MetaFilter posts tagged with WaPo and Iraq

Iraq Winners Allied With Iran Are the Opposite of U.S. Vision

Postroad — Mon, 14 Feb 2005 08:47:40 -0800

Iraq Winners Allied With Iran Are the Opposite of U.S. Vision [access:sexy247@mailinator.com/ biteme] You can't always get what you ask for:: ...Yet the top two winning parties -- which together won more than 70 percent of the vote and are expected to name Iraq's new prime minister and president -- are Iran's closest allies in Iraq. Thousands of members of the United Iraqi Alliance, a Shiite-dominated slate that won almost half of the 8.5 million votes and will name the prime minister, spent decades in exile in Iran. Most of the militia members in its largest faction were trained in Shiite-dominated Iran...

Shia Uprising

y2karl — Sun, 04 Apr 2004 22:03:48 -0800

Eight U.S. Troops Killed in Shiite Uprising Occupation Forces Battle Cleric's Followers As Widespread Demonstrations Erupt in Iraq
A Young Radical's Anti-U.S. Wrath Is Unleashed For months, as American occupation authorities have focused on a moderate Shiite leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a radical young Shiite cleric named Moktada al-Sadr has been spewing invective and threatening a widespread insurrection. On Sunday, he unleashed it. At his word, thousands of disciples, wearing green headbands and carrying automatic rifles, stormed into the streets of several cities and set off the most widespread mayhem of the occupation. Witnesses and occupation officials said the disciples occupied police stations, fired rocket-propelled grenades at American troops and overran government security in Kufa, the town in south central Iraq where Mr. Sadr lives. "The occupation is over!" many yelled. "We are now controlled by Sadr!"

Paper Tiger?

FormlessOne — Wed, 07 Jan 2004 10:38:18 -0800

Iraq's Arsenal Was Only On Paper

Karl Vick's

skallas — Wed, 15 Oct 2003 19:33:46 -0800

Karl Vick's "Live from Iraq" net chat today tackled many questions regarding Iraq, including how the press covers it. Vick: But the violence we write about goes to the central issue in Iraq today, at least according to Iraqis, and that is security. Without a feeling of safety, nothing much can happen in the way of progress here. Torn from today's headlines: A new school doesn't count for much if parents are afraid their kids are going to die in it.

risenc — Mon, 26 Aug 2002 07:16:18 -0800

Administration Says It Can Attack Iraq without Congressional Approval Not a new story, per se, but this Post article lays out pretty well the arguments behind the administration's case, one being simply Bush's role as commander-in-chief. It's strange how closely this issue reflects earlier attempts by the administration to avoid Congressional and/or public scrutiny (Cheney's Enron meetings, for example). Why this aversion, and why fight so hard? And I have a sneaking fear that Bush will seek Congressional approval only after invading, and he will bully votes by claiming that reps have a patriotic duty to support a president in a time of war.