IHT: Falluja an out-of-control haven insurgents

Senior Iraqi officials say the government in Falluja has been effectively replaced by a group of insurgent leaders, many of them Islamist extremists, who are dominating the decisions affecting the city.
.
The Iraqi officials say that former members of the Baath Party are using the city as a base to regroup, and recently held a convention to plot a strategy to return themselves to power.

The claims of widespread civilian casualties were impossible to verify. But American and Iraqi officials say that the decision to attack Falluja, as well as the decision to halt the offensive, were made by civilian leaders in Washington, not by military leaders here.
.
"We are a civilian controlled military, and it is our business to stay out of politics," Sanchez said.

Cool. So we know that the city most dangerous to pretty much the entire world right now is called Falluja. Pretty fucking cool if you lived there...course there is the slight possibility of death coming in a very sharp and painful manner. I fucking love politics. The war...the bullshit. The fact that the world is a whole lot smarter than we ever thought. This "little" insurgency is a picture of the future. Small splinter groups of well trained soldiers with a ready to die mentality and a plan leads to distinct destruction of the public good and small, but sharply visible groups of violent death. The future is bright...and red

KRT Wire | Iraqi family disputes U.S. military account of man's death

"All I want is justice,' he said, 'For justice, I am prepared to give my blood and my soul."

It was only after the soldiers left, family members said, that they discovered al-Bawi's bullet-riddled corpse wedged beside a refrigerator in the room in which he was questioned. A crude attempt was made to hide the body under a pile of mattresses and blankets, said his family, surmising the soldiers didn't want the killing to be discovered until they were well clear of the area.

The U.S. military disputes the family's story, and says an investigation into the killing found no wrongdoing on the part of U.S. soldiers.

Interesting. One group found a body of a single man in a single room with 12 soldiers and bullets from two seperate guns inside of him. Yet the other group said they couldn't handle a single person with all 12 trained military person in the room. Interesting strategy of helping fix the world.

| TheState.com | EU Unlikely to Lift China Arms Embargo

The EU had introduced the ban as a reaction to the 1989 Tianamen Square massacre, where the Chinese leadership cracked down on student protestors, killing up to several thousand people, according to unofficial estimates.

European Union leaders are reportedly leaning against lifting a 15-year arms embargo against China. The U.S. government has lobbied against the move while Germany and France backed the proposal.

The U.S. opposes lifting the ban because it does not want weapons made in the EU stationed in the Taiwan Strait, where they could be deployed against U.S. troops during a conflict over Taiwan, the newsmagazine quoted unnamed German foreign ministry officials as saying.

Officials reportedly said that Britain in particular was willing to ensure continuation of the ban.

So you say you are afraid of selling your weapons directly to China based upon their actios in the 1989 massacre. Understandable to not want to give those who cause pain power and money and weapons. Of course...your actions in being the single largest trading block with China also quite supports their rapid military modernization. However...on the other hand. We must realize that China is 1.3 billion people. 1 in 5 people in the world are Chinese. We must support their growth if we, as humans in the world, are going to properly grow as a whole and not as a individual competing bodies. We may not be correct in how to run a country of that size. Remember, it has NEVER been done before. At least not on Earth to my knowledge...so lets be a smarter world. Just careful I guess...