From Military Families Speak Out, March 8:

Military Families Oppose House Democratic Leadership Plan for Iraq
MFSO Says Pelosi Plan Condemns at Least 1,500 Troops to Death
Washington D.C. — Military Families Speak Out (MFSO), an organization of over 3,200 military families who are opposed to the war in Iraq, expressed dismay and outrage at the plan unveiled by House Democrats today that would delay the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops until the fall of 2008.

A statement from the international women's rights group MADRE:

On February 26, 2007, Houzan Mahmoud, an international representative of MADRE's sister organization, the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq, received an e-mail signed by Ansar al-Islam, the notoriously brutal jihadist group based in Kurdistan/Iraq.

The potential for Iraqi Kurdistan to be the flashpoint for a wider regional conflict is becoming increasingly clear. On March 1, a former member of the Turkish National Security Council (MGK) weighed in on the brewing crisis in Kirkuk, which is coveted as a capital by Iraq's Kurdish regional government. Former MGK Secretary-General Gen. Tuncer Kilinc said Turkey ceded the Kirkuk region to a united Iraq in the 1920s, and if Iraq is divided then Turkey has territorial rights there.

The Vietnam GI Revolt & Iraq

by Michael I. Niman, Art Voice, Buffalo, NY

The name Vietnam is back in our vocabulary, as we seem to be developing an interest in history—or at least in the history of wars that just would not end. Americans seem to be catching on that if we ignore history, we're condemned to repeat it. The problem is that certain crucial elements of the Vietnam story have been censored from our national memory.

US military officials displayed another cache of "explosively formed penetrators" (EFPs) to reporters at a base outside Baghdad Feb. 26, saying the weaponry was clearly made in Iran. They admitted, however, there was no way to know if the Iranian government was involved in supplying the weapons. US officials make much of claims that the Quds Force, a unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, is supplying weapons to Shiite militia groups in Iraq—charges denied by Tehran. (Gulf News, UAE, Feb. 25) A day earlier, two people were killed and four wounded when an explosives-laden bus exploded in a parking lot in front of the Iranian embassy in central Baghdad, according to initial reports. However, Iran's official news agency quoted anonymous officials in Tehran's Foreign Ministry saying the blast "was not near Iran's embassy." The official stressed that no Iranian diplomats or embassy were wounded. (IRNA, Feb. 25)

Religious and ethnic minorities in Iraq are facing unprecedented levels of violence, and in some cases risk being eradicated entirely, according to a new report from the London-based Minority Rights Group International. In a major survey of the plight of Iraq's minorities, the report finds that these groups—some of whom have lived in Iraq for over two millennia—are being targeted by Sunni, Shi'ite and Kurdish militias as the battle for power and territory in Iraq intensifies.

From DPA, Feb. 23:

LONDON - A group of mothers who lost sons in Iraq Friday set up a 'peace camp' outside the Downing Street offices of British Prime Minister Tony Blair in London.

Shades of Bosnia. From the UK-based Middle East Online, Feb. 23:

Allegations of sexual abuse of Sunni women by Shiite forces stirred sectarian tensions in Iraq on Friday, while a US soldier was jailed for 100 years for the rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl.