"… appearing to the world as an arrogant nation… fighting for the so-called freedom of the Vietnamese people when we have not even put our own house in order." - Martin Luther King, "Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution," National Cathedral, March 31, 1968
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Summary: US/Top News President Bush's new war plan faces some of its fiercest resistance from the very people it depends on for success: Iraqi government officials, the New York Times reports. The signs so far have unnerved Americans working on the plan, who have described a web of problems some fear could hobble the effort before it begins. Among American concerns is a Shiite-led government so dogmatic Americans worry they will be frustrated in their aim of cracking down equally on Shiite and Sunni extremists. "We are implementing a strategy to embolden a government that is actually part of the problem," said an American military official.
President Bush and his aides, justifying more American troops for Iraq, are offering an incomplete, oversimplified and possibly untrue version of events there, writes Mark Seibel for McClatchy News. Blaming the start of sectarian violence in Iraq on the Golden Dome bombing risks policy errors because it underestimates the depth of sectarian hatred in Iraq and overlooks the conflict's root causes, he writes.
Democrats are unified in opposition to a troop increase, but split over what to do about it, the New York Times reports. Rep. John Murtha said he expected Congress to move to restrict financing for new troop deployments - or at the very least tie approval to stringent conditions. But Senator Carl Levin said he did not believe Congress should "use the power of the purse" to halt the president's plan and that it should go no further than approving nonbinding resolutions opposing it. Presidential candidate John Edwards said Congress had a moral duty to cut off financing. Levin said the threat by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to filibuster his resolution shows "the administration would be very much worried about a majority vote if 51 senators included a bunch of Republicans," the Washington Post reports.
Iran President Bush has opened a "third front" in the war in Iraq - against Iran, David Sanger reports in the New York Times. Senior members of the Bush administration have made it clear that their agenda goes significantly further than events in Iraq, and that their goal is to contain Iranian political influence throughout the region.
The Iraqi foreign minister called Sunday for the release of five Iranians detained by US forces in what he said was a legitimate mission in northern Iraq, AP reports. "We have to live with Iran, we have to live with Syria and Turkey and other countries," he said. He said those detained had been working in a liaison office issuing travel permits for the local population, and reiterated that the office was in the process of being turned into a consulate.
Many fear that President Bush is spoiling for a fight with Iran, writes Juan Cole in Salon. The Iranian mission's application to the Kurdistan Regional Government to be recognized as a consulate is still in process, but it would be sophistry to argue, as the US has done, that its status as a diplomatic mission is questionable. Bush and Secretary of State Rice have begun speaking, without presenting any evidence, of Iranian aid to groups killing US troops in Iraq - hence the reference to "networks" in his Wednesday speech. The difficulties faced by the US military occupation of Iraq itself may well be made the pretext for aggressive action against Iran.
Iraq Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan reaffirmed Turkey's right to send troops into Iraq to crush Kurdish rebels there and chided US officials for questioning it, Reuters reports. Erdogan said it was wrong for Washington - "our supposed strategic ally" - to tell Turkey to stay out of Iraq. "We have a 350 km border with Iraq... the US is 10,000 km away from Iraq, and yet is it not intervening in Iraq's internal affairs?" he said.
President Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq has inflamed passions among the restive Sunni Arab minority, bringing new recruits to insurgent cells, according to the spokesman for the country's most hard-line Sunni clerical group, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Israel/Palestine Arab governments plan to tell Secretary of State Rice they will help Washington stabilize Iraq if the US takes more active steps to revive a broad peace initiative between Israel and its neighbors, AP reports. The deal, dubbed "Iraq for Land," is expected to be proposed during a meeting between Rice and her counterparts from eight Arab countries on Tuesday.
Somalia An African Union delegation has arrived in Somalia's capital to discuss the deployment of international peacekeepers, AP reports. The US and EU have pledged financial help for an African peacekeeping force. But no African government has responded to the push to form an 8,000-member mission, although Uganda has said it is willing to send as many as 1,500 soldiers as part of a wider mission.
Haiti The US Congress may be the only chance for a credible investigation of the US role in Haiti's coup d'état, writes Brian Concannon for the International Relations Center. Rep. Lee promised to re-introduce the TRUTH Act in the new Congress. It would appoint a bipartisan, independent commission charged with investigating the February 2004 Haitian coup d'état, and determining whether the US government contributed to the overthrow of the constitutional president.
Ecuador US officials are concerned about the cooperation of Ecuador's new government in fighting drug trafficking, the Los Angeles Times reports. During his campaign, Correa promised that he would not renew the US military's lease on the Manta air base, where eight drug surveillance planes have been based since 2000. The presence of the US planes rankles Ecuadoreans who think America's main goal is not to fight drugs but to keep a close eye on guerrillas in Colombia.
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- Robert Naiman Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org