Tuesday, September 09, 2003

Pressure on UK Labour government continues The UK is sending more troops to Iraq. This fuels continued debate in the UK about the war and its aftermath and has triggered the call by Tony Woodley, incoming leader of the Transport and General Workers' Union, for Tony Blair to resign. if Tony Blair goes, the British government's  unquestioning support for US policy in Iraq will quickly dissipate and the US will become even more isolated. (See the BBC report.) 10:59:43 AM    comment []

Oh, by the way--still no WMD At least the BBC still reports on the efforts to find the long sought weapons of mass destruction that we now hear nothing about. There is still a team of about 1300 in Iraq looking for some signs. The gourp operates in secrecy and says nothing to the press. The silence is deafening. See the entire BBC report. 10:35:38 AM    comment []

Rachel Clarke of BBC Online summarizes the reaction to President Bush's Sunday speech that declares Iraq the "central front" in the war on terrorism and asks for $87 billion in funding, most of it to support military action in Iraq. More in Congress are at least asking questions. Maybe this is just posturing so they can go either way depending upon how things actually turn out. The Democratic presidential contenders are a bit more outspoken in their criticisms. However, everyone seems to think that the funding should be and will be approved and that the current course of action in Iraq will continue. We apparently have all the money in the world to pour into Iraq and at every turn the Republican Congress has been stingy toward supporting its own public. How can this be justified? The country is facing the largest deficit in its history. Long after George Bush has left the White House, the next generation will pay even more taxes to pay back the debts incurred to fund the occupation of Iraq. Yet the President is still pushing for more tax cuts. The President will certainly leave his mark on the nation. 10:11:04 AM    comment []