NEW BA'THIST LAW WILL INCREASE SECTARIAN DIVIDE
Iraq's presidency council hesitantly issued a law on Sunday that will allow thousands of Saddam Hussein-era officials to return to government jobs, but it was issued without the signature of the Sunni vice president, and will force thousands to retire. The presidency council cited reservations and plans to seek changes in the bill, clouding hopes it would encourage reconciliation. Iraq's Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi objected to provisions in the new law that would pension off 7,000 low-level members of Saddam Hussein's former secret police and intelligence agents who still worked in Iraq's security apparatus. The panel also expressed concern "over some items that would hamper the national reconciliation project," pointing to the clause that would "lead to the exclusion of employees with high qualifications of which Iraqi is in dire need." A senior official who worked on the legislation, said 13,000 lower-ranking Baathists would be offered reinstatement while 3,500 former high-ranking Baathists would be offered retirement and pensions in addition to the 7,000 Saddam-era security agents now holding government jobs. [AP, 2/3/08]
INVOLVEMENT IN IRAQ PLACING STRAIN ON U.S. MILITARY
U.S. leaders differ on pace of withdrawals. Senior Pentagon leaders said yesterday that Gen. David H. Petraeus's call for a pause in troop withdrawals from Iraq this summer represents only one view on the issue -- albeit an important one -- and that they would recommend that President Bush also consider the stress on U.S. ground forces and other global military risks when determining future troop levels. Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. James Conway, the Marine Corps commandant, and other members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, particularly Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the Army's chief of staff, have voiced concern about declining military readiness and the effects of long war-zone rotations in Iraq on troops and their families. [Washington Post, 2/4/08]
TENSIONS CONTINUE ALONG IRAQ-TURKEY BORDER
Turkish warplanes bomb several Kurdish villages. On Monday, Turkish warplanes struck several Kurdish villages near the border in northern Iraq. According to Turkish officials, its troops killed 10 PKK rebels in southeast Turkey on Sunday. Turkey has carried out at least four cross-border air strikes since last December, against separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) guerrillas. The US backs Turkish operations against the PKK and has agreed to share intelligence with Ankara. [BBC, 2/4/08]
COST OF SUSTAINING CONFLICTS CONTINUE TO RISE
New budget will place military spending at its highest level since WWII, more expenses to come. The Pentagon on Monday will unveil its proposed 2009 budget of $515.4 billion. If it is approved in full, annual military spending, when adjusted for inflation, will have reached its highest level since World War II. The new Defense Department budget proposal, which is to pay for the standard operations of the Pentagon and the military but does not include supplemental spending on the war efforts or on nuclear weapons, is an increase in real terms of about 5 percent over this year. Military officials acknowledge the considerable commitment of money that will be required for continuing the missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as efforts to increase the size of the Army, Marine Corps and Special Operations forces, to replace weapons worn out in the desert and to assure "quality of life" for those in uniform so they will remain in the military. Yet those demands for money do not even include the price of refocusing the military's attention beyond the current wars to prepare for other challenges. [NY Times, 2/4/08]
SHI'A MILITIAS POSE GREATEST THREAT TO U.S. TROOPS
Three separate but related wars are being waged in Iraq, with Shi'a extremists posing the greatest challenge. The first is against foreign-led al-Qaeda in Iraq. The second fight is against the domestic Sunni insurgency, which has become dormant in many places in the past year as nearly 80,000 men came onto the U.S. payroll with groups that officers here call "Concerned Local Citizens." The third conflict is with Shi'a militias. Roadside bombs cause more than two-thirds of U.S. casualties particularly by high-tech anti-armor devices, planted by those groups. The continuing success of those attacks is forcing U.S. troops to attempt to look two ways at once. Al-Qaeda in Iraq's car bomb attacks against civilians "are the biggest threat to our mission," which is to protect the population, Col. James Rainey, the 4th Infantry Division's director of operations, said. But, he added "the biggest threat to our soldiers is the EFPs." [Washington Post, 2/3/08]
VIOLENCE CONTINUES TO RAGE
U.S. military suffered heavy casualties in January. The military announced a soldier had been killed on Thursday in a rocket-propelled grenade attack in Baghdad, raising to at least 40 the number of troop deaths reported in January, nearly double the 23 recorded in December and the largest monthly toll for the Americans since 65 in September. [AP, 2/3/08]
U.S. accidentally killed 9 Iraqi civilians. U.S. forces said Sunday that they had accidentally killed nine Iraqi civilians and wounded three in a strike aimed extremists south of Baghdad, acknowledging what appeared to be one of the deadliest cases of mistaken identity in recent weeks. [NY Times, 2/4/08]