Politics: A new beginning

[andViolins]

Originally posted by Not Me
It's Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri.

Actually, MSNBC is reporting that it is Qais Hattam, described as being number 5 on the Army 4th Infantry division's list of high value targets who was captured in the raid. Hattam is not, however, listed as one of the "card" in the U.S. playing card deck of 55 most wanted Iraqis. Perhaps he made it as a Mah Jong tile.

http://msnbc.msn.com/ID/3708151/

aV

[Not Me]

"Some of my fellow Democrats are unpatriotic." ORSON SCOTT CARD

What I’m saying is that those who try to paint the bleakest, most anti-American, and most anti-Bush picture of the war, whose purpose is not criticism but deception in order to gain temporary political advantage, those people are indeed not patriotic. They have placed their own or their party’s political gain ahead of the national struggle to destroy the power base of the terrorists who attacked Americans abroad and on American soil.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by Not Me
Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri?

Did you get an answer to your question?

[Not Me]

Originally posted by Tyrone_Slothrop
Did you get an answer to your question?

Took me awhile to get that, but I finally did. If you keep making me laugh like that, I may even e-mail you a naked picture (you always were so interested in that).

[bilmore]

Originally posted by Tyrone_Slothrop
Did you get an answer to your question?

Racist name-derider.

(That was good.)

[sgtclub]

Germany and France Agree to Debt Relief

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news...d=aQTvzAht8UwE

[Secret_Agent_Man]

Originally posted by Not Me
"Some of my fellow Democrats are unpatriotic." ORSON SCOTT CARD

Maybe so -- but by that standard, there are plenty of unpatriotic Republicans as well -- who pop up whenever a Democrat is President.

Oh -- and Club: Let's see if the debt relief was traded for bidding on prime contracts in Iraq before any hats are eaten.

S_A_M

[bilmore]

Originally posted by sgtclub
Germany and France Agree to Debt Relief

Well, they agree that debt relief would be nice.

And that's really all they agreed on.

[Not Me]

Originally posted by sgtclub
Germany and France Agree to Debt Relief

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news...d=aQTvzAht8UwE

"Those figures exclude late interest, which the Paris club says is roughly equal to the principal outstanding." Yikes!

[Not Me]

Originally posted by Secret_Agent_Man
Maybe so -- but by that standard, there are plenty of unpatriotic Republicans as well -- who pop up whenever a Democrat is President.

Cite please.

[The Larry Davis Experience]

Originally posted by bilmore
Well, they agree that debt relief would be nice.

And that's really all they agreed on.

Awww. I had already started loosening up my hat-buttering arm and everything.

By the way, this quote caught my eye: "McClellan didn't answer questions about whether the U.S. would lead by example to forgive or restructure Iraq's debt, calling Baker's discussions with foreign leaders preliminary."

Is it really a possibility that we would not set an example by forgiving our $2.2b share of Iraqi debt, when we are pouring many times that into restructuring the country? Or is this just a gotcha question from some reporter?

[Not Me]

How can a putatively legitimate site leave something like this on its website?

Spree - post threatening to kill Bush on IndyMedia website.

http://dc.indymedia.org/newswire/dis...6726/index.php

That has got to be against the law.

[Bad_Rich_Chic]

Originally posted by bilmore
Well, they agree that debt relief would be nice.

And that's really all they agreed on.

Oh, for crikey's sake, debt relief is irrelevant. Whether they forgive the debt or not (I vaguely recall $9bil as the Fr/Gm/Ru portion of it, and not nearly what was owed to other arab states), it will never be paid. Ever. Any new Iraqi gov't is going to, first thing bright and early after the party, reject all of it as unenforceable debt contracted with an illegitimate gov't of the country. Happens frequently when you have a non-democratic regime change. The Fr/Gm/Ru trifecta's best hope is to say "ooh, we forgive it," hope people are fooled into thinking they gave up something meaningful, and make Bush look petty in not saying "oh, wonderful, here have some contracts." It would have made no sense for the US to tie debt relief to contracting access - though I think that article from a day or two ago was right, the Bush admin is too "honest" (or just blunt) for it's own good.

And on the contracting thing - it sucks, but frankly it is the way just about all aid works. Even aid from France and Germany - it comes with strings saying "here, have some aid, you must spend it in our country," regular as clockwork. That isn't even slightly unusual, though it does make for inefficient aid policy.

The reason access to contracts is important, though, has nothing to do with where the money the US provides is going or who profits from the specific contracts in question. It is all about positioning various national industries for the long-term in the reestablished Iraqi economy. And that, particularly for Russia, is bad, bad news. They had big designs on the Iraq oil industry post-sanctions.

[bilmore]

Originally posted by The Larry Davis Experience
Is it really a possibility that we would not set an example by forgiving our $2.2b share of Iraqi debt, when we are pouring many times that into restructuring the country?

I'm hazy on this, but isn't at least some of the pour going over as a loan?

[bilmore]

Originally posted by Bad_Rich_Chic
Oh, for crikey's sake, debt relief is irrelevant.

Not completely. A repudiation that is not accepted internationally raises lots of issues concerning their future oil transactions. There is no world-wide bankruptcy stay.