Morning Brief 3/27
Iraq A bomb ripped through a U.S. Army base in Mosul. A U.S. raid on a Baghdad mosque on Sunday didn’t go well, leaving 20 dead. Iraqi and American forces attacked Al-Sadr followers. A.C. Grayling says we outta separate the civilians from the insurgents (don’t click if you’re looking for an actual proposal). McCain and ...
Iraq
Iraq
A bomb ripped through a U.S. Army base in Mosul. A U.S. raid on a Baghdad mosque on Sunday didn’t go well, leaving 20 dead. Iraqi and American forces attacked Al-Sadr followers. A.C. Grayling says we outta separate the civilians from the insurgents (don’t click if you’re looking for an actual proposal).
McCain and Feingold go to Baghdad, and take mild jabs at each other at a press conference. An NYT report on waning public support for the war, and the 2006 mid-terms.
Israel Votes Tomorrow
The race is tightening up. Everyone seems to agree these elections are boring. Yossi Klein Halevi says that they’re also Israel’s saddest elections, "the first with barely a mention of peace." The election will test Israel’s grip on the West Bank.
Iran
The WaPo’s Karl Vick echoing other reports, says: "…Iranian politics has shifted so sharply to the right that some traditional conservatives are warning of the dangers of radicalism."
The State Department message to potential grant applicants for its Iranian democratization program.
U.S. Foreign Policy
Paul Berman considers why Francis Fukuyama is no longer a neocon. Message: "Fukuyama is always worth reading, and his new book contains ideas that I hope the non-neoconservatives of America will adopt. But neither his old arguments nor his new ones offer much insight into this, the most important problem of all — the problem of murderous ideologies and how to combat them." Choice quote: "Nowadays, if you are any kind of political thinker at all, and you haven’t issued a sweeping denunciation of your dearest friends, or haven’t been hanged by them from a lamppost — why, the spirit of the age has somehow passed you by."
Tidbits
The Afghan Christian convert has been released–but not really. Condi will ask Russia to clarify the Iraq spying report. The opposition leader in Belarus gets no love from the ruling government: no lawyer, no doctor, and no wife. The NYT is glad that Sens Schumer and Graham are moving away from their currency manipulation charges. Why Chavez’s days may be numbered. How George Bush unified Latin America.
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