demonstrations at least meant democracy was flourishing

WAR STUFF
* " Meanwhile, 14 U.S. soldiers have died in a Marine offensive near the Syrian border. And US officials have now been forced to admit that that operation was not as successful as previously claimed and that the Marines are wrapping up "Operation Matador" with no clear objective achieved. " LINK

* "In 96 hours of fighting and ambushes in far western Iraq, the squad had ceased to be... Commanders had hoped the operation would swiftly capture or kill large numbers of foreign fighters. But the foreigners, and everyone else here, had plenty of warning that the Marines were coming" LINK
damn furrerners

* btw - the latest $80bn for the war is sposed to take us all the way thru to ... september.

* "Tony Blair said on Thursday that Britain would support American moves to invoke UN Security Council countermeasures "if Iran breaches its obligations and undertakings."" LINK

* that georgian grenade was inert. no other details.

* "Jamail interviewed a high-ranking member of the Petroleum Ministry, who reported that the oil infrastructure is stable enough to provide gas to the country. That gas is not being provided, said the Minister, because the Americans are not pumping it, but sitting on it." LINK

* "In other violence today, an official from the Defence Ministry’s operations centre was killed by gunmen in southwestern Baghdad. Brigadier Ayad Imad Mehdi died when three insurgents stopped his car and shot him dead before fleeing. Gunmen also killed an Interior Ministry official, Colonel Muhammad al-Taie, in a separate attack." LINK
the resistance "flees" after an attack, cos they are cowards. 'our' guys would simply 'retreat' or some such.

* "Afghan President Hamid Karzai said the riots showed the “inability” of the war-shattered country’s institutions to deal with such situations, but added the demonstrations at least meant democracy was flourishing." LINK
if thats the case, i want the democracy folks in america to rise up and take the whitehouse - cos many of us are wondering whether democracy exists in america. prove it.

* jc: "Whatever goddam military genius came up with the bright idea of flushing the Koran down the toilet at Guantanamo should be court-martialed, and Bush had better get out there apologizing before this thing spirals further out of control." LINK

* "Now we get to the new Galloway accusations. The alledged documents come from the Oil Ministry. You know, the one that Ahmed Chalabi heads. It seems strange in a country where oil output is about half of capacity during a time of high oil prices that the first thing he would do is fish Galloway's name out of a mass of paper. Particularly when Galloway had already won one libel suit. This is coming out of the Republican Congress because that is the only entity on the planet that wouldn't be sued for defamation on this." LINK