Beyond the Breaking Point

US favors more troops for Afghanistan - 4 Apr 2008 at 10:53am - ABOARD A MILITARY AIRCRAFT -- Defense Secretary Robert Gates says that the U.S. intends to send many more combat forces to Afghanistan next year, regardless of whether troop levels in Iraq are cut further in the second half of this year.

Animal vets can't use execution drug - 4 Apr 2008 at 3:00pm - WASHINGTON -- Nearly all lethal injection executions have occurred in states where veterinarians are not allowed to use the same method to euthanize animals, according to a new study.

Dems signal lost hope in ending war - 4 Apr 2008 at 1:40pm - WASHINGTON -- Democrats signaled on Friday that they don't see much hope in ending the Iraq war this year so long as President Bush insists U.S. troops remain committed there in large numbers.

US defends detention of Chinese Muslim - 4 Apr 2008 at 1:42pm - WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration argued Friday that when Congress authorized military action against the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorists, it also gave the president the power to detain people who never took up arms against the U.S.

Dems plead with Bush on Iraq - 4 Apr 2008 at 11:24am - WASHINGTON -- Democratic leaders are pleading with President Bush not to hand the Iraq war off to the next president.

Iraqi PM freezes raids targeting militia - 4 Apr 2008 at 10:15am - BAGHDAD (AP) -- Iraq's prime minister on Friday ordered a nationwide freeze on raids against suspected Shiite militants after the leader of the biggest militia complained that arrests were continuing even after he ordered fighters off the streets.

Massive Shiite protest planned in Iraq; more battles possible - 4 Apr 2008 at 8:48am - BAGHDAD — Firebrand Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al Sadr on Thursday called for a massive demonstration against the "occupation" of Iraq on April 9, which would coincide with the fifth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad and come just after U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker are to testify to Congress about progress in Iraq.

Iraqi PM seeks to ease tensions with militia - 4 Apr 2008 at 9:05am - BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Friday his security forces would stop arresting militiamen if they give up their weapons, apparently seeking to defuse tensions with Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Thought for the day:
Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable. -John Kenneth Galbraith (1908 - 2006)