GUEST ON WORLD FOCUS SAYS SHOE THROWER DISGRACE BUT MOST IRAQIS DETEST BUSH

I disagree with comments made by Raghida Dergham a guest on on World Focus last night regarding the recent show-throwing brouhaha in Baghdad. Dergham said it was disgraceful. But I think it broke through the Bush spin about doing great things for the Iraqi people, and showed that many if not most Iraqis hold Bush in rightful contempt.

Because of Bush and his unjustified invasion and war, more than 600 thousand Iraqis have lost their lives. The entire Iraqi society has been destroyed and broken. Instead of obsequious comments from politicians like al Maliki thanking Bush for his intervention, Muntazar al-Zaidi threw his shoes, nearly hitting Bush twice. Now that deserves a medal of honor.

PS Raghida Dergham is just a Bush lackey. Why does World Focus feature her as a guest or expert?

SEN. LEVIN MEDDLES IN IRAQ, CALLS FOR REPLACEMENT OF AL MALIKI

Who the heck does Senator Carl M. Levin (D. Mich.) think he is, calling for the replacement of Nouri Al Maliki as Iraq's prime minister?

So even for a Democratic senator, it is okay to meddle in the internal affairs of another sovereign nation? Or is it that Iraq is merely America's puppet?

Suppose some French or Italian senator called for the replacement of George Bush as president? We know that Bush is a crummy, self-serving and awful president. Yet even though getting rid of Bush might be good in itself, most Americans would bitterly resent the meddling and interference of someone who was not even a citizen of the U.S. calling for the replacement of the elected president.

Levin's reckless statement is another unfortunate example of "American exceptionalism," whereby Americans think that only they have the ultimate answers and that they are always on the side of righteousness and justice.

IRAQ: STOP EXECUTING PRISONERS

I call on the Al Maliki government in Iraq to end capital punishment. For a state to take a life is barbaric and cruel. I don't care what the offense, how heinous or how premeditated. No state should execute a human being. This applies especially to Iraq that has thrown off a dictator who engaged in thousands of executions. Now, it seems, the new regime is just as inhumane as the old.

Stephen Farrell reports today in The New York Times:


"BAGHDAD, July 6 — A suspected member of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia who confessed to involvement in an August 2003 bomb attack that killed one of Iraq’s most prominent Shiite leaders and at least 84 other people has been hanged, a Justice Ministry official said Friday.


"The sudden announcement came three days after the suspect, Oras Muhammad Abdul-Aziz, was executed for the bombing, which killed Ayatollah Muhammad Bakr al-Hakim, a well-known politician and cleric. The attack was one of the earliest high-profile bombings after the American invasion in March 2003."


A state has too much power. To take a life should not be in the power of a state. There are too many ways that a state can err, and of course, once taken, the person is gone forever. Even Saddam's neck should not have been put into that noose. Let the state incarcerate the convict. But let not blood be on the state's hands, even though it is on the hands of the outlaw.

TURKEY PREPARED TO INVADE IRAQ TO FIGHT PKK

Turkey has prepared detailed plans for the invasion of Iraq to go after the PKK, Kurdish guerrillas who it claims are crossing the border and attacking Turkish installations and villages, according to a story by Michael Howard in today's The Guardian.

"Turkey has prepared a blueprint for the invasion of northern Iraq and will take action if US or Iraqi forces fail to dislodge the guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) from their mountain strongholds across the border, Turkey's foreign minister Abdullah Gul has warned."

Turkey's Foreign Minister has warned that Turkey will take action if the Iraqi government of Maliki and/or the U.S. occupation forces don't crack down on the PKK.

"The military plans have been worked out in the finest detail. The government knows these plans and agrees with them," Mr Gul told Turkey's Radikal newspaper. "If neither the Iraqi government nor the US occupying forces can do this [crush the PKK], we will take our own decision and implement it," Mr Gul said.

"The foreign minister's uncharacteristically hawkish remarks were seen as a response to pressure from Turkey's generals, who have deployed some 20,000-30,000 troops along the borders with Iraq, and who are itching to move against the rebels they say are slipping across the border to stage attacks inside Turkey."

Writes Michael Howard:

"The PKK, which has had a presence in the remote border areas of Iraq since the 1980s, has about 2,000-3,000 guerrillas on Iraqi soil. Their camps are dotted along the densely wooded ravines and in some of the regions' many caves high up in the limestone peaks. They remain out of reach of Iraq's Kurdish authorities, who fought unsuccessfully alongside Turkey in the 1990s to oust them from their bases.


"Authorities in Ankara say the PKK, which declared a unilateral ceasefire last year, are behind recent bombings in the cities of Ankara, Izmir and Diyarbakir, as well as attacks on Turkish security forces in the mostly Kurdish south-east."