Free Republic

WASHINGTON - The White House is rethinking its diplomatic options in Iraq, but won't reconsider its military strategy before an assessment from war commanders is presented in September, U.S. officials said Tuesday. President Bush's top war advisers, Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute and Stephen Hadley, went to Capitol Hill to assure Republican supporters that a precipitate pullout of troops won't happen. Sens. Trent Lott of Mississippi, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, John McCain of Arizona, Jon Kyl of Arizona and others met with the two advisers in Vice President Dick Cheney's office off the Senate floor. Graham said members were told...

By Sgt. Jeff Lowry124th Mobile Public Affairs DetachmentU.S. Air Force Col. Andrew Knapp, left, shows equipment to be used in clinics throughout Iraq during a press conference Sunday. Department of Defense photo by Army Sgt. Jeff Lowry, 124th MPAD. BAGHDAD -- Health care reconstruction efforts continue to center on the completion of 142 primary health care centers around Iraq, Gulf Region Division officials told reporters on Sunday during a round-table on plans and strategies. The cost of the construction effort will total nearly $306 million, officials said, with three types of clinics being built.The smallest, most common centers will...

4/28/2006 - ALI BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- Most people either love them or hate them. Maybe it isn’t that melodramatic, but when people are sweating at their office or while trying to sleep they don’t have many good things to say about the heating, ventilation and air conditioning, or HVAC, shop. The HVAC shop here is responsible for more than 500 environmental conditioning units, commonly referred to as ECUs, a half dozen refrigeration boxes and more than 250 commercial-style air conditioning units. A lot of routine maintenance and repairs are required to keep all of them running. “We take one...

/24/2006 - BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- High over Iraq, an E-8C Joint STARS aircraft surveys hundreds of miles of the country at a time, looking for insurgent activity, controlling those situations and taking action if needed. The aircraft's crew ultimately keeps ground troops safer by communicating with convoys and directing air power to quell the enemy. The Joint Surveillance and Target Attack Radar System mission has two parts. The first is to radio relay with convoys throughout Iraq. Through radio and a text-messaging system, convoys can contact Joint STARS for help. Air National Guard Maj. Thomas Grabowski, senior...

2/22/2006 - TUZLA AIR BASE, Bosnia and Herzegovina (AFPN) -- There was a time in the late 1990s when Tuzla Air Base was crawling with hundreds of Airmen. As times changed, the duty of airfield maintenance has increasingly moved into the hands of contractors, but the Air Force still has a presence at the base. While the majority of the U.S. military presence at Tuzla is from the Army, the airfield is manned by three Airmen, supplemented by a team of more than 160 contractors. “Our primary job is to provide a safe and operable airfield for both NATO and...

1/3/2006 - BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- Airmen who maintain the MQ-1 Predator here take great pride in ensuring the unmanned aerial vehicles they look after can keep and eagle eye on what goes on in Iraq. The 61 Airmen of the 46th Aircraft Maintenance Unit -- and three Royal Air Force Airmen -- keep the Predators flying for the pilots who fly them from Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., and Balad. They ensure the Predators can provide interdiction, surveillance, target acquisition and conduct armed reconnaissance against critical and perishable targets. "The aircraft's ability to loiter over an area...

12/29/2005 - ALI BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- Another small dot drags a string of numbers with it as it hesitantly shuffles onto the screen. Now there are 30 dots with numbers. Airman 1st Class Grant Gers slips a strip of paper, no wider than a magazine and shorter than two end-to-end sugar packs, neatly but quickly enters the squawk (four of the numbers —- the call sign) and the time, adjusts his microphone and makes contact. “Welcome to my sky,” he said. The aircraft was in the 50,000 square miles of Iraqi airspace controlled by a small group of Airmen...

UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. employees union has criticized Secretary-General Kofi Annan for retaining his former chief-of-staff as an adviser despite accusations the aide authorized shredding three years of files on the corrupt oil-for-food program for Iraq. The Independent Inquiry Committee led by former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker criticized Iqbal Riza for giving approval to shred the documents on April 22, 2004 — a day after the U.N. Security Council authorized an investigation into the oil-for-food program. A resolution adopted by the Staff Council, the union's executive, and obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, said keeping Riza as a...

Iraqi, U.S. Soldiers Keeping Sadr Streets Safe Travelling through the streets and alleys of Sadr City, U.S. troops search for signs of terrorist groups, and get acquainted with the neighborhoods. By U.S. Army Spc. Ben Brody 2nd Brigade Combat Team Public Affairs SADR CITY, Iraq, Aug. 24, 2005 - U.S. and Iraqi Army soldiers now patrol Sadr City, and the result is safer streets in what was once a hotly-contested area. After a change in their area of operations, troops from Company B, 3rd Battalion, 15th Infantry, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division got to know their new...

WASHINGTON - A year ago, an activist group from the Seattle area gave Howard Dean (news - web sites) a thin, golden statue of a backbone. The Oscar-like award honored the former Democratic presidential candidate and Vermont governor for standing up against the Iraq (news - web sites) war and other Bush administration policies. Now, as Dean settles into his new role as head of the Democratic Party, that golden spine has come to represent, for many liberal Democrats, Dean's potential to develop a tougher, take-no-prisoners attitude among the party faithful. "There's no gut-check required for Dean. Dean just needs...

ALTADENA, Calif. (AP) - Facing increasing competition from states trying to raid California jobs, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday traveled to a movie set in the foothills outside Los Angeles to thank an old friend for keeping his business at home. Standing amid cameras and cables outside a house being used in the movie, Schwarzenegger patted Danny DeVito on the back and said his new film, "Relative Strangers," was a model for how the state could win a bigger slice of entertainment jobs that now sometimes go overseas because of lower costs. DeVito, who is acting in the film and...

Keeping up with the empire by Thijs Westerbeek, 24 May 2004 Hard currency: this silver Roman coin (a denarius, front and back shown) from the 2nd century AD indicates trade between the inhabitants of De Bloemert and Rome The Roman Empire has been well documented. Over the years written history and archaeology have brought to the surface, sometimes literally unearthed, a whole society. Thus Roman architecture, religion, military strategy and legal structures hold little mystery. Compared to this depth of knowledge, many of those living outside the boundaries of the Empire are lost in time. But now an archaeological excavation...

Frightened and shaking, Yasser Arafat jumped out of his bed in the semi-destroyed room in the Mukata. He has been a virtual prisoner here for many months now. The world, it seems, has almost forgotten him. Very few world dignitaries ever visit and the calls for Israel to allow him to leave Ramallah have all but ceased. Doesn't anyone care anymore? Creeping quietly towards the window, he listened to the never-ending buzz. Those damned Israeli helicopters! He turned on the radio: "This is Al-Jazeerah and here is the breaking news: "Hamas leader, Dr. Rantisi, was assassinated today as three missiles...

Rummy Says: "Make My Day" U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld attends a meeting with Mayor of Mosul Ghanam Al-Basso in his office during his visit the northern Iraqi city of Mosul September 5, 2003. If they had the chance, U.S. soldiers at a base in Iraq (news - web sites) would have had one question for Rumsfeld: When are we going home? Photo by Stringer/Turkey/Reuters President George W. Bush (news - web sites) speaks to the Kansas City, Missouri, Chamber of Commerce (news - web sites) at the Kansas City Convention Center about the US economy.(AFP/File/Luke Frazza) President Bush...