This entry was posted on
Monday, June 27th, 2005 at
8:49 am and is filed
under It’s War! It’s Legal! It’s Lovely!.

Guardian (Jun 10) – US in talks with Iraqi insurgents: A US embassy official in Baghdad said efforts were under way to “engage” elements of the resistance in an apparent softening of the Bush administration’s opposition to negotiations.

Yes, they don’t negotiate with terrorists… but the way the Bush administration frames their statements and briefs the press suggests that all insurgents are terrorists. Can they keep the Doublethink ticking over on this one?

Telegraph (Jun 27) – Rumsfeld admits US army has been meeting Iraqi rebels: Donald Rumsfeld, the American defence secretary, confirmed yesterday that the US army had been negotiating with insurgent leaders to try to reduce the violence in Iraq. Asked in a television interview whether officers were meeting insurgents in an attempt to divide the armed groups, he said: “Well sure. But I wouldn’t make too big a deal out of it. Meetings go on the whole time.”

Well, perhaps at home. They’re not doing so well here.

Also, regarding comments on the likelihood of an ongoing insurcgency and whether or not US/UK troops would still be over there and dealing with them in 10 years time…

New York Times – Bombing Attacks on Iraqi Forces Kill 38 in North: Four suicide bomb attacks struck Iraqi police and an Iraqi Army base in a 16-hour wave of insurgent violence in the northern city of Mosul on Saturday and Sunday, killing 38 people and wounding scores more. One American commander said the violence continued a trend in the past few weeks of insurgent attacks intensely focused on Iraqi security forces.

Scotsman – Bush warns Blair he must boost UK forces: Britain is coming under sustained pressure from American military chiefs to keep thousands of troops in Iraq – while going ahead with plans to boost the front line against a return to “civil war” in Afghanistan.