Word: iraqi
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...last time the U.S. was involved in disbanding large Iraqi military units, things didn't go well - the fateful 2003 decision to dissolve the Iraqi army proved to be a key strategic blunder that gave a massive boost to the insurgency. This week the U.S. will try again, transferring control of 54,000 of the 100,000-strong largely Sunni citizen patrols known as the Sons of Iraq (SOI) to a Shi'ite-led government many of them view with suspicion. The rest will remain on the U.S payroll, as part of a phased transfer...
...Some 20% of these anti-al-Qaeda groups - many of whom had been insurgents paid by the U.S to switch sides - will be incorporated into the Iraqi security forces. The rest will be given civilian jobs or training in a bid to help reintegrate them into the general population. But it won't be that simple: after years of vicious sectarian violence, many Sunni Arab patrol members fear retribution from the government; and indeed, some government officials consider the SOIs as little more than thugs and murderers. And as is so often the case in Iraq, the U.S is being...
...page-turner? Very well: this is a page turner, and one of the most astounding books yet written about the war in Iraq. The magic of The Forever War is the dispassionate yet hyper-involving manner in which Filkins offers scores of mini-narratives - stories about Iraqi civilians, insurgents and politicians, American grunts and generals alike - without judgment. Filkins doesn't lecture, he just reports, in great and perfect detail. It's possibly the only true requirement for a good war story. Or any story, for that matter...
...suspected to hide. President Bush has already promised one additional brigade, but more will be needed to help the 33,000 troops already spread thin across a country one and a half times as large as its westerly neighbor. Adding more troops to Afghanistan may sound suspiciously like the Iraqi “surge”, but the primary aim in this case would be development rather than security. The focus in Afghanistan right now needs to be on building infrastructure. In a country riddled with poverty, landmines, and a thriving opium trade, a little carefully directed and managed funding...
...time when playwrights like Stoppard, Hare and Michael Frayn are wrestling with weighty topical issues, Ayckbourn admits to having little interest in politics: "I've lived through enough times to know, as the French say, plus ça change - nothing changes, give or take the odd Iraqi war." One thing that musters his outrage, though, is the dwindling government funding for the arts, which has endangered local theaters like his Scarborough company - where, in all his years as artistic director, he has never taken a salary. "My salary is in the accounts," he says, "but it usually goes flying...