Welcome! Our goal at Winds of Change.NET is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from Iraq that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday. This briefing is brought to you by Joel Gaines of No Pundit Intended and Andrew Olmsted of Andrew Olmsted dot com.
TOP TOPICS
- Demonstrating a fascinating understanding of culpability, President Bush claims that his reelection victory means there is no reason to hold anyone culpable for mistakes made in planning or executing the Iraq war and its aftermath. One wonders if everyone would have voted the same had they known that was the message they were sending.
- In what might be considered the next salvo in The War Against World War IV, Congressman Martin Meehan (D-MA) is calling for a schedule for American pullout from Iraq within 12-18 months.
- "I was only following orders" can be a legitimate defense if there's reason to believe the soldier would think the orders legal. But SPC Charles Graner's actions didn't meet that standard, and he will be spending the next ten years in jail after a jury convicted him of leading the abuses seen at Abu Ghraib. The Pentagon says they will prosecute at least 20 additional soldiers for abuses, but there is only one officer known to be among them. Will any of the officers who were supposed to be in charge of the troops face consequences for their failures?
Other Topics Today Include: insurgent arrests in northern Iraq; 15 Iraqi soldiers missing; Sunnis claim responsibility for sheik murder; what more troops in Iraq could mean; Iraq's oil industry under siege; new measures in place for election security; WMD hunt comes to an end.
REPORTS FROM THE FIELD
- American troops arrested dozens of suspected insurgents in northern and central Iraq in response to increased insurgent attacks as the elections approach.
- 15 Iraqi soldiers are missing in the wake of an insurgent attack on their bus west of Baghdad on Friday.
- Sunni terrorists claimed responsibility for the murder of Sheik Mahmoud Finjan last Wednesday. Finjan was a supporter of the Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and was a big supporter of the elections.
- Wretchard is taking a three-part look at troop strength (link is to first article; scroll up for next two) in Iraq. Unsurprisingly, the answers aren't as clear-cut as either side would like to believe.
RECONSTRUCTION & THE ECONOMY
- The insurgency is having greater success disrupting Iraq's oil production (link requires registration), crippling Iraq's most important industry and placing severe pressure on the funds available for Iraqi reconstruction.
IRAQI POLITICS
- Iraq authorities announced major new security measures intended to protect the voters during the January 30 elections.
- Zeyad reports on the situation on the ground leading up to the elections.
- The latest Carnival of the Liberated is up at Dean's World.
THE INTERNATIONAL STAGE
- The occupation in Iraq is taking a toll on the RAF. Tired ground crews are putting RAF pilots at risk because the ground crews are required to pull security details at the base in addition to their duties caring for the aircraft.
WMD HUNT
- The search is over. The United States has given up its search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The question which remains is what repercussions this failure will carry.
ETCETERA
- American troops using remnants of the ancient city of Babylon have apparently caused damage to the relics left at the site. The extent of the physical damage is unknown, but this will cause some propaganda damage that could have easily been avoided.
- The troops are still there. So is the Winds of Change.NET consolidated directory of ways you can support the troops: American, Australian, British, Canadian & Polish. Anyone out there with more information, contact us!
- Don't forget Chief Wiggles' Toys for Iraq drive!
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Except of course, that president Bush did not make the claim contributed by him, as explained by Wretchard
The end of the WMD hunt is virtually a non-event. It merely confirms what David Kay and Charles Duelfer have been saying over the past year. The media buzz over this event is just another way for the media to keep the WMD story in people's minds.
I agree with the findings of Duelfer and Kay in that Iraq performed little or no WMD work after 1991. Yet over 50 chemical weapon shells, all produced in the 1980's, have been found in Iraq since May. My concern is that more are still hidden, and will eventually be used by terrorists. The US and its allies have to stay attuned to the developments on the ground and prepare to act if this awful scenario should play itself out.
It's worth keeping in mind that it gets progressively more difficult to prosecute the higher one heads into the officer corps, due to the requirements the UCMJ imposes on the membership of the board.
Namely, all members must be of equal or greater rank to the accused, and none can be in their chain-of-command. All, also, must be of the accused's service. And that's all I remember.
Up until Capt (in Army ranks), this isn't too hard.
However, beyond that, there just aren't many officers holding those grades.
It's the one reason you never see a Colonel or above get court-martialed. At those ranks, everybody knows everybody. You couldn't possibly get a fair jury. So non-judicial punishment is almost all that's available.
For a Major or Lt. Colonel, the situation isn't quite so bad, but it's not very good either.
Regardless of whether Wretchard is correct in his assessment how did you get the post past Mr Katzman?
I believe in freedom of speech, and since there was nothing obscene in your comment about Wretchard's explanation of what the president actually said--rather than what he was misquoted as saying by the WaPo--I have no objection to your "slipping" the post past Mr. Katzman.