A Political Stunt

But, one that has to occur, a motion to censure Bush.

Sen. Russell D. Feingold (D-Wis.) said Sunday that he would ask the Senate to censure President Bush for authorizing a warrantless domestic spying program, signaling a new determination by Democrats to keep the heat on the White House over the controversial eavesdropping by the National Security Agency.

Although the surveillance program has drawn criticism from Republicans as well, a Senate GOP leader dismissed the move by Feingold, a liberal iconoclast and possible 2008 presidential candidate, as "political grandstanding."

And there is the key. A number of Republicans have said this domestic spying is illegal. They have questioned to need to break the law, and have even hinted at investigations.

Then they have backed down. They do not have the courage to exercise the oversight that the constitution demands that they do. For 5 years now they have given the executive branch a free ride, even helping to cover up questionable acts by refusing to look into them.

All that is left is political theater, so that is what the Republicans in DC have forced Sen. Feingold to do.


UPDATE.
If you feel like contacting your Senators Firedoglake offers pointers and a phone number, or two.

Calling the SC Senators is a waste of time, but go ahead and do it, it waste their time also.


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Domestic Spying

The State To Have A New Owner

Knight-Ridder, owners of The State paper, have sold their operations for $4,500,000,000.00.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Newspaper publisher McClatchy Co. on Monday said it would buy larger rival Knight-Ridder Inc. for $4.5 billion in cash and stock, ending a search for a buyer that lasted more than four months and highlighted the troubles of the U.S. newspaper industry.

I hope this is good news for the hometown paper.



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Columbia SC The State

Truth In Advertising

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Bush

Badgdad's Shia Targeted

Coordinated car bombs kill at least 40.

BAGHDAD –– At least 40 people were killed and 95 wounded in three apparently coordinated car bombs at two markets in Baghdad's Shi'ite district of Sadr City on Sunday, police said.

And since it is clear that the US and Iraqi forces can not stop these attacks, the cycle of violence will continue.

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Iraq

Been There

create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.



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Travel

South Dakota Style Disaster On S.C. Horizon

Lynn has the details on H.4790.



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Roe

Another Sr. Bush Aid Arrested

The third I can think of, Libby, Safavian and now Claude A. Allen.

Claude A. Allen, who resigned last month as President Bush's top domestic policy adviser, was arrested this week in Montgomery County for allegedly swindling Target and Hecht's stores out of more than $5,000 in a refund scheme, police said.

{snip}

The former aide, Claude A. Allen, 45, was President Bush's top domestic policy adviser until resigning last month. Known as a rising conservative star, he previously served as deputy secretary of the Health and Human Services Department

He, Like Safavian, actually resigned prior to the arrest, but in both cases it is clear the pending arrest drove the resignations.

Allen was the point man on many Bush domestic polices; ending legal abortion, requiring school prayer, and abstinence education. He was also the White House lead on the Katrina Response.

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Claude A. Allen

Now Dancing With The Devil

Slobodan Milosevic, former leader of Yugoslavia, was found dead in his cell at The Hague.

Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has been found dead in his cell in The Hague, Netherlands where he was being tried on war crimes charges, according to the United Nations war crimes tribunal. He was 64.

An official in the chief prosecutor's office said Milosevic was found at about 10 a.m. Saturday and that he apparently had been dead for several hours. An autopsy will be performed, the official said.

Now he is beyond the judgment of man.

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Milosevic Yugoslavia

Not All Republicans Are Racist

But it sure feels like all racist are Republicans. Two issues from Friday bring this into focus.

First, the anti Harold Ford (D-Tn) web site, set up by the National Republican Senatorial Committee. This web page show how focused the Republicans are on race baiting in their politics.

It tells you all that you need to know about where the great minds of the GOP are when it comes to campaigning -- it's still all about playing on race, racial history and the subtle (and not-so-subtle) ways of invoking the uppity Negro in Southern politics.

Then we move on to Colorado where Jim Welker (R-Loveland) forward an e-mail loaded with racist themes and images.

When 75 percent of New Orleans residents had left the city, it was primarily immoral, welfare-pampered blacks that stayed behind and waited for the government to bail them out.

But as I said, not all Republicans are racist. A number of Colorado republicans denounced this e-mail, and it's distribution.

Rep. Debbie Stafford, R-Aurora, who worked with Katrina evacuees when they came to Colorado, said she was "appalled and sickened." "These (were) poor people. Many of them were senior citizens and had no way to escape the hurricane," said Stafford, who is white.

Unfortunately for America, for Every Debbie Stafford, there are two or three Jim Welker in the Republican party


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Jim Welker Racism Colorado

It's Friday, A Few Interesting Bits To Read

Over at A Crazy Little Thing Called Blog, a review of David Horowitz's new book.


Sexual ethics and the Bible, Fr. Jake looks at the work of Walter Wink.


Orcinus looks into the conservative bubble that so many in the right want to stay in.


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Horowitz Ethics

A Bad Week For The College Board

I suspect that the only reason I noticed this is my Daughter is getting ready to take her first 'official' SAT and ACT tests in a few weeks.

It seem that the folks who bring us the SAT had a little difficulity scoring the tests.

About 4,000 high school students — including 17 S.C. students — who took the SAT in October found out they had received scores that, in some cases, were 100 points lower than what they actually scored.

But what has proven even more difficult for the College Board has been clearly reporting what the true facts are.

The first reports indicated that the scores were only a hundred or so points low, th next series of statements indicted that some could be up to 400 points low. Now, well, maybe some of the scores are incorrectly high.

That fact that it happened isn't big news. Into every buisness some rain may fall . What is interesting is just how poorly the college board has handeled this failure. The repeated clairifications just make them look bad.

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SAT

First War Profiteer Goes Down

Custer Battles is hit with a ten million dollar fine for it's actions in Iraq.

A federal jury in Alexandria, Virginia has found contractor Custer Battles and its owners Scott Custer and Michael Battles liable for fraud in the first Iraq military contract case prosecuted under the False Claims Act. The jury hit the defendants with a $10 million judgement.

This was not the only case from Iraq, but may have been one of the most outrageous.

Retired brigadier general Hugh Tant III told the court that Custer Battles' fraud "was probably the worst I've ever seen in my 30 years in the Army." Tant testified that in one case, Custer Battles contacted to supply trucks to the military and provided vehicles that did not run and had to be towed to the site. When confronted, Mike Battles is said to have responded: "You asked for trucks and we complied with our contract, and it is immaterial whether the trucks were operational."

But, here is what is both most amazing, and incredibly typical of the Bush administration.

The federal government refused to join the case.

No wonder Haliburton is doing so well in this war.




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Custer Battles War profiteering Iraq

A Source Of National Shame To Close

U.S. military to close Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.

The U.S. military will close Abu Ghraib prison, probably within three months, and transfer some 4,500 prisoners to other jails in Iraq, a military spokesman said on Thursday.

The prison in western Baghdad was a torture center under Saddam Hussein before photographs of American soldiers abusing Iraqis there in 2003 gave it a new notoriety

In other words, it was a torture center for BOTH Saddam Hussein and George Bush.


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Abu Ghraib

A Pretend Step To Reform

Yesterday the US Senate approved an amendment to a bill that would prohibit lobbyist from buying meals for Senators.

The amendment to a broad lobbying and ethics-reform bill, accepted by a voice vote, strengthened language in that bill that bars lawmakers from accepting lobbyist gifts but makes an exception for meals.

Some seem quite pleased with themselves over this not so bold step, but remember this.

The vote on meals came after the Senate rejected, on a party-line, 55-44 vote, a broader Democratic alternative that would have banned meals and all privately funded travel.

They want to give the impression that they are doing something, but make sure they get to keep the better goodies flowing.

The real trouble is, these new rules will do little to redefine the over cozy relationship that exist between lobbyist and law makers. When this story first started breaking, one item that gathered much attention were the semi-formalized ties that now exist between the Republican party and lobbyist groups. A perfect example of this tie were the Tuesday morning meetings hosted By Sen.. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.).

When the story broke, the Senator first announced he was changing some of the practices of the meetings (the job fair), then announced that the meetings were canceled.

He Lied.

But in the month since his announcement, Santorum has held two meetings attended by the same core group of lobbyists, and has used the sessions to appeal for campaign aid, according to participants. Both of those meetings were convened at the same time as the previous meetings -- 8:30 a.m. -- on the same day of the week -- Tuesday -- and they lasted for about as long as the earlier meetings -- one hour.

The only difference is that the meetings are no longer held in the Capital Building.

It is this relationship, not just the goodies, that have to be distanced, and the people we now have in charge in DC are clearly not the ones to make this happen.




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Santorum Lobbyist Republican Culture Of Corruption

Oh My, It's Getting Very Nasty

Over at The Panda's Thumb is a recap of the Intelligent Design battle ongoing in South Carolina.

The anti-evolution crusade in South Carolina, led by the Discovery Institute, continues unabated. There is not much new to report the Educational Oversight Committee (EOC) has voted to reject, yet again, the curriculum standards that don't include the pro-ID "critical analysis" language. But the EOC has no power to change the standards. Only the Board of Education, which meets today, can do that. So it gets kicked back to them, and they'll have to submit another round of standards for EOC approval.

One thing that has come out is the rather typical way that the Pro ID forces are trying to silence the witnesses. Political pressure is being applied to the universities.

one of the individuals who testified in front of the EOC did have her job threatened. That person would be Mary Lang Edwards of Erskine College, who testified against Fair's anti-evolution proposal. After her EOC testimony, and after having written two guest editorials that appeared in The Greenville News and The State, numerous emails and phone calls were made to Dean of Erskine College calling for her termination. Not just to the Dean, but also to the President. And to the Board of Trustees.

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South Carolina Intelligent Design

2 Suspects Arrested In Alabama Church Fires

A third is still being tracked down.

WASHINGTON - Federal law enforcement officials believe they have scored a big break with the arrests of two people believed responsible for the string of church fires in Alabama, NBC's Pete Williams reported Wednesday.

I am looking forward to hearing the why in this case.

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Alabama Arson Church Fires

Great News For The Democrats

Tom Delay won his primary election.

DeLay, in his first contested primary since taking office more than two decades ago, led all three rivals early Wednesday. With 98 percent of the vote counted, DeLay had 20,132 votes or 62 percent. His closest challenger was environmental attorney Tom Campbell, who had 9,777 or 30 percent.

This assures that this fall, one of the men who personifies the corruption that pervades the Republican party in DC will be running in his district, and because of that he will also be running with Republican officials across the nation.

Even a DeLay victory in his home district (a very likely outcome) may cost the Republicans seats in other districts across the nation.

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DeLay Republican Culture Of Corruption

The War We Dare Not Call Civil Continues

More US deaths, more Iraqi Forces deaths, and more mysterious executions.

The bodies of 18 men, bound, blindfolded and strangled, were found on Tuesday night in a minibus in western Baghdad

{snip}

The bodies of two people were found, bound and blindfolded, after they were shot dead in eastern Baghdad.

{snip}

A U.S soldier was killed and four others wounded on Tuesday when a roadside bomb went off near their patrol in Tal Afar

{snip}

Two Interior Ministry personnel were killed and five wounded when a roadside bomb went off near a convoy of cars used by Interior Minister Bayan Jabor

Right now, everyone in Iraq is a target.

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Iraq Civil War

Interesting Trend In Information Sharing

It appears that the US Marines are blocking access to some news and commentary web sites. A quick review found that the USMC is allowing access to:


Bill O'Reilly
Rush Limbaugh
ABC News "The Note"
G. Gordon Liddy Show

But blocking access to.

Al Franken Show
Wonkette
Air America

Anyone else notice a trend.

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Censorship

A Little Despair, A Little Hope

Yesterday, Iraqi General Mubdar Hatim al-Dulaimi was killed, apparently by a sniper. He was the Sunni commander of the 6th Division of the Iraqi Army. A force of 10,000 men responsible for security in over half of Baghdad. The trouble is, killing such a high value target doesn't happen by chance, whoever did this had excellent inside intelligence.

Another Iraqi general told Reuters it was an assassination that needed inside information and proved the army, recruited by U.S. officers over the past two years, had been infiltrated by factional militia groups ready to turn on fellow soldiers.

General al-Dulaimi could have been the target for any number of groups, including factions within the current Iraqi government or armed forces. There is just as great a chance a Shi'ia faction in the government, wanting a Shi'ia office in charge of this division, was responsible, as the probability that some true insurgent group was.

And it is doubtful we will ever know the who or why in this mans death.

But with this bad news also came a ray of hope. Some Sunni leaders in the West of Iraq are fighting back against al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Tribal chiefs in Iraq's western Anbar province and in an area near the northern city of Kirkuk, two regions teeming with insurgents, are vowing to strike back at al-Qaeda in Iraq, a Sunni Arab-led group that is waging war against Sunni tribal leaders who are cooperating with the Iraqi government and the U.S. military. Anbar tribes have formed a militia that has killed 20 insurgents from al-Qaeda in Iraq, leaders said.

While adding yet another militia, using extra judicial execution as a tool of politics, is a disaster in the long term, it is still very gratifying to see Sunnis standing up to the radicals in al-Qaeda in Iraq.




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Iraq Mubdar Hatim al-Dulaimi Al-Qaeda

If You Want The Cash

You have to let them have their say.

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that colleges that accept federal money must allow military recruiters on campus, despite university objections to the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays.

Now, I think congress did not need to made this law, and that congress should consider removing that provision, but I never thought the law was unconstitutional.



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Recruiting

Civil War, Not A Civil War

Does it matter?

Yesterday, Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was on "Face the Nation" and assured us, Iraq is not on the verge of civil war.

"I do not believe it has deep roots," Pace said of the insurgency. "I do not believe that they're on the verge of civil war."

Also on Sunday, on ABC News, another Gen. spoke out. This time it was Maj. Gen. William L. Nash, the former military commander in Bosnia-Herzegovina. He is quite clear; this is now a civil war.

"We're in a civil war now; it's just that not everybody's joined in," said retired Army Maj. Gen. William L. Nash, a former military commander in Bosnia-Herzegovina. "The failure to understand that the civil war is already taking place, just not necessarily at the maximum level, means that our counter measures are inadequate and therefore dangerous to our long-term interest.

"It's our failure to understand reality that has caused us to be late throughout this experience of the last three years in Iraq," added Nash

How can two professionals end up with totally different views of the same situation?

I think it goes back to the Amry's mission driven, can do attitude. When failure isn't an option you tend to avoid considering what failure looks like. Gen. Pace is emotionally invested in the success of the Iraq mission. He will not fail, so unless there are two armies in the field in traditional combat, he doesn't see a civil war.

Gen. Nash has the benefit of distance and a dispassionate appraisal. He has also commanded in an area where a low level civil war did become a full blown civil war.

So we have two experts, two opinions, and in the end it doesn't mater much. Insurgency or civil war, in either case it just means a long haul, with many more casualties.

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Iraq

The Duke Gets Eight Years

For his efforts on capital hill.

SAN DIEGO - Former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham spent his first night in prison after receiving a sentence of eight years and four months for collecting $2.4 million in homes, yachts and other bribes in a corruption scheme unmatched in the annals of Congress.

And, Rep. Katherine Harris (R-Fl) story in this case in getting more interesting.

Rep. Katherine Harris (R-Fla.) has acknowledged that she requested last year that $10 million in federal funds be set aside for a Navy intelligence program in her district at the request of Washington contractor Mitchell J. Wade, who pleaded guilty last week to bribing another House member.

Harris, who gained notoriety as secretary of state in Florida during the contested Bush-Gore presidential race in 2000, is running for the Senate this year. News media in her home state have been focusing on her dealings with Wade since prosecutors disclosed last week that she was the unwitting recipient of $32,000 in illegal campaign donations from Wade in 2004.

Harris has already lawyered up, getting an expert in this type of criminal law.

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Cunningham Harris Republican Culture of Corruption

Some Interesting Reading For Your Friday

Slide on over and check them out.


Barbecue and Politics introduces us to Karen Iacovelli, and asks, why is she on the South Carolina public education oversight committee.


The trials and tribulations of poor ole David Horowitz are given a view by BadTux


What does it mean to be orthodox? Maybe not you think it means as Sacraments Wholesale explains.




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South Carolina Horowitz Orthodox

One Of My Favorite Republican Felons

Is asking for a break.

SAN DIEGO - Former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, who pleaded guilty to corruption on a scale unparalleled in the history of Congress, is asking a federal judge to spare him the maximum sentence.

And, if all the illegal gains he has collected in his terms in congress are forfeited, then why not. He isn't a threat to society.


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Cunningham

Gee, We Are Dumb

There was an Interesting poll recently published by the McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum. About 20.0% of the population can name all the Simpsons (the 5 in the nuclear family), about 20.0% can name the judges of American Idol.

Only 00.1% can name the five rights that we were granted by the first amendment.

I don't know how long a nation can survive, when the people of that land are ignorant about how it was built.

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Bill Of Rights

Global Warming Scientist Getting More Vocal

There is a growing consensus among the scientist who focus on this issue.

The global scientific body on climate change will report soon that only greenhouse gas emissions can explain freak weather patterns.

The latest clearly understandable, easily visible effects of global warming are not sticking in the American conscience. The rapid melt rate of the ice cap in Greenland was noted and forgotten. The pine beetle's explosion into the Canadian forest will generate a days worth of attention, then fade away.

And the situation remains fundamentally unchanged: The scientist are more concerned, the US government is more determined to not act, and the situation keeps getting worse.

Another example of Republican leadership in action.


UPDATE

Another story to look at then forget: Antarctic Ice Sheet Is Melting Rapidly

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Global Warming

Baghdad Morgue Director Flees Iraq

Mr. Bakir appears to have given information to the UN indicating that interior ministry death squads may have killed as many as 7,000 people. He has now left the country, citing death threats.

"The vast majority of bodies showed signs of summary execution - many with their hands tied behind their back. Some showed evidence of torture, with arms and leg joints broken by electric drills," said John Pace, the Maltese UN official. The killings had been happening long before the bloodshed after last week's bombing of the Shia shrine in Samarra.

Mr Pace, whose contract in Iraq ended last month, said many killings were carried out by Shia militias linked to the industry ministry run by Bayan Jabr

{snip}

Mr Pace said records, supported by photographs, came from Baghdad's forensic institute, which passed them to the UN. The Baghdad morgue has been receiving 700 or more bodies a month. The figures peaked at 1,100 last July - many showing signs of torture.

And these we are allied with these people in this conflict.

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Iraq Death Squads

A Very Big Lie Exposed

When Bush first made this claim, everyone should have known it was a lie. Now, for the kool-aid drinkers out there, video proof has exposed the lie.

Four days after the storm, Bush, while defending the failing relief efforts, made this absurd statement:

"I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees."

At the time there were howls of disbelief. People pointed to the hurricane Pam exercise, the fact that almost everyone knew there were concerns about the levees, and the fact that the President had to have been advised of these issues.

It turns out that he was, and Bush was just lying.

Video showing President George W Bush being warned on the eve of Hurricane Katrina that the storm could breach New Orleans' flood defenses has emerged. The footage, obtained by the Associated Press, also shows Mr Bush being told of the risk to evacuees in the Superdome.

Katrina not only confirmed the disingenuous nature of this administration, but also points out just how disconnected and incompetent they are. The President had to be shown a DVD of news reports, 4 days after the storm hit, to understand the scale of the disaster.

It took four days, in a situation where hours, and even minutes, are critical, for Bush to get up to speed on this story.

This administration is clueless.

A major storm is coming ashore, they get all the briefings, all the warnings, ignore them, then lie about it.

They attacked Iraq, claiming that they only needed 100,000 troops (over the objections of the top General), they claimed it would cost only 20-30 billion for the war, they claimed reconstruction would cost a total of 1.7 billion dollars.

A major business deal may present security concerns. There is a process in place to make sure the deal is acceptable. The process isn't followed, the administration claims it was, and insist the deal is fine, even as more disturbing information keeps coming out.

And the Republicans in Congress keep allowing it to happen.

Lying, inept, and corrupt, the current state of to many of the Republicans now in DC.

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Katrina

Iraq Is A Civil War, But Some Still Don't See It

I suspect that the biggest reason is because there are no traditional battlefields. There is no Bull Run, or Pea Ridge, the troops are not digging trenches, or even living in fortifications.

In fact most of the time only one force is even recognised as being active in this war. The primary focus has been on the insurgents, the various Islamic and Sunni groups who have been fighting the US, and the government we established there. Outside of a few incidents early in the occupation, the Shi'ias have been far more willing to keep their arms stored away.

This last week, a taste of the potential power that the Shia's possess has been given to the world. Various Shi'ia militias and ad hoc groups rose up, and the resulting killing was astounding.

Only the presence of US forces has prevented a much more traditional civil war. If either side tried to establish anything like a battle line or a fort, the US would destroy it almost immediately. So the combat remains at the level of terrorism and death squads. This fact doesn't mean that there are not further developments that clearly indicate an entrenching of the sectarian divide, and a further preparation for the coming open war.

The conflict in the Balkans clearly points us to what we will see next, and it is now happening.

BAGHDAD, Feb. 28 -- Salim Rashid, 34, a Shiite laborer in an overwhelmingly Sunni Arab village 20 miles north of Baghdad, received his eviction notice Friday from a man at the door with a rocket launcher.

"It's 6 p.m.," Rashid recounted the masked man saying then, as retaliatory violence between Shiites and Sunnis exploded across wide swaths of central Iraq. "We want you out of here by 8 p.m. tomorrow. If we find you here, we will kill you."

As long as the US has its forces in Iraq a civil war, featuring traditional combat, is very unlikely to occur. That doesn't mean there will not be a civil war going on. Ethnic cleansing is a clear indicator that the various sides are planning on grabbing as much land as they can and digging in. In the mean time, the bombings, the death squads and the misery will continue as the primary features of this civil war.

And we have 140,000 men and women in the middle of it.

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Iraq Civil War Ethnic Cleansing