SHOULD WE STAY OR SHOULD WE GO? IRAQ 11/14/06

There is no doubt this morning that Baghdad is a bad place to be. A bunch of men [reports range from 100 to 150] were kidnapped from a Research Building downtown there. [The Research Institute helps Iraqi professors to leave the country]. The men were all thought to be Sunnis. The Minister of Higher Education, having watched the murder of many of Iraq's outspoken professors and academics, decided to close down the universities because of this incident. Apparently, outspoken professors and academics in Iraq live dangerous lives. Over here, a professor can be denied tenure. Over there, a professor can wake up one morning and find himself dead.

Tensions between several key players in the Middle East continue to mount. Over in the UK, Prime Minister Tony Blair sent a secret letter of reconciliation to Damascus. Adding insult to injury, he made a speech yesterday proposing that both Syria and Iran could become his new peace partners. Thanks, Tony. As I used to say at my last job, some people shouldn't have fingers and the rest shouldn't have mouths. Mr. Blair might shouldn't have either.

Meanwhile, back at home, another Tony briefing the press yesterday stated that there is no official timetable for withdrawal from Iraq. He let it be known that we will not leave until the war "is won." President Bush continues his commitment to bringing democracy and freedom from terrorism to the Middle East was the message that the press who were present did not want to hear. After reading the lastest briefing, I understood why my friend JeremyCrow hates the press. If I were Tony Snow, I would hate them too.

Democrats continue to call for withdrawing US troops from Iraq. They are complaining about the whole war thing. Un-notable Cindy Sheehan turned author has fired off another one of her brilliant missives to Senator Pelosi and Senator Conyors [or at least to her e-mail alert list; letter appears nowhere on her website] proposing that "we the American people" want President Bush to be impeached and are offended that now the democrats wish to work with the republicans who naturally are all a bunch of liars and rather immoral for keeping troops in Iraq. Iraqi President al-Maliki meanwhile continues to take advantage of the US military presence in his country to train his own troops and strengthen his police forces.

This is the sixth week of the oops! not-so-secret Pentagon Group which is studying all of the tactics involved with the Middle East military manuevers. That group is also looking at terrorism and possible ways that the United States can deal with it more effectively. The folks gathered as part of the Pentagon Group are considered to possess brilliant minds. So far, they have not had any joint meetings with the Iraq Study Group-- a group that nominee Robert Gates to the Secretary of the Defense position was a part of until his nomination. President Bush had his meeting this week with the Iraq Study Group, a bi-partisan group of which Bush family friend James A. Baker is the co-chair. The President also had a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Olmert who in turn felt it necessary to threaten Iran with fear. Iran threatened Israel back with promises of a crushing nature should Israel dare to take any military action against Iran.

The problem with Iran is that Iran will not do what some other countries want Iran to do. Iranian Madman Mahmoud Ahmadinejad indicated recently that when the United States changes its' attitude, then Iran will be ready to talk. The United States demands that Iran cease and desist from its' nuclear highway before negotiations can be arranged. Iran continues to play with uranium enrichment and in fact is "nearly done." The Madman has stated that Iran is going to build up to 60,000 centrifuges and plans a plutonium dumping station, regardless of UN funds or un-funds. A satellite photo published on-line by FOX shows unexplained plutonium by-products. Ahmadinejad also promises to send the American people "a message" regarding his views this week. He maintains a blog at: http://www.ahmadinejad.ir/. [For some reason, the addy refused to be translated into a link so the curious will have to copy and paste the website
http://www.ahmadinejad.ir/ into their own browsers to view the site].

While some folks hold out hope that Syria and Iran will quit their evil terrorist ways in order to bring peace to the Middle East, in fact the Hama and Fatah parties have both come to an agreement over the next Prime Minister of Palestine, Mohammad Shubair has a doctorate from the University of West Virginia. Fatah President Abbas of Palestine is the one who will have the final say in the appointment. Current Prime Minister Hasniya is of the Hama and has agreed to step down from his post in order to end sanctions against Palestine. Even so, the new Palestine Unity government will not recognize Israel as a country in its own right. Or, maybe it will under President Abbat's leadership be able to have a working compromise between the ideology of the Hama and the more moderate position of the Fatah. Or maybe the new combined government will act as a puppet for the Hama. Only time will tell.

Quite honestly, I have no trust that the governments of Iran, Syria, Lebanon, or Palestine will do anything that they say they will. Iran has nuclear capacity which is building and will probably bomb the crap out of Israel, whether Israel makes good on that "fear Israel" threat or not. Palestine will continue to be run by the Hamas covertly. Syria is Iran's buddy, Tony Blair notwithstanding. Lebanon just had several key governmental officials quit and is not stable enough to help in waging war for peace or freedom in any event. And let's not forget that Iran's Madman of the Hour looks incredibly like one of the student-leaders-turned-terrorists of twenty-seven years ago. I only hope that his promised message to the american people is not a bomb, biological warfare, or other such goodie. If it is, he will lose his american fans over at his blog site and no dictator of a bloody regime can afford that.

radical sapphoq