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winning hearts & minds .....

winning hearts & minds .....

Even as American and Iraqi troops are fighting to establish control of the Sadr City section of this capital, the Iraqi government’s program to restore basic services like electricity, sewage and trash collection is lagging, jeopardizing the effort to win over the area’s wary residents.

For weeks, there have been reports that Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is preparing to move ahead with a multimillion-dollar program to rebuild the southern swath of Sadr City, which is currently occupied by Iraqi and American troops.

But almost a month after American and Iraqi forces pushed into the area, there are no signs of reconstruction. Instead, the streets are filled with mounds of trash and bubbling pools of sewage. Many neighbourhoods are still without electricity, and many residents are too afraid to brave the cross-fire to seek medical care. Iraqi public works officials, apparently fearful of the fighting, rarely seem to show up at work, and the Iraqi government insists the area is not safe enough for repairs to begin.

On Saturday, three Sadr City residents gingerly approached an American Army position to deliver a warning: Unless the Iraqi government or its American partner did something to restore essential services and remove the piles of garbage, the militias would gain more support. 

In Baghdad, Struggle Ties Security To Basic Services

good things come in four...

Hamas offers six-month Gaza truce with Israel

Thursday, 24 April 2008

The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas today proposed a six-month truce between Israel and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip with an option to extend it to include Palestinians in the West Bank.

Former Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar, speaking in Cairo after meeting Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, said the truce must include an end to the Israeli blockade of the coastal strip.

"The movement agrees to a truce in the Gaza Strip .... fixed at six months, during which period Egypt will work to extend the truce to the West Bank," Zahar said, reading from a Hamas statement.

"The truce must be mutual and simultaneous and the blockade must be lifted and the crossing points opened, including the Rafah crossing point (between Gaza and Egypt)."

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April 25, 2008
Pakistani Militant Halts Attacks as Talks Begin

By ISMAIL KHAN and CARLOTTA GALL

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — The Pakistani government is close to an agreement with the most militant tribes in its turbulent border area, whose main leader is accused of orchestrating most of the suicide bombings of recent months and the assassination of the former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

A 15- point draft of the accord, which was shown to The New York Times, called for an end to militant activity and an exchange of prisoners in return for the gradual withdrawal of the Pakistani military from part of the tribal region of South Waziristan.

Even as the accord was being negotiated by the government through tribal elders, the militant leader, Baitullah Mehsud, issued orders to his fighters to cease their activities, both within the tribal regions and in the adjoining North West Frontier Province, warning of strict punishment to any violators.

The early approach to the militants appeared to be an attempt by Pakistan’s new government to make a break with the policies of President Pervez Musharraf and to restore some calm to Pakistan, which has been roiled by a rising number of suicide attacks. Diplomats and Afghan officials in Kabul suggested that the new government was trying to demonstrate goodwill, but was also playing for time so it could bring stability to the country.

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April 24, 2008
Sunnis Agree to End Boycott, Rejoin Iraq Government

By JAMES GLANZ

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s largest Sunni bloc has agreed to return to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki’s cabinet after a nine-month boycott, several Sunni leaders said on Thursday, citing a recently passed amnesty law and the Maliki government’s crackdown on Shiite militias as reasons for the move.

The Sunni leaders said they were still working out the details of their return, an indication that the deal could still fall through. But such a return would represent a major political victory for Mr. Maliki in the midst of a military operation that has at times been criticized as poorly planned and fraught with risk. The principal group his security forces have been confronting is the Mahdi Army, a powerful militia led by Moktada al-Sadr, the radical Shiite cleric. Even though Mr. Maliki’s American-backed offensive against elements of the Mahdi Army has frequently stalled and has led to bitter complaints of civilian casualties, the Sunni leaders said that the government had done enough to address their concerns that they had decided to end their boycott.

“Our conditions were very clear, and the government achieved some of them,” said Adnan al-Duleimi, the head of Tawafiq, the largest Sunni bloc in the government. Mr. Duleimi said the achievements included “the general amnesty, chasing down the militias and disbanding them and curbing the outlaws.”
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McCain Says He Would Have Responded Differently to Hurricane Katrina

By Elisabeth Bumiller
McCain Says He Would Have Responded Differently to Hurricane Katrina

NEW ORLEANS — Senator John McCain took direct aim at the Bush administration on Thursday as he stood in the lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, the area hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and declared that “never again will a disaster of this nature be handled in the terrible and disgraceful way that it was handled.’’

Mr. McCain, who was on the fourth day of a tour of America’s “forgotten places” to try to prove that he is a kinder, gentler Republican, ticked off a long list of mistakes: “There was unqualified people in charge, there was a total misreading of the dimensions of the disaster, there was a failure of communications.’’

Asked at an outdoor news conference if he traced the failure of leadership straight to the top, Mr. McCain, who has vowed to campaign with President Bush, said, emphatically, “yes.’’

... and five....

Assad confirms Turkish mediation with Israel

The Syrian president, Bashar Assad, confirmed today that Turkey had been mediating between his country and Israel since April last year.

Assad told Qatar's al-Watan newspaper that Turkish involvement had yielded an Israeli offer to withdraw from the Golan Heights in return for a peace treaty with Syria.

Both Assad and the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, have in recent days said their countries had exchanged messages - Olmert told Israeli newspapers last week the messages clarified what each would expect from a future peace deal - but the article in al-Watan provides the first significant details of the communication.

Officials in the Syrian presidency confirmed that Assad gave the interview and did not dispute its contents.

Assad told the newspaper there would be no secret talks with Israel. Instead, the preliminary stages of talks would be held with Turkey as a go-between.

He suggested there would be no direct negotiations with the Jewish state until a new US president takes office.

Assad said the US was the only party qualified to sponsor any direct talks, but said the Bush administration "does not have the vision or will for the peace process. It does not have anything."

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Gus: on a day we are made to remember the glory, the pain, the stupidity and the savagery of war (ANZAC day in Australia), there is some hope on the horizon that things are TRULY improving.

Negotiations are the key to agreements without having to kill anyone. Negotiations are often difficult and can be psychologically painful, and demand extra adjustment to the notion that makes everyone embrace a common goal even with differing aspirations, ideals or dogma. It will demand respect and acceptance that one's goofed (don't I know about that one... oh boy! I goof often...) but that does not give anyone the right to crush you. Slowly, there is hope on the horizon that many of the world antagonists might become less so and choose a more friendly route.

minus one...

MIAMI — The League of Women Voters in Florida and its 27 local groups have helped thousands of residents register to vote over the years.

But just over a week ago, the organization’s leaders said they would have to stop their current drive because the state’s top election official planned to enforce strict deadlines and fines of up to $1,000 for groups that lose voter registration forms or turn them in late.

“We’re an all-volunteer organization,” said Dianne Wheatley-Giliotti, president of the League of Women Voters in Florida, which plans to sue. “It’s a matter of being able to protect the leagues from liability.”

Eight years after the debacle of “hanging chads,” Florida once again seems to be courting electoral trouble. A handful of laws have been passed since the 2000 presidential recount, with state officials saying they bring order to a chaotic system.

“Some say we err on the side of caution,” said Joe Pickens, a Republican from Palatka who served on the Florida House’s Ethics and Elections Committee in 2005 and 2006. “I would say that’s the place we should be.”

But Election Day may end up looking oddly familiar. According to independent elections experts at Pew’s Electionline.org and other organizations, it is now harder to vote here than in nearly every other state in the nation. Some critics predict that tens of thousands of potential voters will be kept off the rolls — many of them poor, black or Hispanic.