Anonymous Comrade writes:

"Resistance or Retrogression?

The Battle of Ideas Over Iraq"
Peter Hudis, News & Letters

The U.S. occupation of Iraq has turned into a quagmire of nightmarish proportions, with many now calling it the most serious setback for U.S. foreign policy since the Vietnam War. This is seen in everything from the way western Iraq has come under the control of Taliban-like fundamentalists to the fact that jihadists from neighboring lands are flocking to Iraq to take advantage of hatred of the U.S. occupation and to further their effort to create a reactionary "Islamic state" upon its ruins. Clearly, the U.S. occupation of Iraq — which would have continued even if Kerry won the presidential election — created fertile ground for reactionary and terrorist forces to take root and flourish.

"Rebels Return to 'Cleared' Areas"

Scott Peterson, Christian Science Monitor

FALLUJAH — In Fallujah, US forces are going through 50,000 houses one by one. But
Iraqi insurgents are coming back.

The embers in the house were still hot from
the fire of battle when Cpl. Joshua Richard went in to view the remains
of the insurgents who killed a fellow US marine.

At the base of the stairs — the same dark place where Lance Cpl. Blake
Magaoay of Pearl City, Hawaii, had fallen in a burst of rifle fire —
Corporal Richard harangued the burnt Iraqi corpse."You got what you
wanted, didn't you?" he sneered, referring to the Marine casualties.

Housing Developers Burn Down NYC Community Center

Bronx, NY December 2, 2004 — Thirty residents of Casa Del Sol, a
community center in the South Bronx, are homeless after a fire
partially destroyed their building and sent 16 firefighters to the
hospital. Residents blame ACORN, a development group, for allowing the
fire to burn five hours after police evicted the building's residents.

"The circumstances are incredibly suspicious," says former Casa Del
Sol resident Joleene Martin. "The fire happened under their watch. I
blame them for either negligence or malice. Either way, it's their
fault."

"Italy Goes on Strike Over Economy"

John Hooper, The London Guardian

Millions of Italians stopped work yesterday in protest
at the economic policies of Silvio Berlusconi's
government. A nationwide half-day stoppage crippled public
transport and shut factories and banks. Alitalia
cancelled more than 100 flights. Government departments and post offices were shut all
day. Doctors and nurse also staged an eight-hour
strike, though emergency services were maintained.

The action was originally called by the main trade
union federations, and backed by the opposition, to
protest at an austerity budget for 2005 that imposes
sacrifices worth €24bn in the form of
spending cuts and additional levies.

Sandinista Wins Worry U.S.:

Leftists Making Political Gains in Nicaragua

Hugh Dellios, Chicago Tribune

MANAGUA, Nicaragua — As leftist leaders make gains across Latin America, an old U.S. adversary from the 1980s contra war has set off alarm bells in Washington: Daniel Ortega's Sandinistas.

The Sandinista Front won 87 of Nicaragua's 152 mayoral posts in elections this month, making significant inroads against a right-wing ruling faction divided by infighting and corruption scandals. Analysts say the victories also reflect the leftist party's success in running several cities efficiently and fairly.

"25,000 US Casualties in Iraq; 9% of Troops Put in Hospital or Killed
Over 2000 Iraqis Killed in Fallujah"

Juan Cole

CBS has elicited from the Pentagon the real figure of US casualties in Iraq, which is more like 25,000. That number includes the 1230 or so killed and the 9300 classified as "wounded in battle," but also 17,000 classified as non-combat sick or injured, of whom 80 percent do not return to their units in Iraq. Although some of the 17,000 are victims of disease, some unspecified number have actually been injured as a result of being in a theater of war. If you have an "accident" while guns and bombs are going off all around you, is it really an "accident"?

"Venezuelan State Prosecutor Danilo Anderson Assassinated"

V Headline News

State Political & Security (DISIP) agents and CICPC detectives are
seeking to determine if the victim of an jeep which was blown to
smithereens by two bombs in the Los Chaguaramos/Santa Monica suburb of
Caracas around midnight last night could be that of State Prosecutor
Danilo Anderson.

At this time, the indications are that the driver's body is indeed
Anderson and already government officials are describing the incident as
a further act of terrorism by radical opposition groups who are
determined not to accept electoral defeat.

"US Accused of 'Torture Flights'"

Stephen Grey, London Times

AN executive jet is being used by the American
intelligence agencies to fly terrorist suspects to
countries that routinely use torture in their prisons.

The movements of the Gulfstream 5 leased by agents from
the United States defence department and the CIA are
detailed in confidential logs obtained by The Sunday
Times which cover more than 300 flights.

Countries with poor human rights records to which the
Americans have delivered prisoners include Egypt, Syria
and Uzbekistan, according to the files. The logs have
prompted allegations from critics that the agency is
using such regimes to carry out 'torture by proxy' — a
charge denied by the American government.

"Falluja 101"
Rashid Khalidi, In These Times

“The people of England have been led in Mesopotamia into a trap from which it will be hard to escape with dignity and honor. They have been tricked into it by a steady withholding of information. The Baghdad communiqués are belated, insincere, incomplete. Things have been far worse than we have been told, our administration more bloody and inefficient than the public knows. It is a disgrace to our imperial record and may soon be too inflamed for any ordinary cure. We are today not far from a disaster. Our unfortunate troops, Indian and British, under hard conditions of climate and supply are policing an immense area, paying dearly every day in lives for the willfully wrong policy of the civil administration in Baghdad but the responsibility, in this case, is not on the army which has acted only upon the request of the civil authorities.” — T.E. Lawrence, The London Sunday Times, August 1920

There is a small City on one of the bends of the Euphrates that sticks out into the great Syrian Desert. It’s on an ancient trade route linking the oasis towns of the Nejd province of what is today Saudi Arabia with the great cities of Aleppo and Mosul to the north. It also is on the desert highway between Baghdad and Amman. This city is a crossroads.

"Dogs Eating Bodies in the Streets of Fallujah"
Dahr Jamail

It never fails to get my adrenaline flowing when my hotel rumbles from a car bomb detonating in central Baghdad.

Last night around 7 pm the explosion occurred at a hotel compound which houses foreign contractors over near Firdos Square.

Shortly there after the “Green Zone” took a sustained mortar attack which went on long enough for them to hit the blaring sirens which warn the inhabitants to take cover, long after the mortar rounds had stopped falling.

Iraq’s borders with Syria and Jordan remain closed, according to US-appointed prime minister Allawi since declaring Iraq in a state of “national emergency.”