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I think I might continue to put a "comic section" in the news. This one by Chris Muir seems especially appropriate this week
It's from Easter of course, but I think it would be fitting any day. Click the image for the latest from Chris. I'm going to launch a campaign to get his strips in Stars and Stripes, by the way. If you're a military reader you may want to consider contacting your local office to let them know what a great idea that would be.
If not, contact the syndicate for your local paper. Details can be found at the Day by Day site linked above.
And remember that hope as you read the following:
TOP STORIES
1. Return To U.S. For 20,000 Troops Halted
(Washington Post)...Bradley Graham
About 20,000 U.S. soldiers due to return from Iraq to their home bases this month and next will have their tours extended at least three months in a plan the Pentagon finalized yesterday, defense officials said.
2. Iranians In Iraq To Help In Talks On Rebel Cleric
(New York Times)...John F. Burns
An Iranian government delegation arrived in Baghdad on Wednesday to help mediate the standoff between American troops and a rebel Shiite cleric holed up in Najaf with hundreds of his militiamen, offering American officials an improbable ally in their quest to put Iraq on a peaceful path to self-government.
3. Cleric Offers Unconditional Talks With U.S.
(Philadelphia Inquirer)...Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson
With American troops encircling this ancient city and a growing number of his gunmen in hiding, radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr yesterday offered unconditional talks with U.S. authorities seeking to kill or capture him.
4. Envoy Urges U.N.-Chosen Iraqi Government
(Washington Post)...Rajiv Chandrasekaran
A U.N. envoy proposed on Wednesday that Iraq's U.S.-appointed Governing Council be dissolved when the United States hands over power on June 30 and replaced with a caretaker government of technocrats who would rule until elections are held.
5. Deadly Week Ends In Tears For The Fallen
(New York Times)...Monica Davey
...The Department of Defense identified 64 service members who died in the week that ended on Saturday. Until then, the highest toll had come many months ago, not long after the start of the war last March, in a week when 50 Americans died. The dead came from cities and small towns across the continental United States, as well as from Puerto Rico and the Mariana Islands. They came from all the major service branches ? the Air Force, Navy, Army, Marines, as well as the Army National Guard and the Army Reserve. They were as young as 18, as old as 45. At least two were women. And this week their remains were returned home.
6. 9/11 Panel Finds CIA Slow To See Looming Threat From Al Qaeda
(Los Angeles Times)...Greg Miller and Richard B. Schmitt
Despite years of escalating attacks, the CIA was slow to understand the scale and structure of Al Qaeda, and never produced a comprehensive report on the threat posed by the terrorist network before the Sept. 11 strikes, according to new findings released Wednesday by the commission investigating the attacks.
IRAQ
7. U.S. Denies Raid On Najaf Is Imminent
(Washington Post)...Bradley Graham
While U.S. military commanders in Iraq have massed forces on the outskirts of the holy city of Najaf, Pentagon officials said yesterday that the United States is in no hurry to send troops into the city and attempt to seize the radical cleric Moqtada Sadr.
8. Top U.S. Military Officer In Iraq To Evaluate
(New York Times on the Web)...Reuters
Top U.S. military officer General Richard Myers began a first-hand evaluation of military operations in Iraq Wednesday amid escalating violence.
NA
9. Top US Genl Says Radical Iraq Cleric In 'Weak Position'
(Wall Street Journal (wsj.com))...Associated Press
Anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is now in a "very weak position" and must be dealt with to build a new Iraq, the U.S. chairman of the joint chiefs of staff said Wednesday.
10. Attacks Test Truce In Fallujah
(Washington Post)...Sewell Chan and Pamela Constable
U.S. troops drew heavy machine-gun and artillery fire Wednesday in the besieged Iraqi city of Fallujah, as a surge of attacks by insurgents threatened to undermine a shaky four-day cease-fire.
11. Training Skills Of U.S. General Sought After Poor Performance By Some Iraqi Forces
(New York Times)...Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker
The Pentagon is rushing one of the Army's most highly regarded generals, Maj. Gen. David H. Petraeus, back to Iraq this weekend to help step up the training and equipping of Iraqi security forces, many of whom abandoned their posts or refused to fight in the recent violence there, military officials said Wednesday.
12. Death Lurks In The Groves On The Road Toward Najaf
(Washington Post)...Thomas E. Ricks
The nighttime ambush had left one soldier dead, another wounded. When it was over, Sgt. James Amyett calmly lit a cigarette, leaned over, and in a stage whisper drawled, "Don't be alarmed, but somebody here is trying to kill us."
NA
13. A Wrong Turn, Chaos And A Rescue
(Washington Post)...Pamela Constable
It began as a routine supply mission to the front lines, in a volatile but largely becalmed city. It ended as a fiery and chaotic rescue mission, with a small force of Marine tanks, Humvees and ground troops surrounded and attacked as they fought their way through a hostile neighborhood to save the crew of a burning armored personnel carrier.
14. Marines Use Low-Tech Skill To Kill 100 In Urban Battle
(New York Times)...Jeffrey Gettleman
American forces killed more than 100 insurgents on Tuesday in close combat in a small village in central Iraq, Marine commanders said Wednesday.
15. Troops Take Over Houses Of Fleeing Fallujah Residents
(North County (CA) Times)...Darrin Mortenson
...Between 100,000 and 200,000 people fled Fallujah last week after Marines surrounded the city and battled insurgents in the industrial slums and underdog neighborhoods at the city's edges. Now, with a cease-fire in effect, troops of the Camp Pendleton-based 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment used an additional day of peace Wednesday to fortify the homes until the troops are free to pursue the insurgents into the city.
16. Firing Up New Weapon In Fallouja: The Bulldozer
(Los Angeles Times)...Tony Perry
As U.S. aircraft mounted heavy fire against Iraqi snipers Wednesday, Marines began building an earthen barrier around this Sunni Triangle city, suggesting that the U.S. does not anticipate an immediate resolution of the standoff.
17. Iraqi Politicians Called Obstacle To U.S. Force
(Washington Times)...Rowan Scarborough
Iraqi politicians are playing a growing role in blocking U.S. commanders from unleashing fatal force on insurgents.
18. Iraqi Nuclear Gear Found In Europe
(Washington Post)...Colum Lynch
Large amounts of nuclear-related equipment, some of it contaminated, and a small number of missile engines have been smuggled out of Iraq for recycling in European scrap yards, according to the head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog and other U.N. diplomats.
NA
19. Back To Fallujah, With Brave Words
(New York Daily News)...Unattributed
The commander of the Marines in Fallujah, Maj. Gen. James Mattis, predicted yesterday that the nominal ceasefire in effect would not hold.
20. I'll Take That -- And That
(Los Angeles Times)...Mark Magnier
In Iraq, higher wages, a newly resurgent middle class and reconstruction funds are driving a boom in consumer demand.
DEFENSE DEPARTMENT
21. Defense Will Try Its New Pay System Step By Step
(Washington Post)...Stephen Barr
A new pay and personnel system for civil service workers at the Defense Department will roll out in stages, with time for evaluation by experts and feedback from employees between the phases, Navy Secretary Gordon England said yesterday.
NA
22. U.S. Iraq Troops Won't Likely Require Budget Add, Zakheim Says
(Bloomberg.com)...Tony Capaccio
Retaining the U.S. force of about 135,000 soldiers in Iraq to quell Muslim unrest doesn't have to cost the government any more money than it had planned to spend, Defense Department Comptroller Dov Zakheim said.
NA
23. Lockheed F/A-22 Likely To Survive Budget Debates, Zakheim Says
(Bloomberg.com)...Tony Capaccio
Lockheed Martin Corp.'s $71 billion F/A-22 fighter program probably will survive its current Pentagon evaluation in preparation for the fiscal 2006 defense budget, Comptroller Dov Zakheim said.
24. Slow Mail Gets Troops Down, Report Says
(Los Angeles Times)...Reuters
U.S. troop morale in Iraq is suffering because of slow mail deliveries caused by poor training, equipment shortages and bureaucratic inefficiencies, a congressional report said Wednesday.
25. Friend Or Foe? A Digital Dog Tag Beams The Answer
(New York Times)...Noah Shachtman
AS violence boils in Iraq, American troops and allied forces are in danger - not just from local insurgents and militias, but from their own side as well.
NA
26. Balloons To Check Air Over Pentagon
(Washington Times)...Unattributed
Beginning today and through May 15, the Pentagon will test new devices to detect chemical or biological threats.
ARMY
27. Charges Against Chaplain Dismissed
(Los Angeles Times)...John Hendren
The Army on Wednesday dismissed all charges against a Muslim chaplain who was initially investigated for espionage, held in a military jail for 76 days, but eventually convicted only of minor administrative charges of adultery and downloading pornography onto his government computer.
MARINE CORPS
28. 2 Marines Face Courts-Martial In Death Of Prisoner In Iraq
(Los Angeles Times)...Associated Press
Two Marines face courts-martial on charges including assault and dereliction of duty in the death of an Iraqi prisoner in their custody, a Camp Pendleton spokeswoman said.
NAVY
29. ID Theft Ring Strikes Carrier?s Officers
(Norfolk Virginian-Pilot)...Matthew Dolan
At least 19 officers on the aircraft carrier George Washington have had their identities stolen by thieves based in Baltimore, Navy officials said Tuesday .
AIR FORCE
30. Space Command Redesigning Sex-Assault Protocol
(Colorado Springs Gazette)...Pam Zubeck
Air Force Space Command will use checklists and work more closely with local police to improve how sexual assaults are handled, commander Gen. Lance Lord said Tuesday.
NATIONAL GUARD/RESERVE
31. Bush Fulfills Vow To Injured GI
(Washington Times)...Associated Press
President Bush, fulfilling a 15-month-old promise, jogged around the South Lawn yesterday with a soldier who had been badly wounded in Afghanistan.
ASIA/PACIFIC
32. Cheney Urges China To Press North Korea On A-Bombs
(New York Times)...Joseph Kahn
Vice President Dick Cheney presented Chinese leaders with new evidence on Wednesday about the scope of North Korea's nuclear program and warned that "time is not necessarily on our side" in negotiations, a senior Bush administration official said Wednesday.
33. Cheney Stands Firm On U.S. Weapons For Taiwan
(Washington Times)...Bill Gertz
Vice President Dick Cheney yesterday told Chinese leaders that the United States is committed to its arms sales to Taiwan, and prodded China to pressure North Korea to abandon its nuclear program.
34. U.S. Teams Cross DMZ To Search For Remains Of Korean War MIAs
(Pacific Stars and Stripes)...Joseph Giordono
For the first time, U.S. remains recovery teams have crossed the Demilitarized Zone with equipment to search for servicemembers missing from the Korean War.
35. South Korea Is Wary But Firm On Iraq
(New York Times)...Norimitsu Onishi
...The soldiers training at the camp, in Kwangju outside the capital, will be part of the 3,000 troops Seoul is expected to send to Iraq by June. Those soldiers, on top of about 600 already in Iraq, will make South Korea's the third-largest national force in Iraq, after the United States and Britain, and will amount to this country's biggest military expedition since the Vietnam War. As Vice President Dick Cheney prepares to visit here Thursday, the last stop of his East Asia tour, the government reiterated its intention to send the additional troops.
AFRICA
NA
36. DOD Officials: Existing Commands Can Handle U.S. Interests In Africa
(Inside the Pentagon)...Prairie Summer
The Pentagon does not need to restructure its regional combatant commands to address threats in Africa, even though the continent is increasingly important to U.S. national security and economic well-being, defense officials said this week.
AFGHANISTAN
37. Top Rebel Arrested In Kabul
(Washington Times)...Paul Haven, Associated Press
International peacekeepers refused to reveal the identity of a suspected senior rebel commander arrested in a raid in the capital earlier this week, but insisted yesterday that his capture removed an imminent threat to Afghan peace.
EUROPE
38. Blair May Nudge Bush To Reach Out On Iraq
(Los Angeles Times)...John Daniszewski
Prime Minister Tony Blair has been President Bush's staunchest ally in the Iraq war. But when the two meet Friday at the White House, chances are the British leader will give his American partner a message: Shift course to put a more international face on the struggle to rebuild Iraq.
RUSSIA
39. Old Weapons, New Terror Worries
(Christian Science Monitor)...Scott Peterson
...But such what-ifs are among the nuclear terrorism threats that analysts are reexamining, as the learning curve of terror groups today comes closer to intersecting the vulnerabilities of atomic arsenals. A handful of Russian and American nuclear experts, both military and civilian, are quietly convening a first meeting in Moscow later this month, to launch a year-long modeling exercise to specify the new dangers.
TERRORISM
40. Purported Bin Laden Tape Offers 'Truce'
(Los Angeles Times)...Times Wire Services
In an audio recording broadcast on Arab satellite TV channels today, a man identifying himself as Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden offered a "truce" to European countries that "do not attack Muslims."
BUSINESS
41. Armored Hummers Shipment To Iraq Instead Of Israel
(Jerusalem Post)...Arieh O'Sullivan
Israeli defense officials have agreed to a US request to divert a shipment of armored Hummer vehicles purchased for the IDF to Iraq where American soldiers need them urgently.
42. Some U.S. Workers Say The Risk Is Too Great
(Washington Post)...Ariana Eunjung Cha and Jackie Spinner
With new violence erupting in many parts of Iraq, it is increasingly challenging for U.S. contractors to continue working on thousands of reconstruction projects.
NA
43. Boeing: Company Changed 767 To Meet USAF Tanker Requirements
(Aerospace Daily & Defense Report)...Kathy Gambrell
Boeing Co. followed the intent of congressional law in its strategy to provide new tanker aircraft to the U.S. Air Force, officials told The DAILY in a continuing defense of the deal.
OPINION
NA
44. What Iraqis Want
(Wall Street Journal)...Ahmad Chalabi
The most ominous harbinger for the future of Iraq to emerge from the week of bloodshed that has engulfed parts of the country is the collapse of the indigenous Iraqi security structures put in place by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA).
45. Putting Politics To Work In Iraq
(Washington Post)...Jim Hoagland
...The assigning of the Marines to the hottest of Iraq's hot spots was a conscious decision to pit the best-trained fighters and the most advanced urban combat tactics in the U.S. arsenal against the spreading insurgency. The Marine campaign in Fallujah is perhaps the decisive battle for the Sunni Triangle that was not fought a year ago. But to succeed now, it must be integrated with clear political objectives.
46. From Gaza To Baghdad
(New York Times)...Thomas L. Friedman
Something is brewing in Gaza that may help U.S. officials think through how to deal with what is boiling in Iraq.
47. Coalition Loses The 'Psy-Ops' Advantage In Iraq
(Los Angeles Times)...Max Boot
As the current symphony of violence reached its grotesque crescendo in Iraq last week, I happened to be in Paris attending a NATO conference on psychological warfare. This somehow seemed appropriate because it is in the realm of "psy-ops" that the coalition is suffering its biggest setbacks.
48. Red Tape Threatens To Cage Military Might
(USA Today)...R. James Woolsey and Robert Andrews
...When it comes to clandestine military operations in Iraq and elsewhere in the war on terrorism, however, similar layers of reporting and procedure will only discourage ideas from the field and delay operations that require quick action. Most military operations are kept secret beforehand in order to achieve success through stealth and surprise. In some cases, deception plays a major part in providing this secrecy.
EDITORIAL
49. Beyond Resoluteness
(Washington Post)...Editorial
...From the beginning, as we have said repeatedly, Mr. Bush failed to prepare the American people for the difficulty of occupation. Now they see their troops fighting a vicious insurgency while trying not to turn ordinary Iraqis into enemies. The troops are performing with amazing courage and skill, and there is still time for them to succeed. Most Iraqis do not want a return to Baathism, nor a Shiite theocracy. Mr. Bush is right to promise that America will not abandon them. He should also adapt to changing circumstances, make sure U.S. forces are strong enough to take on Iraq's illegal militias and show more willingness to share authority with others who may be willing to help.
