From “Clinton Says Arafat Missed the Chance for Peace,” Reuters:
“Clinton, who helped broker a Middle East peace plan with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli leader Yitzhak Rabin in 1993, will not attend either his memorial service or his funeral, the former president’s office said.”
It’s dark, and far away, but this appears to be a depiction of some sort of assault on Fallujah.
From Madeleine Bunting’s “Screams will not be heard“, the Guardian, November 8, 2004:
In an age of instant communication, we will have to wait months, if not years, to hear of what happens inside Falluja in the next few days. The media representation of this war will be from a distance: shots of the city skyline illuminated by the flashes of bomb blasts, the dull crump of explosions. What will be left to our imagination is the terror of children crouching behind mud walls; the agony of those crushed under falling masonry; the frantic efforts to save lives in makeshift operating theatres with no electricity and few supplies. We will be the ones left to fill in the blanks, drawing on the reporting of past wars inflicted on cities such as Sarajevo and Grozny.
Images of the Iraqi skyline on Tuesday, November 9, 2004, as shot by various AP photographers:
Saturday, Nov. 6, 2004
US Marines of the 1st Division stage a chariot race reminiscent of the Charlton Heston movie-complete with confiscated Iraqi horses at their base outside Fallujah, Iraq, Saturday, Nov. 6 , 2004. For U.S. Marines tapped to lead an expected attack on insurgent-held Fallujah, the bags have been packed, trucks have been loaded and final letters have been sent, leaving one final task – the ‘Ben-Hur.’ (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)
Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2004
Army Nurse supervisor Parrick McAndrew tries to save the life of an American soldier by giving him CPR upon arrival at a military hospital in Baghdad, Iraq Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2004 but the soldier died. The soldier was fatally wounded in a Baghdad firefight with insurgents. (AP Photo/John Moore)
By way of the Associated Press’ breaking coverage of Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat’s death-but-not-death, it’s come out that:
French television station LCI quoted an anonymous French medical official as saying Arafat was in an “irreversible coma” and “intubated” – a process that usually involves threading a tube down the windpipe to the lungs. The tube is often connected to a life support machine to help the patient breathe.
In other words, “brain dead, but not physically shut down.”
Cursed word games! It’s much like trying to pick apart the distinction between, say, a “security fence” and an “imprisoning wall“.
From Bush Wins Second Term: Kerry Concedes Defeat; Both Speak of Need for Unity, Washington Post, November 4, 2004:
An elated President Bush claimed a reelection victory yesterday after a tumultuous night of vote counting and a gracious concession by challenger John F. Kerry, and he pledged that he would seek to earn the trust of those who did not back him during the long, contentious campaign.
In an explicit appeal to those Americans who voted for Kerry, Bush said: “To make this nation stronger and better, I will need your support, and I will work to earn it. I will do all I can do to deserve your trust. A new term is a new opportunity to reach out to the whole nation.“
From For Bush and GOP, a Validation, Washington Post, November 3, 2004:
President Bush, his fate for winning a second term still officially uncertain, commanded the popular-vote majority that eluded him in 2000. And in an impressive run of battleground states, he seemed to win validation for a campaign that unabashedly stressed conservative themes and reveled in partisan combat against Democratic nominee John F. Kerry.
[…]
Although final judgment is still to come, yesterday’s balloting did in several instances validate important elements of the Bush political model. This strategy has been based from the outset of Bush’s term on carefully tending to the Republican Party’s conservative base, and a governing strategy based more often on trying to vanquish political adversaries rather than split the difference with them.