From Reuters, March 21:

President George W. Bush held out the possibility on Tuesday of a U.S. troop presence in Iraq for many years, saying a full withdrawal would depend on decisions by future U.S. presidents and Iraqi governments.

Another expendable piece of cannon fodder is scapegoated...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Army dog handler was found guilty on Tuesday of abusing detainees at Baghdad's notorious Abu Ghraib prison and faces up to eight years and nine months in prison, an Army spokeswoman said.

Freedom's on the march. From the BBC, March 20:

An Afghan man is being tried in a court in the capital, Kabul, for converting from Islam to Christianity.

A March 21 statement from the San José de Apartadó Peace Community:

We call for national and international solidarity to demand the freedom of GILDARDO TUBERQUIA, member of the Internal Council of the Peace Community, who has been illegally detained today, March 21 at 8:45 AM, by the Police. Gildardo refused to register his personal information at the police roadblock at El Mangolo, located at the exit of Apartadó on the road to San José de Apartadó. He was detained for demanding that the police comply with Sentence C-1024 of 2002 of the Constitutional Court, which prohibits organisms of the State from demanding the registration of personal information, such as place of dwelling and work, activities and family relations, and others not strictly needed for legal identification of the person.

Lukashenko is doubtless correct that the protesters are backed by the West—or are about to be. Can we—meaning progressives in the West—possibly think of a more creative response to this dilemma than rallying around Lukashenko? From the BBC, March 21:

Hundreds of demonstrators have spent the night camped out in the Belarussian capital, Minsk, as they continue a protest over the presidential election.

From the UK's Iraq Union Solidarity, March 17:

Support the Tehran busworkers!
Since April 2005, Tehran busworkers have combatted mass jailings and sackings to insist on their right to form a union and claim unpaid wages. Most recently, bus workers protesting the laying off of hundreds of their colleagues for taking part in a strike on 28th January were handed a list of 46 confirmed dismissals. The list includes five members of the union's executive who are still in prison.

From Madison's Capital Times, March 18:

Wisconsin will blaze a trail in April when, for the first time, voters will go to the polls as part of a statewide effort to pass referendums opposed to the war in Iraq.

Sarah Ferguson writes for the Village Voice, March 19:

Seventeen demonstrators were arrested Sunday for blocking traffic as part of a funeral procession intended to transform Times Square into a "Zone of Mourning" on the third anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.