Posted by
Grampus on Wednesday, November 15, 2006 5:57:02 PM
Immediate withdrawal...oops, maybe not so fast coming from the NY Times no less ...and a third view asking policymakers to understand what they are really up against. Read all three stories and much more.
Reid Pledges to Press Bush on Iraq Policy
(CNSNews.com) - Sen. Harry Reid, the incoming majority leader, says President Bush still doesn't understand the urgent need to change course in Iraq, the Washington Post reported. Reid said Democrats will quickly press for phased troop withdrawals and a more international approach. He said Democrats will keep the heat on the Bush administration through hearings on the war - and with calls for a regional Middle Eastern conference and a revitalized Iraqi reconstruction effort. Reid said one of the first acts of the new Democratic Congress will be a $75-billion boost to the military budget to get the Army's diminished units back into combat shape.
NY Times Report Questions Wisdom of Immediate Troop Withdrawal
(CNSNews.com) - A report in Wednesday's New York Times cautions that an immediate withdrawal from Iraq - as some Democrats are advocating - may not be the way to go, after all. The notion "is being challenged by a number of military officers, experts and former generals, including some who have been among the most vehement critics of the Bush administration's Iraq policies," the report said. Those experts say "the situation in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq is too precarious to start thinning out the number of American troops. In addition, they worry that some Shiite leaders would see the reduction of American troops as an opportunity to unleash their militias against the Sunnis and engage in wholesale ethnic cleansing to consolidate their control of the capital."
Author Examines 'War' Against Non-Muslims
Washington (CNSNews.com) - Western policymakers need to "undertake a systematic study" of Islamic theology and law before they can understand the goals and motives of terrorists who are working to subjugate or convert non-Muslim populations, a scholar on Islam told a gathering in Washington on Tuesday. It would be a mistake to assume that Islam has been "hijacked," argued Robert Spencer, the author of a recent book on the prophet of Islam, Mohammed. Terrorists and extremists targeting American interests today are making use of the actual text in the Koran and the teachings of their prophet, he said. But a spokesman for an Islamic advocacy group called Spencer a "leading Islamophobe" who has written "bone chilling" comments on his website that incite unfounded and unjustified hatred of Muslims.
Grampus