In the News, Week of January 1st
The week’s reading, straight off the razor wire:
TUESDAY
From the NY Times on the next step towards victory:
FEW IRAQIS ARE GAINING US SANCTUARY
BAGHDAD, Jan. 1 — With thousands of Iraqis desperately fleeing this country every day, advocates for refugees, and even some American officials, say there is an urgent need to allow more Iraqi refugees into the United States.
Until recently the Bush administration had planned to resettle just 500 Iraqis this year, a mere fraction of the tens of thousands of Iraqis who are now believed to be fleeing their country each month.
—That means fewer Iraqi casualties.
MONDAY
From the NY Times on finally catching on:
CHAOS OVERRAN IRAQ PLAN IN ’06, BUSH TEAM SAYS
The Bush administration was jolted on Feb. 22 when Al Qaeda blew up the Askariya Mosque in Samarra, a carefully plotted effort to fan sectarian passions, prompt Shiite retaliation and make Iraq ungovernable.
When the killing abated, President Bush and his top aides declared that the worst had passed. Both Sunnis and Shiites had “looked into the abyss and did not like what they saw,” the president said.
—You.
Mr. Bush still insists on talking about victory, even if his own advisers differ about how to define it. “It’s a word the American people understand…”
—I don’t. I’m a loser. Fill me in.