Senators Question Iraq Panel's Blueprint

Charles Goyette... The Back story
AUDIO:
http://www.apfn.org/audio/2005-10-11-Charles-03.mp3

Senator McCain says Iraq panel's call for end to combat by '08 a "recipe" for defeat; highlights from Bill Moyers's address to West Point; NOW explores the possibility of corporate compassion; Senators spar during climate change committee hearing; investigation of environmental impact of biofuels yields surprises; stoning to death for adultery remains critical issue for Iranian women; and more ... Browse our continually updating front page at http://www.truthout.org

t r u t h o u t | 12.07

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Senators Question Iraq Panel's Blueprint
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120706R.shtml
Senators sharply questioned an Iraq commission's call for a new US war strategy Thursday, saying the Bush administration and Congress must work urgently together to find a more effective approach. Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.), a 2008 presidential hopeful, took strong issue with the commission's call for phasing out the US combat role in Iraq by 2008 and focusing instead more on training and advising the Iraqi army. He rejected the idea that the Army and Marines cannot spare more combat forces for Iraq duty. "There's only one thing worse than an over-stressed Army and Marine Corps, and that's a defeated Army and Marine Corps," said McCain.

Bill Moyers | Message to West Point
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120706S.shtml
"Many of you will be heading for Iraq," said Bill Moyers in his address to West Point. "I have never been a soldier myself, never been tested under fire, never faced hard choices between duty and feeling, or duty and conscience, under deadly circumstances. I will never know if I have the courage to be shot at, or to shoot back, or the discipline to do my duty knowing the people who dispatched me to kill - or be killed - had no idea of the moral abyss into which they were plunging me. I have tried to learn about war from those who know it best: veterans, the real experts."

Saudis Reportedly Funding Iraqi Sunnis
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120706T.shtml
Private Saudi citizens are giving millions of dollars to Sunni insurgents in Iraq, and much of the money is used to buy weapons, including shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles, according to key Iraqi officials and others familiar with the flow of cash.

NOW | Corporate Compassion
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120706U.shtml
Corporations don't have the best reputation when it comes to compassion. More often than not, the bottom line leaves no room for benevolence. But some big businesses are taking a new approach. On Friday, December 8, at 8:30 pm (check local listings), NOW interviews Jonathan Schwartz, the charismatic CEO and president of Sun Microsystems, and billionaire venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, about their efforts to invest and grow programs that help make the world a better place.

Global Warming Debate Heats Up Senate Committee Hearing
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/120706EA.shtml
The purpose of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing Wednesday was to examine this burning question: Is a sensation-seeking media hyping the threat of global warming?

Tropical Seas Are Threatened by Famine as Warming Quickens
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/120706EB.shtml
Global warming is creating an ocean famine in swaths of tropical and sub-tropical seas, according to research using nearly a decade of satellite data.

Julia Olmstead | A Look at the Impacts of Biofuels Production
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/120706EC.shtml
"As intuitive as it may seem that fuel from plants would be more benign than petroleum-based fuels, the ecological impacts of biofuel production are more complicated, and wider-reaching, than an environmentalist might first imagine," writes Julia Olmstead.

Administration Tried to Cut Payouts to Nuke Workers
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/120706LA.shtml
The Bush administration repeatedly sought ways to limit payouts to nuclear weapons workers sickened by radiation and toxic material, according to a memo written by congressional investigators and obtained by USA TODAY.

Stoning for Adultery
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/120706WA.shtml
Currently in Iran, there are nine women sentenced to death by stoning on charges of adultery, compared to two men for the same offense - highlighting the fact that this barbaric mode of execution is primarily a women's issue.

In the Heart of the Capital, Despair
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/120706HA.shtml
With few resources, a church named Redemption takes on poverty, hunger, and other staggering causes in Haiti.

VIDEO | Democrats Caucus on Iraq
A Report by Geoffrey Millard and Scott Galindez
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120606B.shtml
During a Democratic Party caucus on Iraq, House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader-elect Steny Hoyer, and Caucus Chair Rahm Emanuel briefly addressed reporters, announcing that the days of rubber-stamp budget authorization for Iraq are over. Pelosi said that "Truman-like" investigations of fraud and mismanagement of funds would take place. Following the press conference, we caught up to Representatives Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) and Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), who gave us their take on what needs to be done.

VIDEO | Keith Olbermann: We Fight for Liberty by Having More Liberty, Not Less
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120106S.shtml
Keith Olbermann notes: "Apparently there are some of us who cannot see that the only future for America is one that cherishes the freedoms won in the past, one in which we vanquish bad ideas with better ones, and in which we fight for liberty by having more liberty, not less."

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