혜인의 뜨락

U.S. Military Dead in Iraq Rises to 1,500

By TODD PITMAN, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The number of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq (news - web sites) campaign rose to 1,500 on Thursday, an Associated Press count showed, as the military announced the latest death of one of its troops.
The soldier was killed Wednesday in Babil province, just south of Baghdad, part of an area known as the "Triangle of Death" because of the frequency of insurgent attacks on U.S.- and Iraqi-led forces there.
The soldier, assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, was killed in action "while conducting security and stability operations," the military said, declining to release more specific information.
As is customary in the military, the name of the soldier was withheld pending notification of next of kin.
U.S. troops are killed nearly every day in Iraq.
The latest death brought to at least 1,500 the number of members of the U.S. military who have died since the U.S.-led war in Iraq began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. At least 1,140 died as a result of hostile action, according to the Defense Department. The figures include four military civilians.
Since May 1, 2003, when President Bush (news - web sites) declared that major combat operations in Iraq had ended, 1,362 U.S. military members have died, according to AP's count. That includes at least 1,030 deaths resulting from hostile action, according to the military's numbers.
The tally was compiled by The Associated Press based on Pentagon (news - web sites) records and AP reporting from Iraq.

이라크에서 미군 사망자가 1500명으로 됐다

지난 목요일, 미군 사망자수가 1500명에 이르렀다.

지난 수요일 바그다드 서쪽의 "죽음의 삼각지" 중 하나인 바빌에서 한명의 미군이 추가로 사망해서.

미군은 거의 매일 이라크에서 죽고 있다.

적어도 1140명이 적대적 전투행위때문에 죽었다. 부시가 주요전투종료를 선언한 2003년 5월 1일 이래로 1362명의 미군이 죽었다.

Call for UN sanctions against Sudan
By AFP, 2 March
TWO US senators called today for the United Nations to place "hefty" sanctions on the Sudan government to end the "genocide" taking place in Sudan's Darfur region.
In a bill submitted to the US Senate, Republican Sam Brownback and Democrat Jon Corzine called for the US government to press the UN Security Council to set international sanctions against Khartoum.
They also called for US President George W. Bush to name a special envoy to deal with the Sudan situation.
Some 70,000 people have died and 1.6 million have been displaced in Darfur during the last two years, largely at the hands of the Khartoum-supported Janjaweed militia.
"The UN should vote to immediately levy hefty and serious economic and diplomatic sanctions against the government of Sudan, the government-sponsored Janjaweed, and any businesses or companies complicit through their government connections," said Mr Brownback.
"We must insist upon an arms embargo against the government of Sudan, travel restrictions on Sudanese government officials, and a freeze on the assets of companies controlled by the ruling party that do business abroad," he said.
In February Washington proposed new targeted UN sanctions for Sudan in what it called a bid to get all sides in the conflict to end the bloodshed.
Overnight, a Sudanese foreign ministry official expressed "astonishment" over the US proposal, while a senior Sudanese security official accused the US embassy in Khartoum of carrying out "hostile activities" against the country.
Last year Senators Brownback and Corzine pushed through the Senate a resolution that labelled the conflict in Darfur "genocide", while the UN continues to avoid the term in dealing with Sudan.

수단에 대한 유엔의 경제제재요구

3월 2일  AFP

Brave, Young and Muslim – The New York Times
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

Published: March 3, 2005
he last couple of years have not been easy for anyone, myself included, who hoped that the Iraq war would produce a decent, democratizing outcome. And even in the wake of the remarkable Iraqi election, the toppling of the Lebanese cabinet and the reforms brewing in Egypt, it is too soon for anyone to declare victory. We're dealing with some very unstable chemicals. But what makes me more hopeful today is precisely what made me hopeful that the Iraq war might work out, and that is the number of Arab-Muslim youth I've encountered since 9/11 who have urged me to keep writing about the need for democracy and reform in their part of the world.
Of course, many Americans are surprised by this. America has treated the Arab-Muslim states for 50 years as a collection of gas stations. All we cared about was that their pumps were open and their prices low, and that they be nice to the Israelis. As long as the regimes did that, we said, they could do whatever they wanted "out back." They could treat their women however they wanted, they could write about America in their newspapers however they wanted, and they could preach intolerance of other religions all they wanted - just keep their pumps open and prices low and be nice to the Israelis. On 9/11, we got hit with everything that was going on "out back."
Since then, it's been clear to me that unless we partner with Arabs and Muslims to change their context, unless we help them create the free space for a war of ideas that will allow for a new discussion out front and out back, we're just begging for another 9/11. I always knew we had partners there, but the democratic movements that have now emerged have shown me just how many young people there want to give voice to their aspirations and achieve their full potential - something their governments and spiritual leaders have been blocking.
If you want to get a taste of what they sound like, read Irshad Manji's courageous book "The Trouble With Islam Today," and the letters and debates from young Muslims on her Web site (www.muslim-refusenik.com). Ms. Manji is a 36-year-old Canadian Muslim feminist who has dared to write a book calling for a reformation of Islam.
"There's no bigger idea for the Muslim world today - and consequently for all of us - than reopening the gates of independent thinking, or 'ijtihad,' " she said. "That's the main point of my book - to show that Islam once had a pluralistic tradition of critical debate and dissent, and that we Muslims need to rediscover this tradition to update Islam for the 21st century. That's not being radical. That's being faithful."
Born in Uganda of an Indian-Muslim father and a mother with Egyptian roots who emigrated to Canada, Ms. Manji is a frequent lecturer about diversity on college campuses. "Even before 9/11 and my book, I noticed that after my lectures young Muslims would gather at the side of the stage, wait for everyone else to leave and then walk over and say things like, 'Irshad, we need more voices to help open up this religion of ours, because if it doesn't open up we are leaving it.' That is what the clerics don't get. We're saving Islam by showing the emerging generation how they can be part of a pluralistic world and be faithful Muslims."
To that end, Ms. Manji has just launched what she calls Project Ijtihad. "The goal," she explained, "is to create a leadership center that will attract young, reform-minded Muslims to network with one another so they see that they're not alone, to develop the confidence to openly dissent with conformity in Islam and to learn about the golden age of Islam, when Muslims, Jews, Christians worked together to preserve and expand knowledge - something we're rarely, if ever, taught in our public schools or in our Islamic religious schools."
At the urging of students, Ms. Manji recently had her book translated into Arabic and Urdu and posted on her Web site. Young Arabs and Pakistanis are now downloading it in private and discussing it. This week she was approached by a small Arabic publisher who operates in Lebanon and Germany - and has just opened in Baghdad - offering to publish her book in Iraq!
"I can't help but appreciate the symbolism," she said. "Baghdad was the seat of the Islamic enlightenment from the eighth to 12th centuries. It was a crossroads of goods, services, big ideas."
This will take time to play out, and a decent outcome is not assured. But the good news is that young Arabs and Muslims are starting to have a very different conversation "out back," and more and more of them are demanding to have it out front.