Turkey Invades Iraq?

There are unsubstantiated reports that hundreds of Turkish soldiers crossed into Northern Iraq on Wednesday, pursuing Kurdish guerrillas who stage attacks on Turkey from hideouts there.

In the event that these reports are true, it would embarrass the United States and be seen as a broad indictment of its Iraq policy.

Bolton on Newsnight

BBC Newsnight's Jeremy Paxman interviews former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton in March 2007, and gets under his skin.

No Improvement

Lt. General Douglas E. Lute, President Bush's nominee Iraq war czar, said yesterday that conditions in Iraq have not improved significantly, despite the so called "surge" of U.S. troops in recent months.

General Lute went on to say that, absent any major political reform, violence will continue to rage over the next year.

General Lute, asked by Bush to serve as a new high-powered White House coordinator of the war, told senators at a confirmation hearing that Iraqi factions "have shown so far very little progress" toward the reconciliation necessary to stem the bloodshed.

If that does not change, he said, "we're not likely to see much difference in the security situation" a year from now.

The war is unwinnable, the only reason that Bush keeps the troops there is so that he does not lose face before his term of office expires.

British Army Moral Falls

Not surprisingly the unwinnable war in Iraq is sapping the moral of the British army.

BBC Newsnight reports that sources within the army have stated that the only reason that they and the US troops remain in Iraq, is to ensure that Bush is not seen to "lead" the withdrawal before the next presidential election.

Bush prefers to save face rather than lives in this unwinnable conflict.

The Newsnight video report can be watched via this link Newsnight.

Leave Now

Sir Christopher Meyer, the UK's former ambassador to Washington, has told the Iraq Commission in London that the British and American military presence in Iraq is worsening security across the region and should be withdrawn quickly.

Quote:

"I personally believe that the presence of American and British and coalition forces is making things worse, not only inside Iraq but the wider region around Iraq. The arguments against staying for any greater length of time themselves strengthen with every day that passes.

I think the Iraqis are in fact sorting themselves out - often bloodily - independent of what we're doing."

This comes at the same time that the Americans themselves have realised that the security "surge" in Baghdad is failing.

As per the New York Times:

"Three months after the start of the Baghdad security plan that has added thousands of American and Iraqi troops to the capital, they control fewer than one-third of the city's neighborhoods, far short of the initial goal for the operation, according to some commanders and an internal military assessment.

The American assessment, completed in late May, found that American and Iraqi forces were able to 'protect the population' and 'maintain physical influence over' only 146 of the 457 Baghdad neighborhoods."

Mission accomplished!

Call For Release of Detainees

The defence team of Saddam Hussein and his assistants, have called for the release of all the Former Army Officials accused in Al Anfal case.

The attorney of the defence, Khalil Al Dulaymi, called in a statement to release the detainees in Al Anfal case and to issue a decision in order to close all the investigations and the trials. He added that Iraq didn't witness such investigations and trials even in the times of Inspection Courts.