central Command, based in Tampa, Florida, had "moved away" from the phrase in the last two weeks. He said Fallon, who took command last month, ordered the change after a recommendation by staff.

The shift is in keeping with public comments by Fallon, who has said that he is not a patient man, that time is short in Iraq and he wants to see results.

It sounds as if Adm. Fallon is saying "Git 'r done."

"World parliament" at the UN / International Compact for Iraq

"Humanity faces the task of ensuring the survival and well-being of future generations as well as the preservation of the natural foundations of life on earth. We are convinced that in order to cope with major challenges such as social disparity, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the threat of terrorism or the endangerment of global ecosystems, all human beings must engage in collaborative efforts.

To ensure international co-operation, secure the acceptance and to enhance the legitimacy of the United Nations ... people must be more effectively and directly included into the activities of the United Nations and its international organisations."

This statement above is part of an appeal recommending "a gradual implementation of democratic participation and representation on the global level" at the United Nations. Signed by 541 politicians, academics and business leaders from Europe and around the world, it is an appeal for the creation of a UN parliamentary assembly to overcome the "democratic deficit" in global affairs and give citizens a bigger voice. Some of the signers: Dame Anita Roddick, founder of the Body Shop; Arthur C Clarke, author of 2001: Space Odyssey; four Nobel Prize winners; and 377 MPs from 70 countries.

Here is more from the statement, which clearly democratizes the UN process in the "globalization" age, creating a footing for the inevitable participatory international politics of tomorrow. Direct elections of leaders are proposed for future consideration:

Such an assembly would not simply be a new institution; as the voice of citizens, the assembly would be the manifestation and vehicle of a changed consciousness and understanding of international politics. The assembly could become a political catalyst for further development of the international system and of international law. It could also substantially contribute to the UN's capacity to realize its high objectives and to shape globalization positively.


A Parliamentary Assembly at the United Nations could initially be composed of national parliamentarians. Step by step, it should be provided with genuine rights of information, participation and control vis à vis the UN and the organizations of the UN system. In a later stage, the assembly could be directly elected.


We appeal to the United Nations and the governments of its member states to establish a Parliamentary Assembly at the United Nations. We call for all organizations, decision-makers and citizens engaged with the international common interest to support this appeal.

I can just see former UN ambassador John Bolton pulling out his moustache hairs after reading this.


_ _ _ _ _ _



In somewhat related news, Political Theory Daily is reporting that "The United Nations-sponsored International Compact for Iraq, which seeks to consolidate peace in the war-torn country and pursue political, economic and social development over the next five years, will be launched in Egypt early next month."

When the U.S. pulls its troops out of Iraq - when the occupation ends - the international community will be ready. George W. Bush needs to stop the politicizing this war and do the people's will - accept the funding offered by Congress on their reasonable terms and move this occupation toward its conclusion - despite surge architect Frederick Kagan's pipe dreams about achieving a victory that we know can never be qualified. Bemoaning the American public's negative view of the Iraq war, Kagan thinks that "premature judgments influenced by a week's headlines, whether positive or negative, are unwise." Kagan must have never heard the song "It's Too Late" by the venerable songwriter Carole King. Someday, perhaps, when U.S. military can actually learn how to successfully fight a fourth-generation war instead of boasting about small battles won while the war is dismally lost, a President might be able to ask the public to support a war of which he [or she] is confident will be over before too many citizens are sick, ashamed, and disgusted by it. With Iraq, it's too late, baby.


SEE: As life fades away, Baghdad becomes a memory

Clinton Global Initiative Has Mid-Year Meeting

Hillary Clinton says that her husband Bill would be a roaming ambassador to the world if she happens to be elected as President. A completely new and different First Lady role? Not really, for First Ladies have alweays been good ambassadors... but you have to admit, a former President as First Lady is something totally new and filled with unique possibilities. The public interest in having a former president in the traditional First Lady role all depends on who that former President was. I mean - consider Laura Bush running for President and her husband being a roaming ambassador to the world. Dear Lord, wouldn't that be the pits?



Bill Clinton was busy this week with his Global Initiative mid-year meeting, where some of the powerful stories from among hundreds of CGI commitments that are making a difference around the world were highlighted.



This is an underplayed story that I believe is very important because alleviating global poverty and fostering positive people-to-people relationships across religious and cultural lines is key to not only the purely humanistic benefits, but to our own national security in the age of fourth-generation warfare and genocide.

Please take a moment and read these featured stories:

Ubuntu: From Vulnerability to Commitment

Proctor and Gamble: Bringing Clean Water to Africa

Different Faiths, Common Beliefs: The InterACTION Youth Exchange - In January of this year, 15 Americans, including Jews, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus, traveled to Amman, Jordan to live and work with 17 young Jordanians for eight days. While in Amman the group fostered strong relationships and understanding while traveling, having interfaith dialogues and sharing customs.


Stay informed about the CGI and the Clinton Foundation

Clinton Global Initiative at MySapce

MoDo Thinks We're Too Shallow to Care?

Good Lord. Zell Miller's red-haired highbrow hussy from New York City is at Satan's work again.

Excerpts from Running With Scissors, Maureen Dowd, NY Times April 21:

We haven’t reached the point where we can handle a green-tea-soy-latte-drinking, self-tanning-sea-salt-mango-body-wrapping, Norah-Jones-listening, yoga-toning chief executive.

[..]Americans have revered such homely leaders as Abe Lincoln. They seem open to balding pates like Rudy’s and flattops like Jon Tester’s. They don’t want self-confidence to look like self-love.

John Edwards has reminded us that even — or especially — in the age of appearances, you must not appear to care too much about appearances.

When you spend more on a couple of haircuts than Burundi’s per capita G.D.P. , it looks so vain it makes Paul Wolfowitz’s ablutions spitting on his comb look like rugged individualism.

Hmmmmm...let's see..

Do I prefer the (supposedly) low maintenance "he-man" who gives in to every greedy lobbyist and neocon comb-spitter like Wolfowitz (who got his honey-pie a sweet, fat raise when he got to the World Bank), seeks to drown America's social safety net in the bathtub, secures tax breaks and contracts for his rich friends, applies the English language like a third grader, destroys international trust, ignores the neediest in society, blows the New Orleans Katrina rescue and recovery, starts an unnecessary war by lying, and then perpetuates it with gross incompetence, harbors those who are closest to him - such as his Attorney General - who are as incapable as the day is long of doing what would be considered even CLOSE to an apolitical, fair, and independent job?





Or the higher-maintenance man who acknowledges that immigrants want to come to our wonderful country because people like him can come from nowhere … and now be running for president of the United States and paying $400 for a haircut [and looking pretty darn good if I must say so myself]?






I'd love to tell MoDo and the Drudge machine that it's no news bulletin that John Edwards earned every cent he ever made honestly. It's no news bulletin, as Elizabeth Edwards has said, that children in Robbins read in a nice children's library room, that high school students in Raleigh and Goldsboro do their research in nice computer labs, that Raleigh Parks and Rec centers have computer labs for residents, that the homeless in the Triangle [NC] have assistance with their shelters and Habitat for Humanity has assistance in building them homes -- among other things -- because John Edwards did not just spend what he earned on himself.

MoDo thinks we're too shallow to care about what really matters. After the past six years, I'd have to say I'm not buying it.

All I can say is that she must be joking. (And, let's face it - she can be awfully funny, although I am slightly disturbed to know that she is promoting mistrust of a candidate on a gender basis - not exactly your progressive comic! Does she still think we watch "Leave It To Beaver")?

Maybe Dowd will cut John Edwards some slack when he bows to her pressure and does THIS:



I won't hold my breath that either will happen - MoDo's claws will not be retracted just as sure as John Edwards will not pull out the Flowbee.


How much does it matter if someone like the badly-coifed John MCain shunned facials or that he only had 50 cent haircuts when he so strongly supports the Surge that is dragging our troops down further and further into the civil war between Iraqis?









How much does it matter, as a personal choice, that John Edwards gets an expensive haircut when you put his character up against the badly-coifed Rudy Giuliani, who left his wife and family for a new love while the Edwardses have stood by one another through thick and thin - sickness and health?

Let's talk about the choices that matter.




** This message has been brought to you by a blogger who may well be the Queen of the Cheap Haircuts. I can't help but wonder what the 'highbrow hussy' pays for the red tresses of hers [that Zell Miller loved so much] while she takes us for retro hicks who hate good haircuts more than we detest incompetency, greed, corruption, disloyalty, and lies.

Guns: What on God's Earth is McCain Thinking?

"I hope that we can find better ways of identifying people such as this sick young man so that we can prevent them from not only taking action with guns but with knives or with anything else that will harm their fellow citizens. [..] I strongly support the Second Amendment and I believe the Second Amendment ought to be preserved — which means no gun control."

- Sen. John McCain


John McCain has decided to pander to a South Carolina crowd and flaunt America's grief in its face by attempting to politically isolate the cause of the recent massacre as a mental health issue, pretending that weapons had nothing to do with what occurred. I'd wager most people would sense his stunning lack of empathy to such a level that they will remember it long after he said it.

To have John McCain sticking the gun issue so bluntly and directly in our faces after the worst massacre on a college campus in American history is as ugly as the photos of Cho with his guns in our faces - played endlessly and sickeningly by NBC and other television media.

This isn't Walker, Texas Ranger. This is America with real families with real children who expect that their top leaders will preside over a just and safe society.

Even President Bush President has had the decency and respect to say (in his own way), "Now is not the time to do the debate until we're actually certain about what happened and after we help people get over their grieving."

McCain's showing his ugly side - proudly.

In my view, what he has done and said at a time like this is far more offensive than anything Don Imus ever could have said.

This is the time for our candidates to not only take McCain's challenge on gun control, but to loudly shame him for his behavior at this terribly sensitive time. Al Gore's call for gun registration cost him votes in rural America in 2000. McCain thinks that our candidates will be afraid to speak out on this issue - and if they are afraid, they will not have an ounce of my respect or support.

In light of what just happened on one of America's college campuses, our Dem candidates' silence or "fuzziness" on the issue wouldn't settle well with my set of values - nor do I suspect it would sit well with most citizens.

I think this is the time for Democrats to come out and shun the politics of old where candidates once were too afraid of being a loser by keeping their intentions silent and failing to speak with strong moral conviction about an issue that most people can be made, with reason, to be convinced to change.

This is another disturbing clip from the South Carolina appearance showing that McCain has too much Walker Texas Ranger attitude, too little concern for the kind of REAL that America so desperately needs to GET! McCain's song is Pander Heaven....:

Va Tech Family - I'm So Sorry

I cannot imagine being a member of any family touched by this tragedy. My heart is broken for them and my soul is burdened knowing that our culture, both pop culture and political culture, is conducive to an event like this materializing on one of our college campuses where we expect and hope that our beautiful and much loved children will be safe.






I consider each of the young people on our college campuses across this nation to be MY child. I share in each family's sorrow today.



Violence, a significant problem in the United States, is a preventable public health and safety issue that is tracked as a disease by the Centers for Disease Control. *see the valuable information below*

I work in a program in which the curriculum teaches nonviolent conflict resolution skills to our children in grades 2-8. If this type of program cound be implemented in all schools, I'm not saying that a tragedy such as this one could have been prevented, but it can only help our society to give all of its children the tools they need to be self-aware and to make sound and healthy decisions towards others.

It would take a tiny percentage of the federal discretionary budget to move our culture away from the violence that pervades it today. Perhaps, in the days to come, we can have a healthy national discussion about making a new commitment to reduce violence in our diseased culture. The discussion should not only be about music and video games, but the very institutions that we look to for our information - vital to a healthy democracy - such as our television media.

In the shocking case of Virginia Tech, we need to hear more news about what is BEST in all of us rather than seeing the disturbing images of bodies being dragged around and videos of gun shots - repeated again and again. It's sick - and it's making us sick.

In showing the worst of the tragedy again and again and again - 24 hours a day - as the television media did with images of the 911 towers crumbling - MSM contributes to a mental illness that seems to be enveloping our society more and more by the day. I can tell you that I hear, firsthand, how many troubled people out here are affected by seeing these images and hearing about them over and over again. Not just in the case of the recent student killings, but every day.



Let's make a commitment to love one another as we would personally wish to be loved. Let's make a commitment to demanding a media that reflects who we are and not the constant and repeated reflection of shattering defeat surrounding that of which we've tried so hard to fight within our culture.

When we fail, as a society, to see a reflection of the angels of our better nature, the angels have a way of disappearing in the drowning drone of the media's reflection of our worst failures.






There's too much anger and hatred. The greatest gift we could give to the victims of yesterday's senseless killing spree and their grieving families is our cooperation in making sure this does not have to happen again to any more of our precious and valued citizens - old or young.

Elizabeth Edwards realizes that we'll likely never understand why this happened, but if we care and if we possess the will, together we will find a way to change this tragic course:

We don't know the stories yet, but surely we will. And we don't know why, and likely we will never really know and certainly we will never truly understand. But for each of them, we have to try, we have to learn why this tragedy repeats itself here, in this country of the greatest possibilities, a country built on the right to pursue happiness. Why here? We have to figure this out. And then we have to get about the business of fixing it.
For them, and for us all.

Courage and peace and mercy.

The CDC began studying patterns of violence in 1980. These early activities grew into a national program to reduce the death and disability associated with injuries outside the workplace. In 1992, CDC established the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC) as the lead federal agency for violence prevention. The Division of Violence Prevention (DVP) is one of three divisions within NCIPC.


DVP is committed to stopping violence before it begins (i.e., primary prevention). The division’s work involves:

- Monitoring violence-related injuries

- Conducting research on the factors that put people at risk or protect them from violence

- Creating and evaluating the effectiveness of violence prevention programs


DVP Mission Statement

-Prevent injuries and deaths caused by violence

- Helping state and local partners plan, implement, and evaluate prevention programs

- Conducting research on the effective adoption and dissemination of prevention strategies

LINK to CDC

Violence Takes its Toll Homicide and suicide are among the leading causes of death in the United States. Learn more

Youth Violence - from CDC
Fact Sheet

The Faces in the photos:

From Top:

Ryan "Stack" Clark, a well-loved Va Tech student who was killed while trying to save a fellow student's life.

Liviu Librescu, a Holocaust survivor and an Israeli engineering and math lecturer who was said to have protected his students' lives by blocking the doorway of his classroom from the approaching gunman. He was killed on the same day that Israel was marking Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Day.

Thank You, Paul Krugman

Paul Krugman has reassured my faith in sanity today by admitting that he sees something I've also been seeing for quite some time.

..a funny thing has happened on the Democratic side: the party’s base seems to be more in touch with the mood of the country than many of the party’s leaders.

Let me ask you, why should it be, as Mr. Krugman puts it, that "reluctant Democratic politicians are being dragged by their base into taking highly popular positions?"

It seems as if we're living in a society (and a political atmosphere) where the flow of public information made most easily available over the airwaves (by leaders and media)and the information that we get from the carefully-edited newspapers is set up to be off-base and misleading first - and the challenge is left to the least powerful (least corporate-sponsored) voices to fight the misleadings with what most of us have naturally (and long ago) come to a consensus as seeing as "true."

That is so twisted.

It's hard to believe that "Beltway insiders .. still don’t seem to realize how overwhelmingly the public has turned against President Bush." Yet, Mr. Krugman gives solid examples of those who are still lost in the alabaster castle-world of Washington D.C.

Mr. Krugman is correct. We were (and should have been) infuriated when Barack Obama (the "rock star") seemed to say that he would support an Iraq war funding bill without a timeline while only the few Freeper-type supporters of the Bush war say they believe Congress should allow war funding without a time limit. For someone who's bragging that he didn't support the Iraq war, I'm not bowled over by Senator Obama's hesitancy to put an end to the farce now that he has great power in his hands.

Mr. Krugman is coreect in saying that John Edwards is the only Democratic candidate who's offered a real-world, solid plan and path for universal healthcare. Where are the others? (nyceve asked the question today at Daily Kos).

Krugman ends his column is advising against the odd (anti-center) caution being displayed by Democrats in the halls of Congress.

Republicans will, for a while at least, be trapped in unpopular positions by a base that’s living in the past. Rudy Giuliani’s surge into front-runner status for the Republican nomination says more about the party than about the candidate. As The Onion put it with deadly accuracy, Mr. Giuliani is running for “President of 9/11.”

Democrats don’t have the same problem. There’s no conflict between catering to the Democratic base and staking out positions that can win in the 2008 election, because the things the base wants — an end to the Iraq war, a guarantee of health insurance for all — are also things that the country as a whole supports. The only risk the party now faces is excessive caution on the part of its politicians. Or, to coin a phrase, the only thing Democrats have to fear is fear itself.

I want to thank Mr. Krugman for causing me to feel - what is the word - Justified? Vindicated? Correct? ... for simply stating on a daily basis what my conscience has told me is the right thing to do and say.

Nation: Globalization Hasn't Been in U.S. National Interest

A Wake-Up Call:

Rubinomics may have looked great during the Bill Clinton era, but the cracks are showing and it will take a big business type with Wall street "cred" to convince the mainstream that globalization has taken us to a place where we did not imagine we would be when we began the experiment. Corporations that are born to eat anything that gets in their way have no patriotic streak that could overcome their chartered promise to survive.

William Greider writes in the Nation about Ralph Gomory, author of Global Trade and Conflicting National Interests. Mr. Gomory is emerging as an unlikely dissident who is proposing a new way to understand, and reform the world economy.

CEOs of American corporations won't be particularly happy with the plan, but then again, was our government meant to pledge allegiance to the kind of business that runs strictly against the overall national interest?

Related Update:

Globalization Gets a Martin Luther Figure

Free Trade Carries A Huge Price

Step It Up at Paul Smith's College, Adirondacks

Step It Up 2007 was alive today in the heart of the Adirondack Mountains at Paul Smith's College.

See the story.

PAUL SMITH'S COLLEGE GOING GREEN

PAUL SMITHS– Paul Smith's College announced Wednesday that it will purchase wind-generated power to provide all of its electricity, joining just a handful of colleges and universities nationwide to do so.

The College will purchase the electricity from Community Energy Inc., a Pennsylvania-based wind-energy marketer and developer.

"Purchasing renewable energy is an important step that the College can take to preserve our natural resources," said John Mills, president of Paul Smith's College. "Being the College of the Adirondacks also means providing environmental leadership. Every day, the threats posed by climate change and our reliance on fossil fuels create more tangible dangers. We're excited to take this step and hope that others might follow."

As part of the switch to wind power, Paul Smith's has joined the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Green Power Partnership program. As of March 30, just 13 other colleges and universities in the partnership relied entirely on renewables for their electricity needs. "Paul Smith's College has stepped up as a leader in New York," said Brent Alderfer, president of Community Energy. "Their renewable energy purchase puts their energy dollars to work to benefit the state economically and environmentally. As more customers choose to follow their lead and purchase renewable energy, we can bring more clean power resources online to meet that demand."

Because of the nature of the electric grid, the actual wind-generated electrons the College purchases won't be delivered to campus. However, the renewable-energy credits bought by Paul Smith's will ensure that an amount of power equivalent to the College's energy use is generated by clean, renewable wind.

Based on its past usage, the College expects to purchase 3,625 megawatt-hours of electricity a year. When that electricity is generated using renewable resources rather than fossil fuels, it offsets approximately 5 million pounds of carbon dioxide per year. That's equivalent to planting more than 341,109 trees, or removing 357 cars from the road.

In addition to the green energy purchase, Paul Smith's is pursuing several other initiatives to preserve the environment. This semester, waste from the campus dining hall is being composted at a nearby farm, and officials are examining the feasibility of integrating green building principles and strategies on campus construction projects.

Additionally, the College community will be among hundreds nationwide hosting a Step It Up rally this Saturday, an action aimed at encouraging Congress to reduce carbon emissions. Megan Veley, 19, a sophomore from Ithaca, N.Y., who is helping to organize the campus' Step It Up rally, said she was heartened by the College's decision.

"Small actions lead to big things," said Veley, who is majoring in natural resource management and policy. "It's very encouraging to know that there's something being done and we're taking a step forward to help the environment."

Paul Smith's College is the only four-year institution of higher education in the Adirondack Park. The school, on the shores of Lower St. Regis Lake, encompasses 14,200 acres of forests, streams, lakes and mountains that are available for students to explore and study. The College offers both bachelor¹s and associate degree programs which focus on experiential learning in a variety of majors including biology; fish and wildlife sciences; natural resources; environmental science; forestry; surveying; recreation, adventure travel and ecotourism; hospitality, resort and culinary management; liberal arts; and business.

Community Energy, Inc. (CEI) is a marketer and developer of wind energy generation founded in 1999 and headquartered in Wayne, Pennsylvania. CEI has over 2 billion kilowatt-hours of wind energy sales, 40,000 residential and business customers and marketing arrangements with 18 investor-owned and municipal utilities. CEI cites its utility partners and customers, which include many of the largest retail purchases of wind energy in the country, as the reason for its success in bringing wind energy to market in new regions of the country. CEI developed and jointly owns the Jersey-Atlantic Wind Farm and has wind projects under development in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Midwest.

www.communityenergy.biz

Related: Adirondack skiers join national global warming protest

WILMINGTON, N.Y. -- While other demonstrators in more than 1,400 spots around the U.S. denounced global warming Saturday, a dozen people skied up Whiteface Mountain to unfurl their protest banner in mid-April snow. [..]

[..] "From melting glaciers to unseasonable and erratic weather patterns, we are already feeling the impact," Bill McKibben said of global consequences. The former Johnsburg resident and author of "The End of Nature" helped organize Saturday's "Step It Up" protests nationally to push Congress to impose an 80 percent cut in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050.

McKibben went to New York City among a "sea of people" in blue shirts Saturday to show where the new higher tide line will be. But his 1989 book "was written in large measure out of my fear for what would happen to the Adirondacks _ a fear that is already starting to be borne out in changed winters and summers," he said.

Backcountry skiers unfurl a banner after skiing and hiking 5.5 miles to the summit of Whiteface Mountain

Skiers Open Global Warming Protests By Michael Virtanen, Associated Press Writer

Juan Cole on McCain's Silliness

"John McCain's silliness about how safe it is to walk around Baghdad should be decisively put to rest by this incident."

- Juan Cole, speaking about a suicide bomber wearing a bomb vest who managed to get into a cafeteria in the parliament building in the fortress-like Green Zone in downtown Baghdad and to detonate his payload. He killed 8 persons and wounded 20, among them two members of parliament. They included an MP from the secular Sunni National Dialogue Front (11 seats) and another from the Kurdistan Alliance

To Thine Own Self....

Purity is the alignment of energy. It doesn't matter what anybody else thinks about anything. It only matters what you think about it.

....be true

A Chance for Peace in Iraq - If U.S. Leaves

"We have to speak out and say that blood is precious. We will stand against those who have no value for human life and speak out against them openly."

- Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Ghafour al-Samarrai


I reported on the forming of the Council of Ulama of Iraq a couple days ago and I see that it's gotten very little "play" in the blogosphere. [Other than a blogpost at National Journal.] I think (and hope) that this group will be an important key to finding a higher level of peace and cross-religious-faction respect among Iraqi citizens.

Last week in Iraq..

..a group of Sunni clerics, including some hard-line figures who fiercely oppose the American presence here, issued a statement Friday urging their fellow Sunnis to join the Iraqi Army and the police. The edict, signed by 64 imams and religious scholars, was a striking turnaround for the clerics, who have often lashed out in sermons at the fledgling army and police and branded them collaborators

For all we know (because it hasn't been widely reported), the female suicide bomber who killed 17 potential recruits (who were in line to BUY application forms to join the police?) may have been meant to be a statement of rebellion against such an edict. The antagonizing factor is clearly the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq. If we were to remove those troops, I believe that Sunni clerics, who represent the minority population of Sunnis vs. Shia in Iraq, could convince Sunnis to end the civil violence.

American and Iraqi officials welcomed the edict as a sign that Iraq's Sunnis, who largely boycotted the January elections, are taking steps toward joining the political process.

"It is a positive step," said Saad Jawad Qindeel, a member of the Shiite alliance that won the largest bloc of seats in Iraq's new national assembly in January. "We are hoping the clerics will take an even more definite attitude in preventing terrorism."

Samarrai delivered the edict Friday at the mosque in western Baghdad that houses the headquarters of the influential Muslim Scholars Association. The signatories included Ahmed Hassan al Taha, a hard-line imam at Baghdad's Abu Hanifa mosque.

But the leader of the Muslim Scholars Association, Harith al Dari, did not sign the edict, and it was not clear whether he or the Association was offering some tacit support by hosting the announcement. The association, like some of the scholars who signed the edict, is widely believed to have some influence over the armed resistance, but it is impossible to say how much.

If you read this excerpt from the article, you will see that these Sunni clerics celarly seem to be offering their help under the condition that the U.S. troops leave the country and end the occupation of Iraq.

The edict, signed by 64 imams and religious scholars, was a striking turnaround for the clerics, who have often lashed out in sermons at the fledgling army and police and branded them collaborators.

Many if not most insurgent attacks in recent months have been aimed at the police and army, which are largely composed of Shiites.

The prominent cleric who announced the edict, Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Ghafour al-Samarrai, said he believed the new directive would undercut those attacks.

But Samarrai also made it clear that the edict was aimed at regaining some control over Iraq's new security forces, not saving Shiite lives.

Sunnis dominated the higher echelons of the military under Saddam Hussein, and many, enraged by the American decision to dissolve the army two years ago, joined the insurgency.

The edict contained a condition, seemingly aimed at sweetening the pill for resistant Sunnis: the new police and army recruits must agree "not to help the occupier against his compatriots."

American and Iraqi officials welcomed the edict as a sign that Iraq's Sunnis, who largely boycotted the January elections, are taking steps toward joining the political process.

"It is a positive step," said Saad Jawad Qindeel, a member of the Shiite alliance that won the largest bloc of seats in Iraq's new national assembly in January. "We are hoping the clerics will take an even more definite attitude in preventing terrorism."

Samarrai delivered the edict Friday at the mosque in western Baghdad that houses the headquarters of the influential Muslim Scholars Association. The signatories included Ahmed Hassan al Taha, a hard-line imam at Baghdad's Abu Hanifa mosque.

But the leader of the Muslim Scholars Association, Harith al Dari, did not sign the edict, and it was not clear whether he or the Association was offering some tacit support by hosting the announcement. The association, like some of the scholars who signed the edict, is widely believed to have some influence over the armed resistance, but it is impossible to say how much.

Religious groups in other nations, such as Indonesia, have taken it upon themselves to try to find a way to greater peace between Shiite and Sunni. Iran's involvement would have been important, but tensions over UN Resolution 1747 have caused the Iranians to turn their faces from the urgent necessity of peace. This is where the United States could have a hand in the peace process. To use all available tools of diplomacy, even with Iran, is our responsibility - and the absence of such diplomacy is our failure to help bring peace to the war-torn people of Iraq. The U.S. lack of interest in the recent Indonesia meeting is also a missed opportunity. War seems to be the first option in the decidedly dull minds of the Bush administration.

Note: Ulama, defined:

A lot of words in Arabic have both an older, religious meaning and a newer, secular one. Thus, `ilm means "science" in modern Arabic but can also still mean "religious branch of knowledge." Someone who specializes in `ilm is an `aalim, plural `ulama'.
- Juan Cole

War Tsar - No Top Brass Wants the Job!

Bush is struggling to find a candidate who would accept a new post of "War Tsar" for Afghanistan and Iraq. The Bush administration's chaotic/stubborn approach to the terror-wars, along with Dick Cheney's non-pragmatic attitude is being blamed for the near-total lack of interest in the job. Marine General John Sheehan is quoted as saying:

"The very fundamental issue is they don't know where the hell they're going."

Ouch!

Quote of the Day From Robert Wright / NYT

"In early 2003, a few die-hard fans of multilateralism asked why America was launching an essentially unilateral war. A common reply was that the multilateral body whose support America sought, the U.N. Security Council, wouldn't vote to authorize war, so President Bush had to proceed without it. Blame Security Council 'gridlock.'Now that we know how the war turned out, it's tempting to ridicule this logic by comparing Bush to a driver who runs a red light, kills a pedestrian and blames the tragedy on the light's redness."

Robert Wright,
senior fellow at the New America Foundation who runs the Web site Bloggingheads.tv
Making the U.N. Look Good - New York Times

Since the guest column is for subscribers only, I wanted to share some of Mr. Wright's thoughts about the ways that he believes, in the case of the Iraq war, that the U.N. did much better than some institutions, notably the U.S. government.

In a remarkable precedent, the Security Council had demanded that Iraq submit to pervasive arms inspections, and had prevailed. On the eve of war, inspectors were being let into every facility they asked to see.

Indeed, inspectors had checked out the sites American intelligence deemed most suspicious and had found nothing. So the idea that the inspectors should scram so America could invade and then do a better job of finding weapons struck some Security Council members as less than compelling. They gave America the red light. (Insert ridicule here.)

Oddly, and accidentally, Mr. Bush had catalyzed the evolution he then aborted. Iraq would never have admitted the inspectors had American troops not been poised to invade. This points to a flaw that future evolution should remedy: the U.N. lacks the power to get arms inspectors where they’re most needed. The sort of toughness Mr. Bush showed needs to be institutionalized multilaterally and integrated with such structures as the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

Habitat For Humanity:Pope Benedict XVI Car Auction

I got a note today and I wanted to pass it on to anyone who might like to help Habitat For Humanity.

I thought you and your readers might be interested in some post-Easter news about Pope Benedict XVI. The Pope's car is being auctioned off to raise money for Habitat for Humanity www.buyacarvideos.com/popecar.htm
The bidding is already more than $200,000! Personally, I think this is a really fun and creative way to raise money. The auction goes until April 14th if you and your readers want to check it out.

AUCTION ENDS SATURDAY, APRIL 14th, at 9:18 PDT.


For more details about this ultimate "celebrity" car, click here and for the EBay page, CLICK HERE

See story at Catholic World News

MoveOn.org: Edwards Speaks Out on Iraq

You can see John Edwards' comments about Iraq at this transcript taken from the MoveOn.org Virtual Town Hall meetings held across America tonight.

Excerpt:

..this is not the time for political calculation, this is the time for political courage. This is not a game of chicken. This is not about making friends or keeping Joe Lieberman happy. This is about life and death—this about war. We are done letting George Bush manipulate the rhetoric of patriotism, only to use our troops as political pawns. If Bush vetoes funding for the troops, he's the only one standing in the way of the resources they need. Nobody else.

Congress must stand firm. They must not write George Bush another blank check without a timeline for withdrawal—period. If Bush vetoes the funding bill, Congress should send another funding bill to him with a binding plan to bring the troops home. And if he vetoes it again, they should do it again.

The American people are overwhelmingly in favor of ending this war. If our side stands firm, if we show courage now, we can finally bring our troops back home and bring this war to an end.

Press Release: National LGBT Leaders Endorse John Edwards For President


You may also want to check out this Bloomberg article on Edwards and Labor by Heidi Przybyla.

Excerpts:

Edwards, the only 2008 candidate to offer a specific universal health-care plan, is critical of free trade and vows to eradicate poverty. These positions resonate with many union leaders. [..]

[..]On the stump, Edwards ties his emphasis on fighting inequality to his support of unions. ``The greatest anti-poverty movement in American history is the organized-labor movement,'' he said last week at a town-hall meeting in a packed high school gymnasium in Des Moines. ``I've walked picket lines all over this country standing up for health care, for working people, for pension protection.''

[...] Bill Buck, a strategist for the Democratic Party in Nevada, expects Edwards' battle plan to be particularly effective in Iowa and in Nevada, where the bulk of the vote will come out of the union-rich Las Vegas area. ``The race has always been more wide open than the popular opinion,'' Buck said.

Edwards is ``trying to use momentum from early primary and caucus states to roll into what's shaping up to be a national primary,'' said Mike Feldman, former Vice President Al Gore's chief of staff during the 2000 campaign. ``He's not going to get there with muscle. He's going to get there by being opportunistic and strategic.''[..]

See: Democratic Hopefuls Court Activists in 'Virtual Town Hall' - WaPo

In a few informal interviews, members said they were most impressed by Edwards. "He was very clear about getting out of the war. He was emotionally compelling," said Marcia Jansen, a D.C. resident.

Moderate Sunni Clerics Form Group in Iraq

According to Stratfor.com, a group called the Council Of Ulama of Iraq has been formed.

Forty prominent Iraqi Sunni clerics have formed the Council of Ulama of Iraq, a group that will seek to curb the influence of al Qaeda in Iraq by issuing balanced and more moderate fatwas (religious edicts) to urge Iraqis to respect other groups and not take up arms against them, Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Ghafour al-Samarrai said April 9. Regarded as de facto mufti of Sunni Iraqis, the sheikh will head the group within the council charged with issuing the fatwas.

I'd imagine that this group should not be confused with a Muslim group of clerics by virtually the same name that was formed before the Iraqi elections and that was, at one time, considered "too radical for the [then operating] Coalition Provision Authority to deal with comfortably as an organization representing the Sunni community," according to an article in Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) from 9 February 2004. The group, at that time, did not recognize the legitimacy of the U.S.-appointed Governing Council, and it had called for resistance against them. The group had also called for Shari'a law to stand as the chief source of legislation in Iraq, and I don't know how the leadership of Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Ghafour al-Samarrai will change that - or to what extent.

According to Reuters, this group is newly formed.

"The new grouping includes some of the most illustrious Sunni scholars in the first such body to be formed since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003."

Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Ghafour al-Samarrai told Reuters:

"It's high time our clerics unify their utterances. Religious scholars have to work on teaching Muslims respect for the others ...," he said referring to radical Islamists with ideological links to al Qaeda. [..] "Scholars should speak and not have fear of anyone but Allah (God). We have to speak out and say that blood is precious. We will stand against those who have no value for human life and speak out against them openly," Samarrai added.

A report at GulfNews.com reports on how, why, and where the group was formed.

Meanwhile, Iraqi Sunni scholars meeting in Jordan set up a body that would have the sole authority to issue fatwas, or religious edicts, while also urging an end to the US occupation of Iraq through "legal means."

The two-day meeting of the Sunni Religious Affairs Council, or Waqf - the fifth in four years - was held in Jordan because of safety concerns. It was attended by about 150 scholars.

The council was formed after the US-led war, when Iraq's ministry for religious affairs was dissolved and replaced by separate councils, or Waqfs, for the Shiite, the Sunni and other religions.

Yesterday, the gathering formed a body that would be the sole authority among Iraqi Sunnis in issuing fatwas, the scholars said in a statement. The move was an attempt to pre-empt fatwas issued by those without the required scholarly qualifications.

It seems that the council, with new members and leadership (not so different from the "radical" group by the same name in 2004), are hoping at this time that their urging for the U.S. to end the occupation of Iraq, with their decidedly anti-al Qaeda faith-based message of respect, will work to see an end to occupation since U.S. support for the war and the Bush/McCain surge is at an all-time low.

Stale Politics - Sunday Talk Show Panels

Sunday political talk show panels have gone stale with a carefully guarded stable of careful talkers. It doesn't reflect the reality of what's happening becuase it demonizes anyone who fails to talk straight down the gooey center. I think it's bad for us - as any stale product would be.



Related: See David Sirota

John Edwards Proposes Changes Toward Good Government

Good Government Should Help Economic System So Good Times Benefit Everyone

John Edwards believes that markets should serve people, not the other way around.

Senator Edwards expects that, in a Working Society, Americans who receive any form of assistance from the government should be willing to work and should be given the opportunity to work. Building on that idea, Edwards believes that the "other America" - the one that reaps the rewards off the backs of those who work so hard for a halfway decent lifestyle - is Bushworld, is unjust, and must be changed.

Corporate social responsibility is key to the new Working Society. Rather than existing in a bitter political atmosphere where corporations are distrusted, CEOs of corporations MUST be leaned on, by a leader who understands that a corporation EXISTS to survive and in truth, cares little for society, to be accountable, through regulation if necessary, to become a SOLUTION to the problems of the Working Society rather than the chief and central PROBLEM. The rigid political rhetoric of the past - no new taxes; no corporate regulation, etc - must change if a healthy democracy and a successful Working Society will be able to emerge. We have to find a better way of talking about the issues focusing on corporate America having to be part of the solution - or face more regulation. (Especially when it comes to environmental issues).

Alleviating Poverty is not Charity

As a new kind of populist, Edwards makes the all-important point that alleviating poverty is not a charity issue. The Bush administration has beaten the drums of faith-based charity being a more effective poverty-crusher than "the bureaucracy." Faith-based charity is a very good thing for this country, but it should certainly not be the primary pathway to poverty alleviation. Why? Because alleviating global poverty is key to so many other issues - especially national security in the current fear-stained era of what the right wing has unjustly capitalized upon as "global terror". All along, the Bush administration has silenced those who could put two and two together, acknowledging that poverty and economic injustice were factors in the Middle East and eventually brought 911 to our doorstep. Anyone who dared mention the fact after 911 was told to shut up and watch what they say. There were many truths we turned our knowing heads away from in those days.

Alleviating poverty is not a charity issue.

Related discussion by David Mizner at Daily Kos

Candidates' Rhetoric Needs to Be Issues-Focused

The candidate I hope for ..


The voting public talks so much about how the nature of politics has to change because it's all that they hear. It's all that they are conditioned to ask for.

If a leader is worth his or her weight in democracy, progress, and social justice, he or she would frame their message to the people (in a way that the MSM could not avoid) to condition the voting public to start demanding change on the issues as those issues relate to their lives (including the Iraq War, for which the public has never been made to feel particularly involved in any way) - instead of a meaningless change in the nature of the politics.

We have to ask ourselves - are the individual Democratic candidates appealing to the voting public for solid progressive change - or more of a change in the nature of the horserace?

I want the candidate who best turns around the voters' thinking about why they vote for the one they vote for - despite a brainwashing media (whether the brainwashing's intentional or not) that poses a barrier to a message about anything other than wedge issues and "the horserace".

Related discussion led by Matt Stoller at: MyDD