Mid December - The presidential
race for the Democrats has closed up a lot with Hillary Clinton still
leading and Barack Obama close behind as they go into the Iowa
primaries. For the Republicans, John McCain might be a sleeper winner in
this one... but he will have to beat Rudy Guiliani first..
End of November - Australia's
conservative Prime Minister John Howard, a staunch supporter of
President Bush's decision to go to war in Iraq, conceded defeat in
elections.
Mid October - The U.S. military
believes it has dealt devastating and perhaps irreversible blows to
al-Qaeda in Iraq in recent months, leading some generals to advocate a
declaration of victory over the group, which the Bush administration has
long described as the most lethal U.S. adversary in Iraq.
August - Karl Rove, George Bush's
principal political advisor decides to quit after being Bush's main
political consultant. Is this the start of the lame duck presidency for
the USA? July, things look really bad in Iraq as
Bush's "surge" policy has made no real difference in the elected Iraq
government. They have met none of the political, economic or other
reforms that the Bush administration has set out for them to do.
Both Democrats and Republicans are beginning to discuss a rapid
withdrawal of troops strategy from Iraq.
In June, Bush's popularity rating by
the Washington Post reach only 35 % with 62 % of the US population
disapproving of their President.
In mid May, Tony Blair Britain's Prime
Minister for 10 years told the world he was going to step down.
Perhaps, what has taken toll on his ministerial position was his siding
with George Bush for attacking Iraq.
It seems that in the US with the Democrats
controlling the Senate and the House of Representatives, George W
seems to be addressing domestic issues more and more while trying to
stay his line on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Late February, Britain will pull
about 1,600 troops from Iraq within months, with an aim to pull out
several hundred more by the end of the summer. The world awaits what
will happen to the sectarian violence that is killing lots of people in
Iraq everyday.
An extra battle group of up to 1,500 British troops is to be sent to
Afghanistan to take on the Taleban over the next few months, the
Government. Other NATO partners have failed to increase their
commitment despite warnings that the Taliban will launch a spring
offensive. Early February
President Bush has approved plans to create a US military command for
Africa by 2008, a move that reflects increasing US strategic interests
in the continent. This looks really stupid but who knows what Carl Rove
Bush's political advisor
is thinking.
Late January, Bush's approval ratings went to the floor but he
insisted that his "surge" policy on Iraq was still a good one.
Every day in Iraq a least a hundred people are killed as the sectarian
war between the Sunni's and Shite's waged on with the Americans
being blamed. In the USA, democrats Hilliary Clinton and Illinois
Sen. Barack Obama filed papers to establish a presidential exploratory
committees as the approval rating for President George W Bush plunged.
In early January, pressured by the fact that the US were losing the
war in Iraq, Bush announced that he would increase his army in Iraq by
21,500 troops. Iraq's President al-Maliki supported this by saying
this would definitely aid in stopping the violence in Baghdad caused by
his major supporter cleric a-Sadr. However, as long as al-Maliki needs
al-Sadr's backing to stay in office, he is unlikely to allow U.S.
forces—whatever the number to confront the Mahdi Army led by al-Sadr.
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