what's going on here (part XXII)...

can someone explain...

1. North Koreans Arm Ethiopians as U.S. Assents

Three months after the United States successfully pressed the United Nations to impose strict sanctions on North Korea because of the country’s nuclear test, Bush administration officials allowed Ethiopia to complete a secret arms purchase from the North [Korea], in what appears to be a violation of the restrictions, according to senior American officials.

The United States allowed the arms delivery to go through in January in part because Ethiopia was in the midst of a military offensive against Islamic militias inside Somalia, a campaign that aided the American policy of combating religious extremists in the Horn of Africa.

All right. The US assents. Why? Because the Ethiopians are fighting the Islamic fundamentalists in Somalia. North Korea, part of the axis of evil. The Bush administration talks out of both sides of its mouth - at the same time. For what reason? They are so transparent...

2. Al-Sadr to followers: Fight Americans, not Iraqis

A powerful and radical Shiite cleric implored his followers Sunday to stop killing Iraqis and focus their violent efforts on ousting American forces from the war-torn nation.

Muqtada al-Sadr also called on Iraqi forces to join the insurgents in the battle against "the occupiers."

What is the effect of the surge? It's working; it's workng; it's working. Right, and that bridge in New York is still for sale. Could it be that Iran is really the one who wants to buy it? just asking...

3. Iraqi insurgents recruit among U.S.-held detainees

U.S.-run detention camps in Iraq have become a breeding ground for extremists where Islamic militants recruit and train supporters, and use violence against perceived foes, say former inmates and Iraqi officials.

Yes, yes... The surge is working. But for whom?

4. Iraqi Insider Details U.S. Mismanagement

In a rueful reflection on what might have been, an Iraqi government insider details in 500 pages the U.S. occupation's "shocking" mismanagement of his country _ a performance so bad, he writes, that by 2007 Iraqis had "turned their backs on their would-be liberators."

"The corroded and corrupt state of Saddam was replaced by the corroded, inefficient, incompetent and corrupt state of the new order," Ali A. Allawi concludes in "The Occupation of Iraq," newly published by Yale University Press.

and the Iraqis are very, very grateful for that. They are enjoying the surge to no end. got that right - no end...

5. Guantanamo hunger strike staged

Scores of detainees at the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba have begun a hunger strike, human rights lawyers have said.
The prisoners, many of whom have been held for more than three years without charge, are believed to be demanding an immediate trial or release.

Lawyers for the detainees say about 200 are refusing all food. Military officials put the number at 76.

The New York Times is reporting that the hunger-strikers are being force fed. However,

A military spokesman at Guantánamo, Cmdr. Robert Durand of the Navy, played down the significance of the current hunger strike, describing the prisoners’ complaints as “propaganda.”

Excuse me? Wouldn't some people say that Guantanamo is US propaganda itself? Oh, and the detainees are the ones fighting for habeas corpus?



So, I have to ask. Where is the outrage? Where is the disgust? Where is the fight to protect the Constitution? Are only the detainees demanding it?


Sources: New York Times, cnn.com, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, BBC NEWS