By Robert Dreyfuss
The long-running showdown over the proposed US-Iraq treaty, aimed at legitimizing the American occupation of Iraq, is coming to a head, and it doesn't look good for the United States.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20241.htm
Breaking Iraq and Blaming Iran
British Black Ops and the Terror Campaign in Basra
By Andrew G. Marshall
Understanding the anatomy of the conflict that has raged in Basra since 2003 is a pivotal study in understanding the wider "War on Terror." The British, for nearly a century maintaining a destabilizing presence in the region, notably in Basra, have not given up their Empire's long-standing tradition of "Divide and Conquer."
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20243.htm
Iraq demands troop withdrawal timetable in U.S. defence pact talks
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Monday he is negotiating a deal with Washington that will for the first time set a timetable for a withdrawal of foreign forces as part of a framework for a U.S. troop presence into next year.
http://www.forbes.com/afxnewslimited/feeds/afx/2008/07/07/afx5188344.html
Iraqis Consider Alternative Deal For U.S. Presence
An adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, says the move was made because of public and political opposition in Iraq to a status of forces agreement.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92267256
Cold Shoulders
by Kathy Kelly
Umm Hamdi doesn't want her son to pick up a gun or lay an explosive device, for Iraq or for anyone. She would rather see him pick up a book. She cries herself to sleep at night wishing she could just see him. But she can't bring her daughters back to the maelstrom of violence her native country has become with the U.S. invasion.
http://peacejournal.org/cold-shoulders-by-kathy-kelly/
Nouri al-Maliki ready to oust US from Iraq green zone
"By the end of the year, there will be no green zone," he added. "The separation by huge walls makes people feel angry." Dabbagh acknowledged that getting rid of the green zone would be a huge undertaking, given the thousands of American soldiers, private contractors and foreign workers who live inside.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article4322520.ece
From Information Clearing House
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Iraq Insists On Withdrawal Timetable For US Troops
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/07/08/10207/
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Iraq official: US could be out by 2011
CNN
07/08/08
A deadline should be set for the withdrawal of U.S. and allied forces from Iraq, and the pullout could be done by 2011, an Iraqi government spokesman said Tuesday. Ali al-Dabbagh said any timetable would depend on ‘conditions and the circumstances that the country would be undergoing.’ But he said a pullout within ‘three, four or five’ years was possible...
http://tinyurl.com/696wkp
The shift
Is the tide turning against the War Party?
AntiWar.Com
by Justin Raimondo
07/09/08
The tectonic plates of the geopolitical landscape are shifting, visibly, as the consequences of our crazed foreign policy are being felt at home and abroad. That alarming crunching sound you hear is the impact of the sudden realization that, in Iraq, the government our troops are fighting and dying for is openly demanding that we leave. As I’ve written on previous occasions, this has been a long time coming, but now, alas, the moment has finally arrived: the ‘liberated’ peoples of Iraq, under the tutelage of their elected leadership, are now telling us that it’s time to say good-bye...
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=13110
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=al-Maliki
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=pullout+Iraq
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+withdrawal
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+treaty
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=occupation+Iraq
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Basra
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=empire
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=divide+and+conquer
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Robert+Dreyfuss
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Andrew+G.+Marshall
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com/justin