Asked about Tony Blair’s announcement today that the U.K. will cut troop levels in Iraq by 1,600 — from 7,100 down to 5,500 — Vice President Dick Cheney “said the move was actually good news and a sign of progress in Iraq.” Later in the day, he told a group of U.S. troops, “I want you to know that the American people will not support a policy of retreat.”
Denmark is expected to follow Britain’s lead and announce plans to withdraw its 460 troops from Iraq.
“Most of the Justice Department’s major statistics on terrorism cases are highly inaccurate, and federal prosecutors routinely count cases involving drug trafficking, marriage fraud and other unrelated crimes as part of anti-terrorism efforts,” according to a government audit.
Sectarian tensions have heightened since a Sunni woman announced on Al Jazeera on Monday that she was kidnapped and raped by three officers from the Iraqi National Police has highlighted sectarian tensions. At first Prime Minister Maliki, a Shiite, vowed to investigate, “but a few hours later condemned the woman, said she was a criminal, announced the three officers would be honored,” and made her name public.
“Six years into Mr. Bush’s presidency, the corps of loyal Texans who accompanied him to Washington from Austin remains a powerful force inside the administration, a steady source of comfort for an increasingly isolated president. No matter how grim the polls or dire the news in Iraq, they have stood by Mr. Bush — and been rewarded with plum jobs.”
U.S. spending on health care is “expected to double to $4.1 trillion over the next decade, up from $2.1 trillion in 2006,” economists from the National Health Statistics Group found. Health insurance premiums are expected to rise 6 percent annually.
“The rate of fatal terrorist attacks around the world by jihadist groups, and the number of people killed in those attacks, increased dramatically after the invasion of Iraq,” a study by Mother Jones concluded. Even with terrorist acts in Iraq and Afghanistan excluded from the data, “there has been a 35 percent rise in the number of attacks, with a 12 percent rise in fatalities.”
European Union ministers pledged yesterday to cut greenhouse gas emissions “30 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, from a current pledge of 20 percent, but only if other heavy polluters” — such as the United States — “joined in.”
And finally: The crocodile tears were flowing at the Libby trial yesterday. After prosecutors “presented a detailed and businesslike summing up of their case” against Scooter Libby, Libby’s chief defense lawyer — Theodore Wells — “countered with an intensely emotional defense ending in a choked sob.” “He’s been under my protection for the last month,” Wells told the jury. “I give him to you. Give him back to me.” “With that, Mr. Wells teared up, sobbed audibly and sat down.”
What did we miss? Let us know in the comments section.
Previous in TP Politics
By clicking and submitting a comment I acknowledge the ThinkProgress Privacy Policy and agree to the ThinkProgress Terms of Use. I understand that my comments are also being governed by Facebook's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.