Pact gives Iraqis more oversight over American presence
Associated Press Nov 27, 08 8:14 AM CST
(AP)
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Iraq's parliament today passed a security pact with the US that lets American troops stay in the country for 3 more years. The ruling coalition's Shiite and Kurdish blocs as well as the largest Sunni Arab bloc backed the "yes" vote, the AP reports. The parliament speaker said an "overwhelming majority" lawmakers present voted in favor. PM Nouri al-Maliki appeared to have won the comfortable majority he sought to give the agreement additional legitimacy.
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Attack brings year's death toll to 5,400
Associated Press Nov 13, 08 8:09 AM CST
(AP)
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A suicide car bomber struck a US military convoy passing through a crowded livestock market in eastern Afghanistan today, killing an American soldier and at least eight civilians and wounding an additional 74 civilians. Yesterday, two British troops were also killed when their vehicle was struck by an explosive while they were on a patrol with Afghan security forces in southern Afghanistan.
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Bilateral pact, which gives Iraq control over troops, must be approved by parliament
Reuters Oct 15, 08 4:32 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Iraq's government could soon be in charge of US troops for the first time, a prelude to their full withdrawal by 2011 under a deal now awaiting approval by Iraqi politicians, Reuters reports. The deal sets a firm timeline, and lets the Arab nation prosecute American soldiers for some serious crimes committed off of US bases—previously a major stumbling block.
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Unarmed patrol allowed near, but not in South Ossetia
Guardian (UK) Oct 1, 08 11:24 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Russian troops allowed unarmed EU monitors into the buffer zone around South Ossetia for the first time today, after France helped negotiate a truce between Russia and Georgia. The blue-beret-sporting French troops spent 90 minutes touring the heavily guarded area, the Guardian reports. The EU will be sending its monitors to four locations in Georgia as Russia retreats.
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Military has ruled out hostile fire in the Chinook accident
Associated Press Sep 18, 08 8:04 AM CDT
(AP)
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Seven US soldiers were killed in southern Iraq today when their helicopter crashed, the AP reports. "At this time we are uncertain of the cause, but hostile fire has been ruled out," a military spokesman said. The crash occurred shortly after midnight in a desert under British military control, as a four-helicopter convoy was heading from Kuwait to a military base north of Baghdad.
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glossies
Time Sep 15, 08 6:53 PM CDT
(Newser)
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The US Army has dished out $4 million for helmets that can read soldiers' minds, Time reports. The goal is to have commanders in the field think up orders that brainwave sensors pick up and distribute to troops. "It'd be radio without a microphone," says a neuroscientist in charge of the 5-year program. "Because soldiers are already trained to talk in clean, clear and formulaic ways, it would be a very small step to have them think that way."
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glossies
As the war gets bloodier, there's some hope of progress
Vanity Fair Sep 7, 08 11:00 AM CDT
(Newser)
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As the nation's military focus shifts to Afghanistan, Sebastian Junger of Vanity Fair spends time with US troops fighting “ambush by ambush” in the 6-mile Korengal Valley in the tense northeast. The region, Junger says, is a “test case” for fighting insurgencies and a prime example of the risky—but perhaps necessary, given the mountainous terrain— US strategy of setting up small bases to better work with the local populace.
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'Our relation with the foreigners got worst,' president says after 90 Afghans claimed dead
Associated Press Sep 4, 08 12:41 PM CDT
(Newser)
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President Hamid Karzai vowed to punish those responsible for killing as many as 90 civilians in a raid last month by US and Afghan commandos, saying Afghanistan’s relationship with “the foreigners got worst,” the AP reports. The US and NATO claim at least 30 militants and no more than seven civilians died Aug. 22; the UN backs Karzai’s figures.
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Follows a series of bombings in the capital
CNN Aug 3, 08 9:58 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Bombs ripped through a minibus this morning in Baghdad, reports CNN, killing 12 and injuring 22 after a string of similar bombings in the region. Two more roadside bombs injured nine near a hospital and two near a convoy of SUVs. Elsewhere, a soldier was killed in an unrelated accident, marking August's first US casualty.
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Automatic promotions are turning battlefield into a classroom, soldiers say
Salon Jul 30, 08 2:26 PM CDT
(Newser)
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The US Army, plagued by a shortage of non-commissioned officers, has lowered the bar for promotion so much that it has produced sergeants who are not ready to lead, Salon reports in an investigation of a military stretched thin by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In some cases, soldiers have been automatically promoted although their unit commanders had found them not ready for advancement.
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Victim had ended affair
with married man
CNN Jul 30, 08 9:49 AM CDT
(Newser)
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The former boyfriend of a pregnant Fort Bragg soldier has been charged with her murder, reports CNN. Edgar Patino, 27, proposed to fellow soldier Spc. Megan Lynn Touma while the two were stationed in Germany, according to friends. But Touma, 23, broke up with Patino recently when they were transferred to Fort Bragg and she discovered he was already married to someone else.
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Opinion
White House, Pentagon, Dem-controlled Congress all dragging heels to make voting easier
Washington Post Jul 24, 08 3:12 PM CDT
(Newser)
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The Pentagon has long dragged its heels on making it easier for US troops overseas to have their votes count back home, columnist Robert Novak points out in the Washington Post . There’s little appetite in a Democratic-controlled Congress to kick-start the process, Novak notes, as evidenced by the “silence” that met a recent Republican resolution aimed at goosing the Defense Department on the issue.
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Porkers shot and revived for medical training
Associated Press Jul 18, 08 9:12 AM CDT
(Newser)
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The Army is butting heads with animal rights activists over a planned drill that involves shooting live pigs. As practice for battlefield medical care, soldiers will fire at the pigs, then rush to save them. "It's to teach Army personnel how to manage critically injured patients within the first few hours of their injury," said an Army spokesman.
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OPINION
Photographer reflects on the power of a moment captured
Washington Post Jul 13, 08 9:48 AM CDT
(Newser)
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A photo turned an American medic in Iraq into a hero, showing him carrying an Iraqi child to safety. But the photographer, Warren Zinn, wonders whether it also contributed to his suicide. Joseph Dwyer suffered post-traumatic stress disorder after returning from Iraq; Zinn worries, in the Washington Post , whether his fame exacerbated his pain.
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