Joshua Landis over at Syria Comment.com asks: What is it with War in Summer 2007? It's the headline on a commentary on Haaretz writer Amir Oren's post headlined "IDF preparing for another conflict by next summer" and The Daily Star of Lebanon's "Jewish state claims Hizbullah, Syria planning new war."
In a caustic commentary on the verdict condemning former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to death by hanging for crimes against humanity, Riverbend over at Baghdad Burning opines, in part, in a November 5, 2006, post:
Iraq has not been this bad in decades. The occupation is a failure. The various pro-American, pro-Iranian Iraqi governments are failures. The new Iraqi army is a deadly joke. Is it really time to turn Saddam into a martyr? Things are so bad that even pro-occupation Iraqis are going back on their initial ‘WE LOVE AMERICA’ frenzy. Laith Kubba (a.k.a. Mr. Catfish for his big mouth and constant look of stupidity) was recently on the BBC saying that this was just the beginning of justice, that people responsible for the taking of lives today should also be brought to justice.
River said Mr. Kubba "seems to have forgotten he was one of the supporters of the war and occupation, and an important member of one of the murderous pro-American governments. But history shall not forget Mr. Kubba."
To read the entire post, please see "When All Else Fails..."
The Independent of London's Patrick Cockburn, writing from Arbil, northern Iraq, reports in a November 7, 2006, dispatch that Zalmay Khalilzad, the US envoy in Baghdad who tried to conciliate the Sunni people, is to leave his post in the next few months said a senior member of the US administration." See "'Failed' American envoy to leave Iraq.
Mr.Cockburn quotes "a senior Kurdish political figure" as saying: "Khalilzad really failed because greater Sunni political participation has not reduced the violence and has at the same time angered the Shia."
A November 7, 2006, report in the Daily Times of Pakistan says "Ryan Crocker, US ambassador to Pakistan, is likely to replace" Mr. Khalilzad. See "Crocker may replace Khalilzad in Baghdad.
A reporter as State Department spokesman Sean McCormack about it during his November 7, 2006, press briefing.
QUESTION: Sean, can you address reports about Ambassador Khalilzad's future? There are accounts that he's on his way out. Even a successor has been mentioned. Could you deal with that?
MR. MCCORMACK: Right. Yeah, Zal is doing -- I just asked the Secretary about this because I've seen the news reports -- the Secretary thinks Zal is doing a great job on behalf of her, as well as the President, in Iraq. It's tough circumstances and he has no immediate plans to go anywhere. He has a lot on his plate. The President and the Secretary have a lot for him -- a lot left for him to do there in Iraq and I don't think he has any immediate plans to leave.
QUESTION: These reports aren't talking really about immediate plans, but at the end of the year, a change or --
MR. MCCORMACK: Eventually we all leave. (Laughter.) Okay. Eventually, yeah -- eventually we all depart. Like I said, he has no immediate plans to leave."
Was the November 8, 2006, killing of more than two dozen Pakistani soldiers by a suicide bomber revenge for the Pakistani military's October 30, 2006, pre-dawn attack on a a madrassa or religious school in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province (NWFP)?
That's the obvious question amid reports that as many as 35 Pakistani recruits were killed today by a suicide bomber. See "Suicide bomber kills 35 soldiers. The attack "took place in the town of Dargai, in North West Frontier Province," according to Reuters.
The madrassa killings, which Pakistan claims were carried out against insurgents-in-training, reportedly resulted in the deaths of as many as 80 students. See " Eighty die as Pakistan bombs madrassa linked to militants and "Pakistan Islamists protest against madrassa attack.
Some observers have asked Did US bomb Pak madrassa? As might be expected, the U.S. says it wasn't involved. See "US had no involvement in attack on madrassa, says Boucher." According to The Washington Times, the air strike damaged Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's "peace strategy."
"In what critics call another sign of waning American influence in Central and Latin America, an "all-out" effort by the United States to convince Nicaraguans not to elect former Sandinista president Daniel Ortega to a second term has apparently failed," asserts The Christian Science Monitor's Tom Regan in a November 7, 2006, news analysis headlined "US fails in effort to derail Ortega presidential bid."
"Give Ortega a chance," the Guardian of London says in its November 8, 2006 leader. I concur. Although the Voice of America says "US Sounds Conciliatory Toward Nicaragua's Ortega, don't be surprised if the Bush Administration tries to undermine his government although he won through the democratic process.
