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While most Knesset members continued to stand united behind Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz, the first voices of criticism were sounded by the Meretz Party on Thursday over the operation the government has undertaken in Lebanon. Former prime minister Ehud Barak, meanwhile, told Channel 2 that he had been right to order the IDF out of Lebanon in 2000. Many Knesset members have blamed the violence in the North on Barak's decision to withdraw overnight from southern Lebanon six years ago. "Before we left Lebanon, rockets were fired that could reach Haifa," Barak said. "This is...

Ian's got the video of Murtha on Meet The Press. Transcript here. After criticizing Karl Rove's "fat backside," Murtha put forth his fat-headed Okinawa plan: MR. RUSSERT: You say redeploy. Again, Mr. Rove challenges that comment. Let’s listen and give you again a chance to respond to the White House. (Videotape, Monday): MR. ROVE: Congressman Murtha said, “Let’s redeploy them immediately to another country in the Middle East. Let’s get out of Iraq and go to another country.” My question is, what country would take us? What country would say after the United States cut and run from Iraq, what...

Rep. John P. Murtha says Democrats are uniting around his call to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq. The Pennsylvania Democrat's plan was echoed yesterday by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, widely considered one of her party's leading voices on national security. "Two-thirds of the Democrats agree with my position now," Mr. Murtha told NBC's "Meet the Press" host Tim Russert. "Every place I go, people understand what I'm saying. The public has been way ahead." Mrs. Feinstein, appearing on CNN's "Late Edition," said the Iraq mission has taken too long. "I don't know why we are so afraid to stand up and...

WASHINGTON -- Congressional Democrats, seizing on public discontent over the war in Iraq, will offer legislation this week calling for a phased withdrawal of troops from Iraq and a shifting of forces to other nations, where supporters say American soldiers will be less likely to come under attack. The resolution, crafted by Democratic Senators Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Carl Levin of Michigan, will headline a second week of debate in Congress over the state of the war. It is the first real debate Congress has held on the war since the US invasion in early 2003. Senate Democrats,...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The House on Friday rejected a timetable for pulling U.S. forces out of Iraq after a ferociously partisan debate, forcing lawmakers in both parties to go on record on a major issue in re-election campaigns nationwide. A day after the Senate took the same position against troop withdrawal, the GOP-led House voted 256-153 to approve a nonbinding resolution that says an "arbitrary date for the withdrawal or redeployment" of American forces is not in the national interest. "Achieving victory is our only option," declared House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, casting Democrats as defeatists who want to...

WASHINGTON - The Senate rejected a call for the withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from Iraq by year's end on Thursday as Congress erupted in impassioned, election-year debate over a conflict that now has claimed the lives of 2,500 American troops. The vote was 93-6 to shelve the proposal, which would have allowed "only forces that are critical to completing the mission of standing up Iraqi security forces" to remain in 2007. The vote came alongside a daylong debate in the House, where Republicans defended the war as key to winning the global struggle against terrorism while Democrats excoriated President...

Iraq's vice president has asked President Bush for a timeline for the withdrawal of foreign forces from Iraq, the Iraqi president's office said. Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, a Sunni, made the request during his meeting with Bush on Tuesday, when the U.S. president made a surprise visit to Iraq. "I supported him in this," President Jalal Talabani said in a statement released Wednesday. Al-Hashimi's representatives could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday. Bush made it clear during his visit that the U.S. military presence — now at about 132,000 troops — would continue, though he stressed the fate of...

Officer accused of strangling pullout protestor Border Guard officer accused of assaulting protestor during settlers' demonstration at Kissufim checkpoint in July 2005; according to indictment, 'officer held plaintiff by his neck with two hands, squeezed his throat, chocked him' Shmulik Hadad The Police Investigation Unit has filed an indictment against Yaniv Reuveni, a 28-year-old Border Guard officer from the southern town of Kiryat Gat. The officer was accused of attacking a Gush Katif resident during the evacuation of Gaza Strip settlements as part of the disengagement, Ynet learned Wednesday. According to the indictment, which accuses the officer of assault, was...

Osama Bin Laden has decided to open a string of convenience stores, to be called Fatwas R Us, and a string of cheap motels called Hostelges in Iraq and sell franchises while he anxiously awaits the departure of coalition forces currently stationed in the country in 2007. "We've taken over America with this plan, I see no reason why we can't take over Iraq using the same method" he said. Correspondent and unbiased reporter Dan Rather reported this morning, in a story picked up from his trusted source, Al-Jazeera, the Bush Administration knew of this development months ago yet kept...

A group of Israeli rabbis have cautioned Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert over his government's sudden rush to curtail Jewish life in Hebron, reminding the stand-in leader of the consequences paid by former premiers who dared to “disengage” from the Land of Israel. “All those who harm the Land of Israel declare war on God and his commands, and face the consequences,” Ynet quoted from a letter written by Rabbi Gedalia Axelrod, a former Haifa rabbinical judge, and Rabbis Shalom Wolpe and Yekutiel Rapp of SOS Israel. The rabbis brought as examples the fates of Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Rabin and...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 20, 2005 – President Bush's national security adviser today dismissed critics who demand an immediate or early withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. "The advocates of these policies share a core belief that the war in Iraq is unwinnable and that America and the world will be better off by abandoning Iraq," Stephen J. Hadley said during remarks given at the Center for Strategic and International Studies here. "The president respectfully disagrees," Hadley said. "He believes that setting a timetable for withdrawal would send the wrong message to our men and women in uniform and in civilian service...

VIENNA, Austria -- Two of America's allies in Iraq are withdrawing forces this month and a half-dozen others are debating possible pullouts or reductions, increasing pressure on Washington as calls mount to bring home U.S. troops. Bulgaria and Ukraine will begin withdrawing their combined 1,250 troops by mid-December. If Australia, Britain, Italy, Japan, Poland and South Korea reduce or recall their personnel, more than half of the non-American forces in Iraq could be gone by next summer. Japan and South Korea help with reconstruction, but Britain and Australia provide substantial support forces and Italy and Poland train Iraqi troops and...

When Democrats said we should pull out our troops from Iraq, Vice President Dick Cheney and others were quick to label them defeatists. When the administration floated the idea this week of bringing home a third of the troops by election time next year, it was presented as good old patriotism. As the church lady on “Saturday Night Live” used to say “How convenient!” The striking change of tone is all about politics, and perhaps that’s how it should be in a democracy.[snip] Public support for the war has collapsed. The administration wants to avoid an embarrassing debate over who...

Amid unrelenting violence in Iraq, debate over the future withdrawal of American forces from the country is increasing - among Iraqi political factions as well as in the United States. At the same time, there is growing concern among Iraq's neighbors about the broader regional implications of that violence and instability. For many Jordanians the triple suicide bombings in their capital, Amman, earlier this month confirmed what they had feared for the past few years - the war in neighboring Iraq was spilling across its borders. The attacks on three hotels in the city were carried out by Iraqis on...

When one is trying to make a political figure look like a conservative hawk, it is in one’s best interest to hide from the public any moments when said figure acts like a dove. Such appears to be the case with the ongoing character reconstruction of Rep. John Murtha (D-Pennsylvania) since his call last Thursday to withdraw American troops from Iraq. A story published by NewsMax on Monday stated that Congressman Murtha urged former President Clinton to remove U.S. troops from Somalia in 1993: “Clinton took the advice and ordered the withdrawal – a decision that Osama bin Laden would...

After terrorists attacked U.S. troops in Mogadishu, Somalia 12 years ago, anti-Iraq war Democrat, Rep. John Murtha urged then-President Clinton to begin a complete pullout of U.S. troops from the region. Clinton took the advice and ordered the withdrawal - a decision that Osama bin Laden would later credit with emboldening his terrorist fighters and encouraging him to mount further attacks against the U.S. "Our welcome has been worn out," Rep Murtha told NBC's "Today" show in Sept. 1993, after the Mogadishu battle cost the lives of 18 U.S. Rangers.

An Open Letter to Nancy Pelosi 19 November 2005 Dear Madam: When I read Friday night that you condemned the House Republicans for pulling a political “stunt” by calling for a floor vote on a resolution to call for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, I was beyond furious. How dare you? I suppose as political stunts go, it ranks right down there with Rep. Rangel’s bill to reinstate the military draft or the Senate Democrats’ recent crass stunt of demanding a secret Senate session to discuss the possible manipulation of pre-war intelligence. It is certainly not as...

The Pigs are Swealing... Watch or listen.

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned against a precipitous withdrawal of US forces from Iraq even as the US Senate demanded regular reports on progress in Iraq. Rumsfeld refrained from criticizing the Republican-sponsored measure and rebuffed suggestions that it signaled growing impatience over the situation in Iraq even within his own party. The United States wants to hand over responsibility to Iraqis as soon as possible and leave, Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon news conference. "But not in a manner that is precipitous, not in a manner that would inject instability into the situation, and not in a manner that...

Top News: Iraq timetable rejected By the Republicans on vote. Read on!!