Iraq Suicide Bomber Kills 63, Hurts 200

Tuesday December 12, 2006 9:16 PM

AP Photo BAG118

By KIM GAMEL

Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A suicide bomber struck a crowd of mostly poor Shiites in Baghdad on Tuesday, killing at least 63 people and wounding more than 200 after luring construction workers onto a pickup truck by offering them jobs as they were eating breakfast.

Downer warns against 'disastrous' Iraq withdrawal

By Washington correspondent Kim Landers

Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer has told the United States a quick withdrawal from Iraq would be disastrous.

Mr Downer and Defence Minister Brendan Nelson have spent a day talking to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, as part of annual Australia-US ministerial talks.

Mr Downer says he told the Bush Administration not to pull out too quickly from Iraq.
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Gus: As if our Mr Clowner knew anythink...
Pulling troops out would not only show that our UnAustralian and his Alexobear were wrong all along to have some in the first place but these romper-stompers want to make sure that no-one else can share in the loot when it truly becomes available... Thus they do as the big bad wolf wants. But one has to realise that the coalition of the wheeling and dealing in Iraq is not UN sanctioned, nor is it fully fledged trying to help the Iraqis... because if they had wanted to help the Iraqi, they would have not bombed them in the first place and they would have negotiated a progressive improvement, even with Saddam at the helm... President Bush has now created a situation that has killed three times more people in Iraq in three years than Saddam did in 20.... Great result!

How to stop this mess? Only one way in three prongs: get the hell out of Iraq, give a dictator the power to control the fragmented place (violence would continue for a while but would diminish considerably) and the US to stop the looting of the resources (a stopping which they do not want to do since they are planning to stay in Iraq for 25 years or more, until the petrol runs out) ... The only fellow that could pull this extraordinary stint is the double-dealing Ahmed Challabi (I know he's a bit rotten... but it would be like one fights cancer with powerful poisons — poisons called "chemotherapy" to make it more palatable to the public), as a repentant saviour... unless someone in the wings over-there, a secular person, comes along and starts to put some relativity in the cauldron with a firm hand, while foreigners butt out. Then eventually democracy can be installed in small bits... Presently the situation is not going to improve whether the troops stay or go... But the US administration should wake up to the fact (they know but the smell of the black gold is too much to leave it alone) that its troops are contributing to the problem and unless there is a miracle, like a biblical flood in Baghdad, the Americans will never sort the problem out. Our Canberranean puppets should shut up, lay low and bring our troops home quietly.

A miracle is needed for the sake of the Iraqis, even if this "divine" intervention (I do not believe in god) helps Dubya look good... but methink he will sink in the muck of history with his midwives to Brailling brats "in the middle-east", from our Johnnee to El Blairo, via his La Madame Rice.

Bush Delays Speech on Iraq Until January

By JIM RUTENBERG
Published: December 12, 2006

WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 — President Bush will wait until after the holidays to speak to the nation about a new strategy in Iraq, a strategy he said today will be designed to establish a free and self-sufficient country that will be an ally in the battle against extremists.
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Gus: Come on! This is ridiculous... The man had five years (including his preparation time) to work something out for the Iraqis... Whatever rhetoric he can conned himself with will not stop the problem he has unleashed. The cycle of violence in Iraq is at a level worse than during a civil war. Revenge rules. Extremists and killers are everywhere. The cancer cannot wait the end of the holiday season. So far in December the US has lost 46 troops (if one manages to locate the small print in our newspapers on page 40-something — thus about 200 injured troops as well) and we're not even half-way in the month. Bush should resign in shame and go play with his horses that could be cows if he knew one from the other... At least the Iraqi might have a chance.