Najaf Fighting Intensifies Amid Peace Push

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BY JAMIE TARABAY

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A U.S. warplane bombed near Najaf's vast cemetery as fighting with Shiite militants intensified Tuesday. An Iraqi delegation brought a peace proposal aimed at ending the standoff in the holy city, which has marred a Baghdad conference meant to be a landmark step toward democracy.

Later Tuesday, that conference was extended by one day to Wednesday, the organizer said. Conference chair Fuad Masoum gave no reason for the extension. The gathering began Sunday.


Violence in the capital also rattled the National Conference. A mortar round exploded on a central Baghdad street several miles away, killing seven people and wounding wounding 35, according to the Health Ministry. Two other explosions, closer by, shook the conference center itself, slightly injuring at least two people.

Najaf Fighting Intensifies Amid Peace Push

[NashVegas]

1. Original Source Link

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=1&u=/ap/20040817/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

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3. We subscribe and pay for AP and Reuters Feeds.....

for our website.

[bemildred]

2. Send in the Clowns

Short and sweet.

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These bright thinkers have put U.S. soldiers, limited in number and policing skills, in the middle of an impossible situation in postwar Iraq .
Guerilla warfare is the most successful form of warfare in modern history. If the tiny nation of Vietnam persevered, so will Iraq . Algeria is
another case in point. Young readers in the region still voraciously consume Frantz Fanon?s essay ?On Violence? from his famous treatise, The
Wretched of the Earth.

So I suggest that we bring the rank and file troops home immediately and in their place send in all these policy elites, especially members of all
the ?think? tanks, people who lectured all over the media promoting this vapid regression in imperialism. They dictate their sanctimonious
nonsense from cushy offices while people in Iraq suffer and die. Let us now airdrop them all into Baghdad . Send them in with their laptops and
lengthy position papers, and they can try policing and rebuilding Iraq themselves. Once there, they better watch their backs 24-7 if they want
to avoid showing up in a photo clip on Arab TV in an orange jumpsuit. For a good read on the trip over, I suggest In Retrospect by Robert S.
McNamara.

Edit: link: http://www.strike-the-root.com/4/gronquist/gronquist4.html