Latest Developments...

Rain! It has been raining… I love the rain. I think most Iraqis love the rain because it is a relative rarity in our dry part of the world. We have only a couple of rainy months during the year and they're not that rainy… more like drizzly.

The air smells like rain. It's the most wonderful smell- wet dust. It's not the first time this year, but it's been somewhat continuous. Everyone has been praying for lightning because Iraqis love 'chimeh' or truffles. Those are those little potato-like veggies that grow like underground mushrooms and taste like wet socks. It is believed that the more lightning during the rainy season, the better/larger/tastier the truffles later on… don't ask me why.

The topic of the moment is currently Samarra… or 'Samir-reh' as we pronounce it. People are really confused about the whole thing. The US military are saying that 54 Iraqis are dead, with several wounded- almost all of them 'insurgents', but the Iraqi police claim there are only 8 dead- two of them an elderly Iranian couple who had come on a pilgrimage to a religious site in Samirreh. There were only 8 corpses found after the battle and the police say that not a single one of the corpses was in fida'ieen clothes. So where did the other bodies go? Iraqi forces don't have them and American forces don't have them- as far as anyone knows… did they just disappear?
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Needed: Iraqi boss with mo'

Those who try to do the undoable must also think the unthinkable. US strategists in Iraq are contemplating what they have always denied, the search for a "strong man with a moustache" to stop the present rot. If the result is not democracy, so be it.

If the result is the dismemberment of Iraq, so be it. Iraq has become a mess. There is only one priority: to "get out with dignity".

This strategy is now being rammed down the throat of the US administrator in Baghdad, Paul Bremer, by George W. Bush's new "realist", Deputy National Security Adviser Bob Blackwill. He answers to National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, not US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and is the new boss of Iraq.

The Pentagon, Rumsfeld and his deputy Paul Wolfowitz, architects of the old "idealist" strategy, are in retreat. The Iraqi Governing Council, which Bremer reluctantly created, will be disbanded. Washington must find someone with whom it can do business, someone who can deliver order in return for power. That search is Blackwill's job.

In a nutshell, Washington has bought the old British Middle East strategy, that you deal with local leaders and leave them to it. The fantasies of Rumsfeld and of Bush's recent "world democracy" speech are at an end. There must be no second Vietnam in Iraq. Necessity has become the mother of humiliating invention.
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  thanks to Eschaton

So, will someone tell me why we invaded Iraq?

Israel ' aiding US in Iraq'

US special forces fighting a covert war in Iraq are receiving help from both Israel and former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party regime, according to a media report.

The article - in the December 15 issue of the New Yorker magazine - cites unnamed US and Israeli intelligence sources.

It says Israeli commandos and intelligence units have been helping US special forces train for operations in Iraq and are expected to secretly advise them in the field.

The US and Israeli governments had decided to keep their co-operation secret, according to the report.

It also cites an unnamed former Central Intelligence Agency official with extensive Middle East experience as saying US officials are relying on a former Saddam loyalist for intelligence on opponents of the US-led occupation.

Farouk Hijazi, former director of external operations for Iraqi intelligence, "has cut a deal" since being captured in April, the source is quoted as saying.

US officials "are using him to reactivate the old Iraqi intelligence network," the source said
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Tough New Tactics by U.S. Tighten Grip on Iraq Towns

As the guerrilla war against Iraqi insurgents intensifies, American soldiers have begun wrapping entire villages in barbed wire.

In selective cases, American soldiers are demolishing buildings thought to be used by Iraqi attackers. They have begun imprisoning the relatives of suspected guerrillas, in hopes of pressing the insurgents to turn themselves in.

The Americans embarked on their get-tough strategy in early November, goaded by what proved to be the deadliest month yet for American forces in Iraq, with 81 soldiers killed by hostile fire. The response they chose is beginning to echo the Israeli counterinsurgency campaign in the occupied territories.
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"With a heavy dose of fear and violence, and a lot of money for projects, I think we can convince these people that we are here to help them," Colonel Sassaman said.
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NEWSWEEK: Gingrich Speaks Out Against Administration's Policy in Iraq, Saying The U.S. Went 'Off a Cliff'
Key in Iraq Is 'Not How Many Enemy Do I Kill' But 'How Many Allies Do I Grow'
  thanks to American Samizdat

Delusions in Baghdad