Iraq Parliment Approves Provincial Elections Law.

Iraq's Parliment as approved the greatly anticipated Provincial Election Laws. These laws will allow Iraqi's to vote on Mayors, City Councils, and other local offices. I'm not sure they'll have those titles, but those are the American equivalents.

U.N. envoy Staffan di Mistura, who has shuttled between the political blocs to pressure them to approve the law, said preparations for the vote would begin immediately. "We need 140 to 150 days from the day we receive it in order to complete all the preparations to hold the elections," Faraj al-Haidari said. Much work, including staff training and the selection of voting centers, must be completed, he said.

"Today is an important day for Iraq and democracy as the parliament found a compromise over the election law," he told The Associates Press. "This will help Iraq and Iraqis to express their opinions by voting for their candidates in the provinces."

The Iraqi's have said that they will not be able to hold elections until at least Jan. 31th. So President Bush will not be in office when these elections take place, but I know he'll be watching and smiling back on his Ranch in Texas.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,427124,00.html

Al-Qaeda upset by women buying cucumbers.

Al-Qaeda apparently doesn't want women buying cucumbers because they look like part of the male anatomy. According to Al-Qaeda in Iraq tomatoes are female fruit and cucumbers are male fruit. That's not the only obsurd thing in this story. Take a look
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/2538545/Al-Qaeda-in-Iraq-alienated-by-cucumber-laws-and-brutality.html

Georgia to pull all troops out of Iraq to fight Russia.

No, no not the state here in America. There's a country called Georgia. Or at least there is until Russia decides their going to take it over. Georgia is now in what is envolving into an all out war with Russia, a war Georgia cannot possibilty win. Nato and the U.S. are calling for cease-fires but Russia has started aerial bombing on Ossetia, a disputed terrority between Russia and Georgia. The calayslt to this was Georgia taking Russian checkpoints by force and alledegly killing Russian soliders. "Russian military commanders said 15 peacekeepers have been killed and about 150 wounded. Russian troops went in as peacekeepers but Georgia alleges they now back the separatists." Whatever happened Georgia has now called all of it's 2000 troops back from Iraq. However these troops were scheduled to leave at the end of this year. With the war in Iraq winding down I don't see this making a impact on security in the country.

Just a note Georgia applied for membership in NATO and was turned down. If they had been accepted into NATO we would be at war with Russia today. "An attack on one country in NATO is an attack on all countries in NATO." Either that or Russia wouldn't have attacked at all, but that's difficult to believe given the circumstances.

American troop deaths in July at an all time low.

I realize I'm a little late with this story, but I wanted to make sure I wrote about it. The U.S. lost five Soliders in July. This is the lowest number of troops killed since the begining of the war. Yet another sign this war is coming to an end and that we have emerged victorious. President Bush suggested that this news could allow him to further withdrawl troops before he leaves office. Of course we will have to wait until Petraeus reports to the President in September. Also the Iraqi's will have provincial elections in October. These elections should provide stablity and allow local leaders to be in charge of local affairs. Along with the Iraqi Army taking control of most major millitary Operations, it's looking more and more like the Iraqi's don't need us there anymore.

This may end up being the nail in Obama's coffin. When it becomes obvious that we will be out of Iraq no matter whose President, except for the residual force, and that America has won this war because of the surge. Americans may not want to turn the reigns of our Armed Forces over to someone who opposed the very measure that allowed our troops to return home with honor.

For more information on this story go to:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/content/article/2008/08/01/iraq.html?hpid=topnews