political nonsense

The House approved a war funding bill ordering President Bush to withdraw most troops from Iraq by the end of next year.
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It was reported that 2007 was the deadliest year yet for US troops in Iraq, hundreds of US diplomats protested against a government move to force them to accept postings in war-torn Iraq, the UN reported that independent security contractors in Iraq are mercenaries, Congress approved a $459 billion military spending bill, and the Pentagon was secretly reviewing plans to ease enlistment standards to make up for recruiting shortfalls. The number of recruits seeking waivers for criminal behavior rose three percent last year to nearly one-fifth of all prospective servicemembers. Two-thirds of the waivers were approved.
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A State Department review of its own security practices in Iraq assailed the department for poor coordination, communication, oversight and accountability involving armed security companies like Blackwater USA and DynCorp, Blackwater was being accused of tax evasion and defrauding the government of millions of dollars by designating many of its employees as independent contactors instead of company personnel, President Bush requested another $46 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan bringing the total request this year to $196 billion, Osama bin Laden released a video urging Sunni Arab insurgents in Iraq to unite to fight against the US, about 10,000 Turkish troops were amassed along Turkey’s border with Iraq, and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said he would shut down the offices of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, and will not allow the group to operate in Iraq after Kurdish rebels killed 12 Turkish soldiers on Sunday. The PKK has been fighting for Kurdish autonomy in southeastern Turkey since 1984.
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US and Iraqi officials were negotiating Baghdad’s request to expel the private security company Blackwater within six months following last month’s deadly shoot out in Baghdad, a Washington Post correspondent was shot dead in Baghdad, former US military commander in Iraq Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez described the war as a “nightmare with no end in sight,” the Turkish government formally sought authorization from the Turkish parliament to invade Northern Iraq and attack Kurdish rebel groups after amassing 60,000 troops along the country’s border and shelling Kurdish regions across the border, and a former top US general admitted the war in Iraq was about oil. “Of course it’s about oil, we can’t really deny that,” former Commander General John Abizaid said.
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The United States decided it should deliver weapons to Iraq faster after finding out that the Iraqis ordered $100 million in military equipment from China, Iraqi officials accused the US of killing at least 17 Iraqi civilians in multiple helicopter air strikes near Baquba on Friday, an Iraqi judge concluded corruption extended into the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and an American official said that US efforts to combat the problem are inadequate, General Petraeus blamed Tehran for escalating violence in Iraq, current and former US officials accused the State Department of ignoring repeated warnings that private security contractors were endangering Iraqi civilians and undermining US efforts to win support from the population, and the Iraqi prime minister’s office reported that the government’s investigation had determined that Blackwater USA private security guards who shot Iraqi civilians three weeks ago in a Baghdad square sprayed gunfire in nearly every direction, committed “deliberate murder” and should be punished accordingly.
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The US House of Representatives passed legislation that allows the prosecution of security personnel contracted by the US government for work in Iraq and other hostile places.
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Bush vetoed the child healthcare bill and 51% of Americans said they would be willing to pay higher taxes so that all children could have health insurance,with those with lower household incomes showing the most support.
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The Senate voted to authorize spending another $150 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the FBI is sending a team of agents to Baghdad to investigate Blackwater, a senior al-Qaeda leader was arrested, Iraq announced it wants the UN Security Council to extend the mandate of the United States-led multinational force in Iraq only through the end of 2008 and then replace it with a long-term bilateral security agreement, The US Embassy criticized a Senate resolution that could lead to a division of the country into sectarian or ethnic territories-agreeing with a swath of Iraqi leaders in saying the proposal “would produce extraordinary suffering and bloodshed,” it was reported that at least 3,802 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war, and the US military said it regrets civilian deaths, as it announced a new surge of strikes against Al-Qaeda in Iraq in which six militants were killed and a child was hit in the crossfire.
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Turkey and Iraq on Friday signed an agreement to crack down on Turkish Kurd rebels based in northern Iraq, the US military reported it killed a senior leader of al-Qaeda, a top US general in Iraq admitted that security contractors in Iraq use some over-the-top tactics and overreact at times, the Senate approved a measure which supports dividing Iraq into federal regions for Iraqi Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki condemned the Senate vote saying it would lead to “catastrophe,” and it was revealed that Saddam Hussein offered to go into exile before the Iraq War if he could keep a billion dollars.
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A Congressional investigation issued a scathing criticism of the private military firm Blackwater USA around the March 2004 mission that saw four of its guards killed and led to a major escalation of the Iraq war.
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US Defence Secretary Robert Gates ordered a review of the way private security firms operate in Iraq and the oversight given by the US military, car bombs killed 27 people and wounded more than 90, the US government began a new battle with Congress after demanding the unprecedented sum of 189 billion dollars to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Prime Minister Al-Maliki pointed out that the vision of national reconciliation in Iraq is plagued by a tenacious insurgency and sectarian warfare.
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The US Senate urged the Bush administration Wednesday to declare Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard a terrorist group to help the United States roll back Iranian influence in Iraq.
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The Bush administration planned to increase its 2008 financing request for military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere by almost $50 billion and it was reported that the Iraq war is costing $500,000 a minute, fourteen Iraqis were killed during separate operations and raids by US army and Iraqi police, the UN considered a greater role in Iraq, the Iraqi government rejected calls to expel the US firm Blackwater which is under investigation over a shooting which killed 11 Iraqis claiming it would leave a “security vacuum” in Baghdad, while the Iraqi Prime MinisterNouri al-Maliki noted that Blackwater has been linked to at least seven incidents involving gunfire on Iraqi civilians- “There are serious challenges to the sovereignty of Iraq,” he said.
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Al-Sadr’s movement announced it would withdraw from the largest political bloc in Parliament- a coalition of Shiite parties, a group of gunmen killed a leader from Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army in west Baghdad, while the militia retaliated by killing four Iraqis and causing scores of families from the region to be displaced, new figures showed that the number of displaced Iraqis his risen by about fifty-thousand since July, the US security firm Blackwater has resumed limited operations in the Iraqi capital Baghdad four days after a deadly shootout involving the company, and the Senate has overwhelmingly rejected a measure that would cut off funding for combat operations in Iraq by next June as well as a measure that would haven given U.S. troops longer rest periods in between deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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Lincoln D. Chafee, who lost his Senate seat in the wave of anti-Republican sentiment in last November’s election, left the Republican party. “It’s not my party any more,” he said.
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Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has lashed out at Democratic Senators Hillary Clinton and Carl Levin for calling for his replacement. “I don’t agree with Hilary,” he said.
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The Bush administration said Monday the constitutionality of its warrantless electronic eavesdropping program cannot be challenged.
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The country’s top government inspector warned the US government is on a ‘burning platform’ of unsustainable policies and practices with fiscal deficits, chronic healthcare underfunding, immigration and overseas military commitments threatening a crisis if action is not taken soon.
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Former anti-war leader Cindy Sheehan announced on Thursday that in 2008 she will run as an independent candidate against Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). “I dedicate my candidacy to the people of Iraq and Afghanistan,” Sheehan said, weeping.

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The Democrat-led Congress handed President Bush a major legislative victory this weekend when it voted to broadly expand the government’s authority to eavesdrop without warrant on the international telephone calls and email messages of American citizens.
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