Iraqi ex-PM says Bush “utter failure”

Former U.S.-installed Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has denounced the policies of President George W. Bush as an “utter failure” that gave rise to the sectarian venom that ravaged his country.
The rest of the story

Bush’s Final Defeat in Iraq

Peter Galbraith, a top Iraq expert and former ambassador to Croatia, issued a statement today on the status of forces agreement recently signed by the United States and Iraq….”The agreement represents a stunning and humiliating reversal of course by the Bush administration, which had vehemently opposed any timetable for withdrawal from Iraq,” said Galbraith.
The rest [...]

Thousands protest in Iraq against U.S. troops pact

Followers of Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr marched Friday against a pact letting U.S. forces stay in Iraq until 2011, toppling an effigy of President George W. Bush where U.S. troops once tore down a statue of Saddam Hussein.
The rest of the story

Bush Reversal on Iraq Deadline Gives Obama Breathing Room

By agreeing to a fixed deadline for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, President Bush contradicted years of promises that he would never agree to anything but a “conditions-based” plan for phasing out the American military role there. But he may also have given President-elect Barack Obama more flexibility in fulfilling his campaign promise [...]

Iraq demands all US troops out by 2011

Iraq has demanded a clear commitment from the US that its forces will have left its soil by the end of 2011. The stance was revealed in a newly toughened-up version of a draft military pact that could eventually see the US presence forced to make their exit much sooner.
The rest of the story

The Surge: Not working?

Friday 1 February: 107 dead
Baghdad: female suicide bomber kills 62 at al-Ghazl pet market; 20 minutes later another female suicide bomber kills 37 at another pet market.
The rest of the story

Iraq Shiite pol defends Iran against US

Iraq’s most influential Shiite politician said Sunday that the U.S had not backed up claims that Iran is fueling violence here, underscoring a wide gap on the issue between Washington and the Shiite-led Baghdad government.
A draft bill to ease curbs on ex-Saddam Hussein loyalists in government services also drew sharp criticism from Shiite lawmakers, [...]

Iraq’s foreign militants ‘come from US allies’

Around 60% of all foreign militants who entered Iraq to fight over the past year came from Saudi Arabia and Libya, according to files seized by American forces at a desert camp.The files listed the nationalities and biographical details of more than 700 fighters who crossed into Iraq from August last year, around half of [...]

General Sanchez: Backs Democrats’ troop pullout bill

A former top US commander in Iraq has thrown his support behind a war funding bill proposed by Democrats that calls for withdrawing most combat troops by the end of next year.
Retired Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez says in remarks to be aired Saturday (local time) in the Democrats’ weekly radio address that Iraqi leaders are [...]

Wounded warriors face home-front battle with VA

Ty Ziegel peers from beneath his Marine Corps baseball cap, his once boyish face burned beyond recognition by a suicide bomber’s attack in Iraq just three days before Christmas 2004.
 
Ty Ziegel, a Marine, was badly wounded in Iraq. He battled the VA over disability benefits when he returned. He lost part of his skull in [...]