From The Guardian, Jan. 9:

One in eight Iraqis have left their homes in what is the largest long-term population movement in the Middle East since the displacement of the Palestinians in 1948, the UN's refugee agency said today.

From the ITV News, Jan. 15 (emphasis added):

US President George W Bush said Iraqi people should be grateful to the US for the 2003 invasion and the removal of Saddam Hussein.

Boy, this says just about everything that needs to be said, doesn't it? From Newsday, Jan. 10:

Serviceman back from Iraq hit, dragged by cars

NEW MILFORD, N.J. - A U.S. Army specialist who had just returned from Iraq was hit by a car as he walked toward his grandmother's house, then was dragged for a half-mile by another vehicle.

Never forget, this is what we're fighting for in Iraq. It's about our way of life, remember? From NY1, Jan. 10:

Queens Man Arrested After Traffic Dispute Leads To Fatal Shooting

The brother of a man fatally shot by an off-duty correction officer during a traffic dispute Tuesday night in Queens has been charged with assault.

Mowing somebody down with an SUV is certainly a rather decisive way to win an argument. Note how this charming incident uniquely merges the respective pathologies of the USA, with its automotive death cult, and the Balkans, with their endless ethno-historical grudges. Does anybody know exactly what they were arguing about? We are morbidly curious. From AP, Dec. 31:

On Jan. 11 a federal grand jury in El Paso, Texas, indicted Cuban-born Venezuelan national Luis Posada Carriles, a longtime "asset" of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), on one count of fraud and six counts of lying to government agents. Posada has been in the custody of US immigration authorities since May 17, 2005; he entered the US illegally in March 2005. The charges, which together carry a maximum sentence of 40 years, enable the US to continue to hold Posada; federal district judge Philip Martinez had given the government until Feb. 1 to justify holding Posada for deportation when it has apparently made no progress in arranging his removal from the US.

Ethiopian occupation troops in Somalia are reportedly hunting down Ethiopian Oromo refugees living in the country. Allied Somali militias are also said to be abducting Oromos and handing them over to Ethiopian troops for reward money. Ethiopian forces in Somalia are reportedly claiming that the refugees are all members of the Oromo rebel forces fighting the Ethiopian government.

Last week's US air raids in the Lower Juba region of southern Somalia near the Kenyan border, caused heavy civilian casualties, according to local reports. Some of the attacks apparently hit groups of nomadic herdsmen on their way to watering holes. Reports of civilian casualites run as high as 80 dead, with large numbers of cattle, goats and other livestock wiped out as well. Thousands of local residents are said to be fleeing towards the border. But with the border sealed, aid workers from Doctors Without Borders and other groups have been unable to cross into the region from Kenya to assist or verify the claims. The air strikes near the towns of Hagar, Bur Gabo, Banka Jiro, Bada Madow and Ras Kamboni areas are said to have continued for three days. (HornAfrik Radio via BBC Monitoring, Jan. 11)