Iraq's bitterly divided political leadership came together Sept. 30 to denounce a non-binding US Senate resolution approved last week that endorses the decentralization of Iraq through the establishment of semi-autonomous regions. That same day, the US Embassy in Baghdad issued a statement of its own criticizing the resolution, which advocates a "federal system" with a weak central government and strong Sunni Arab, Shi'ite and Kurdish regions. "The Congress adopted this proposal based on an incorrect reading and unrealistic estimations of the history, present and future of Iraq," said Izzat al-Shahbandar, a member of ex-prime minister Ayad Allawi's parliament bloc. "It represents a dangerous precedent to establishing the nature of the relationship between Iraq and the USA, and shows the Congress as if it were planning for a long-term occupation by their country’s troops." The statement was also signed by Iraq's leading Shi'ite parties and the main Sunni Arab bloc. The US Embassy's highly unusual statement said the resolution would seriously harm Iraq's future stability.

The Turkish government signed an agreement with Iraq Sept. 28 to cooperate in fighting guerillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), who are launching attacks on Turkey from Iraqi territory. That same day, the PKK attacked a military post in Turkey's Hakkari province, leaving two guerillas dead in the ensuing battle. The following day, at least 12 pro-government village militiamen and civilians were killed when their minibus was ambushed by PKK fighters in neighboring Sirnak province. (VOA, Press TV, Iran, Sept. 30)

At least seven young men were killed in an apparent US helicopter attack on an outdoor Ramadan gathering in the Baghdad Shi'ite suburb of Abu Dshir late Sept. 27. Witnesses say the men were playing a traditional Ramadan game called mihaidis, in which teams try to find a hidden ring, when the helicopters appeared, briefly hovered over the crowd—and then began firing machine-gun blasts and rockets. Maj. Brad Leighton, identified by the New York Times as "a spokesman for the multinational forces in Baghdad," responded with the following sensitive statement:

From Fox Local News, NYC. Sept. 30:

Woman Killed in East Village Hit-Run
A 24-year-old woman was killed early Sunday when a car hit her -- and kept going. Julia Thomson of 355 Bowery was crossing East Fourth Street and the Bowery around 4:05 a.m. when a dark Mercedes speeding south struck her.

The Burmese junta currently shooting unarmed protestors received a cynical plea for restraint from the Israel government on Sept. 29. According to the Israeli paper Ha'aretz, the Israeli foreign ministry announced "Israel is concerned by the situation in Myanmar, and urges the government to demonstrate restraint and refrain from harming demonstrators." The article ended by pointing out that "Israel denies selling weapons to Burma or Myanmar." (Ha'aretz, Sept. 29)

Our September issue featured the story "The Israel Lobby & Global Hegemony: Revisited" by WW4R editor Bill Weinberg, arguing that "Israel replicates the historical cycles of Jewish scapegoating by serving as imperialism's proxy." Refuting the thesis of John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt in their new book, The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy, Weinberg contends that the Iraq adventure is fundamentally a war for control of oil. "Yet even the anti-war left increasingly chases after shadows like the supposed Zionist conspiracy, abandoning principles of anti-imperialism," Weinberg writes. He accuses Mearsheimer and Walt of belonging to a tradition of "nativist xenophobia," and warns that the eventual backlash against Israel could come in "an orgy of anti-Jewish hatred which will only play into the hands of Israel's advocates of 'transfer,' finishing off the work of ethnic cleansing that began in 1948." Our September Exit Poll was: "Mearsheimer and Walt: Heroic truth-tellers or right-wing conspiracy theorists?" We received the following responses:

Juan Cole's Informed Comment blog Sept. 24 has an enlightening commentary on a Sept. 20 AP story about the Pentagon's latest report to Congress on supposed "progress" in Iraq. Cole writes that the report, entitled "Measuring Stability and Security in Iraq," "has two graphics that should make us very suspicious about all the declarations that the troop escalation or 'surge' has significantly reduced violence in Iraq... The first graph shows average daily casualties (dead and wounded badly enough to go to hospital) by month in Iraq." This graph indicates that such casualties have (if you will) surged from just over 50 in January 2006 to just shy of 150 in August 2007, with a slight dip in June of this year. In nearly every month, "Coalition Forces" is the smallest category, "Iraqi Security Forces" the next largest, and "Civilians" the big majority. Writes Cole:

A few days before Burma exploded into the world headlines, the annual US State Department report ranking nations on their narcotics control efforts listed the Rangoon regime as among those not making the cut. Twenty countries were listed as major drug producers or exporters, but only Burma and Venezuela were found to have demonstrably failed to make substantial efforts to adhere to international counter-narcotics agreements or cooperate with Washington in accordance with US anti-drug laws.