The Four Questions The new Congress is taking its seats. President Bush is planning to "surge" troops in Iraq. Get Members of Congress and Presidential Candidates on the record on the Four Questions. The "Surge." The timetable. The funding. Talks with Iran. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-weisbrot-and-robert-naiman/the-four-questions-get_b_37841.html
Tell Your Representatives: Stop the Money and Bring the Troops Home Please write/call your Members of Congress if you have not done so recently. http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/involved/iraq.html
Talk to Iran: Petition More than 40,000 have signed the Peace Action/Just Foreign Policy petition. Please sign/circulate if you have yet to do so. http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/involved/iranpetition.html
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Summary: U.S./Top News Many politicians are getting away with bobbing and weaving on key questions about Iraq policy, writes Robert Naiman on Huffington Post. Just Foreign Policy calls on Americans to demand straight answers from politicians on Bush's "surge," a timetable for withdrawal of all US troops and bases, opposition to funding to continue the war into 2008, and direct US talks with Iran and Syria.
Some key Senate Democrats say they could consider supporting a short-term increase in American troop levels in Iraq, the New York Times reports. Senator Carl Levin, head of the Armed Services Committee, said he would not "prejudge" the president's proposal. But Senator Joseph Biden, chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, has said he is opposed to increasing troop strength regardless of the plan.
President Bush plans to order extra U.S. troops to Iraq, but in smaller numbers than previously reported, the Miami Herald reports. The president is considering dispatching three to four U.S. combat brigades to Iraq, or no more than 15,000 to 20,000 U.S. troops.
A small but increasingly influential group of neoconservatives are again helping steer Iraq policy, the Los Angeles Times reports. A key part of the plan Bush is expected to announce next week - a surge in troops coupled with a more focused counterinsurgency effort - has been one of the chief recommendations of these neocons since 2003.
The taunts hurled at Saddam Hussein before his execution Saturday have prompted some U.S. officials and Iraqi politicians to conclude Prime Minister Maliki's government is led by Shiite Muslim radicals and can't be counted on to disarm Shiite militias, McClatchy News reports. Several U.S. officials said the Bush administration no longer can expect Maliki to tackle the militias because Hussein's hanging exposed the depth of the government's sectarianism.
Across the country Americans are holding vigils to mark 3000 U.S. deaths in Iraq and call for the end to the war, USA Today reports. Anne Chay, a high school teacher whose son is in Baghdad, said the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq was serving no good purpose. "We don't appear to be welcome there," she said. "Hearing it firsthand from your son … it's just very discouraging."
For the first time, more troops disapprove of the president's handling of the war than approve of it, Military Times reports. Only 41 percent of the military said the U.S. should have gone to war in Iraq in the first place.
The number of injured U.S. troops in Iraq has far outstripped the dead, with the Veterans Administration reporting that more than 150,000 veterans of the Iraq war are receiving disability benefits, Inter Press Service reports. Soldiers who survive attacks are often severely disabled for life. Pentagon guidelines now allow commanders to redeploy soldiers suffering from traumatic stress disorders, a policy veterans blame for the death of Army Reservist James Dean, killed in a standoff with police over Christmas. Dean, who served 18 months in Afghanistan, had been diagnosed with PTSD. He had just been informed his unit would be sent to Iraq on Jan. 14.
The first Muslim elected to Congress says he will take his oath of office using a Quran once owned by Thomas Jefferson, USA Today reports.
Iran Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, President Ahmedinijad's main opponent in the last presidential elections in Iran, warned that international pressure on Iran could have dangerous consequences, the New York Times reports. But a former nuclear negotiator for Iran said that Iran should try to understand the international community's concerns.
Israel must help President Bush pave the way for a U.S. military attack on Iran by lobbying the Democratic Party, U.S. newspaper editors and Democratic presidential candidates, writes Israeli general Oded Tira, in the online version of Israel's largest daily.
Israel/Palestine Five Palestinians were killed Wednesday in a resurgence of factional violence in the Gaza Strip, AP reports.
Israeli forces mounted a rare raid into the West Bank city of Ramallah, seat of the Palestinian government, killing four Palestinians, Reuters reports, hours before Israeli Prime Minister Olmert and Egyptian President Mubarak met to explore restarting stalled peacemaking.
Afghanistan NATO officials said Wednesday the organization's forces had killed too many Afghan civilians last year and would work to change that in 2007, AP reports.
Somalia Within hours of the Islamists' departure from Mogadishu, militiamen loyal to warlords ousted in June reappeared at checkpoints in the city where they used to rob, rape and murder civilians, Reuters reports. On the last day of a three-day government ultimatum for Mogadishu residents and militia to turn in their guns, few have been turned in.
Venezuela President Chávez' plan for a single Socialist party among his varied supporters has created concern, "even among sympathetic political analysts," that the step would turn Venezuela into a "one-party state," writes Simon Romero in the New York Times. Unsurprisingly, Romero doesn't cite any "sympathetic political analysts" who actually make this far-fetched claim.
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- Robert Naiman Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org