Bush Budget Whacks VA Funds
Sunni Insurgents: What They Want
Pace Contradicts Iran Arms Claims
Bush Hurts Iran Reformers
House Military Damage Assessment Begins
Short & Sweet

THE OP/ED HEADLINES

THE ARTICLE SUMMARIES AND LINKS

BUSH BUDGET WHACKS VA FUNDS
President Bush's 2008 budget for Veterans Administration funding calls for an increase next year but would cut funds in 2009 and 2010 and then freeze the funding levels thereafter even as the number of veterans seeking VA medical care continues to rise.
FDNS Report At: http://tinyurl.com/2z34dw

SUNNI INSURGENTS: WHAT THEY WANT
Iraq insurgents have, for the first time, put in writing their terms for a ceasefire in a document passed to the Independent of London newspaper. Although the current conditions are not those any U.S. administration could meet eventual ceasefires in other conflicts have often began with one side or the other presenting demands the other could not accept that later developed into workable proposals.
FDNS Report At: http://tinyurl.com/2f5ft6

PACE CONTRADICTS IRAN ARMS CLAIMS
American media widely and uncritically published reports based on a press briefing by anonymous military officers in Baghdad last Sunday to the effect that the Iranian government was sending weaponry into Iraq that had been responsible for the deaths of some 170 U.S. troops. Now, Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has apparently contradicted the anonymous claims. However, the story reflects points related to the collection and analysis of intelligence that may be little understood by most Americans.
FDNS Report At: http://tinyurl.com/yv4qes

BUSH HURTS IRAN REFORMERS
Although Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has become increasingly unpopular inside Iran his opponents in that country complain that the Bush administration's threats and hostile rhetoric is pulling the rug from underneath them reports the Los Angeles Times.
FDNS Report At: http://tinyurl.com/2ycfwa

HOUSE MILITARY DAMAGE ASSESSMENT BEGINS
Two subcommittees of the House Armed Services Committee have formally began "assessing damage to the armed forces of the United States … from sustained operations in two wars and its impact on overall readiness." According to the two subcommittee chairman, Rep. Solomon Ortiz (D-TX) and Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-HI), readiness "has suffered in the past six years from inadequate planning, dubious civilian leadership and little or no congressional oversight."
FDNS Report At: http://tinyurl.com/2ol7oq

SHORT & SWEET

Americans Oppose Surge And Cutting Funds

Six in 10 Americans oppose President Bush's increasing the number of troops in Iraq according to the latest USA Today/Gallup Poll.

By a nearly equal number Americans also oppose any attempt by Congress to cut off funding for those troops according to the poll.

The poll also found most Americans paying close attention to the unfolding debate

FBI Cutting Their Losses

Theft and disappearances of FBI weapons and laptop computers have been cut but the agency still has a problem with between three and four computers being stolen or lost each month. Beyond that, says the Justice Department inspector general, the agency does not know whether the information on computers is sensitive or classified.

Five years ago the inspector general issued a report saying that 354 weapons and 317 laptop computers were either lost or stolen within a 28-month review period.

The new report says that 160 weapons and 160 laptop computers disappeared during a 44-month period.

GOP Scared Of Iraq Debate

In a "Dear Colleague" letter Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) and Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ) urged Republicans to dodge debating the Democratic Iraq resolution in terms of the war in Iraq because their side would lose.

"The debate should not be about the surge or its details. This debate should not even be about the Iraq war to date, mistakes that have been made, or whether we can, or cannot, win military. If we let Democrats force us into a debate on the surge or the current situation in Iraq, we lose," wrote Hoekstra and Shadegg.

Instead the two GOP representatives told their colleagues to debate the resolution in terms of international terrorism and discussing "radical Islamists and the consequences of not defeating radical Islam in Iraq."

They attached a map of major international terrorist attacks around the world which have nothing to do with the Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias inside Iraq.

THE OP/ED SUMMARIES AND LINKS

SEND BUSH 41, CLINTON TO MIDDLE EAST
President Reagan did not lift his presidency by escalating war but by escalating diplomacy with Gorbachev and achieving monumental breakthroughs. We can break through the pessimism and win national and global acclaim by sending Bush 41 and Bill Clinton on game changing diplomacy for Iraq and the Middle East.
Commentary By Brent Budowsky At: http://tinyurl.com/3cjsxa

DOUG FEITH, REINVENTING HISTORY
Dougie Feith appeared on Faux News with Chris Wallace and emphatically denied that he or anyone in his office ever said there was an operational relationship between Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden. How sad. Mr. Feith apparently has early on-set Alzheimer's disease. He's forgotten that someone in his shop at DOD leaked his October 2003 memo to the Senate Intelligence Committee to one Mr. Stephen Hayes, an enterprising journalist, who in turn published the breathless findings in the Weekly Standard.
Commentary By Larry C. Johnson At: http://tinyurl.com/yshkv7

IS WAR WITH IRAN INEVITABLE?
As the President fights for public support of his troop surge in Iraq, he is also ratcheting up the pressure on Iran. A second aircraft carrier battle group (with Newsweek reporting a third group likely to follow), Patriot missiles to protect our allies, arresting Iranian personnel in Iraq, releasing additional information about Iranian involvement, appointing a Navy Admiral to command forces in the region, even seeking diplomatic support from Sunni Arab friends in the region - Yes, the Iranians are interfering inside Iraq and seeking nuclear capabilities. Yet the President's recent actions give the US little additional leverage to engage and dissuade Iran, and, more than likely, simply accelerate a dangerous slide into war. The United States can do better than this.
Guest Commentary By Gen. Wesley Clark At : http://tinyurl.com/26sfrq

ABOUT FIGHTING DEMS NEWS SERVICE
Web: www.fighting-dems.com
Email: contact@fighting-dems.us

Publisher: Noel Schultz
Editor: Randy Risener
Associate Editor: Fred Seamon
Contributing Editor: Brent Budowsky
Contributing Editor: Larry C. Johnson
Contributing Editor: Bernie Quigley
Webmaster: Rich Westcott

The Fighting Dems News Service (FDNS) is published weekly by Fighting Dems at www.fighting-dems.com. Originally begun as a candidate and campaign support service for the Fighting Dem candidates, FDNS has evolved into a rapidly expanding independent circulated news service covering below the network headlines news primarily in the areas of foreign policy, national security, military and veterans affairs. FDNS' circulation is email direct, on the website, through free subscription at the website and through selected listserves and to Democratic party leaders throughout the country. FDNS desks and archives are located at http://tinyurl.com/ydmfp4.

About The Staff & Contributors

Publisher Noel Schultz is an Air Force veteran of the Korean War era who served in Libya and Texas and was one of the original organizers of the Fighting Dems candidates in 2006. His degree is in anthropology and linguistics and he is currently an Associated Professor in the Dept. of Foreign Languages and Literature at National Chi Nan University, Puli in the mountains of central Taiwan.

Editor Randy Risener is a former newspaper and wire service reporter who later worked in private sector intelligence and research in support of companies involved with exporting and foreign operations. He served with the National Security Agency's Army component in Vietnam and East Africa/Middle East.

Associate Editor Fred Seaman is a retired Army Intelligence officer who began his career as a case officer in Germany followed by tours on the faculty of the Army Intelligence School and with special operations in Vietnam. He served on the staffs at U.S. Army Europe Headquarters and the Defense Intelligence Agency. He currently manages a government sponsored program to commercialize technology developed at a nuclear weapons laboratory in the former Soviet Union.

Contributing Editor Brent Budowsky was Legislative Assistant to U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen, and worked for the House Democratic Leadership as Legislative Director to Rep. Bill Alexander, then Chief Deputy Majority Whip. He serves on the International Advisory Committee of the Intelligence Summit, and was a principal author of the CIA Intelligence Identities Act originally sponsored by Senator Bentsen.

Contributing Editor Larry C. Johnson is an internationally recognized counter-terrorism expert who served several years with the CIA's Directorate of Operations and later become deputy director of the State Department's Office of Counter Terrorism. He is CEO and co-founder of BERG Associates, an international business consulting firm which specializes in threat management in areas such as terrorism and money laundering. He is editor of the blog NO QUARTER.

Contributing Editor Bernie Quigley is a prize-winning writer and has worked more than 30 years as a book and magazine editor, political commentator and book, movie, music and art reviewer. He lives in the White Mountains with his wife and four children.

Webmaster Richard Westcott has over fourteen years of Information Systems experience in areas of Clinical Trials, Survey Research, Energy Deregulation and Education. He has served as Director of Informatics for the Allegheny Health Education Research Foundation Clinical Trials Research Center, the Coalition of National Cancer Cooperative Groups as well as administrative oversight for the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group Chairman's office. His Clinical Trials locator is available at The National Cancer Institute.