Ireland Will Take Guantanamo Detainees

The Irish government has said it will accept two detainees from the U.S. detention camp at Guantanamo Bay. The men are reported to be Uzbeks. "I am conscious of the intention of the United States to close the center at Guantanamo Bay, in part by transferring detainees, no longer regarded as posing a threat to security but who cannot return to their own countries," said Ireland's Justice Minister Dermot Ahern.

Obama's Popularity Helping US Interests Abroad?

A new Pew Global Attitudes Project survey, conducted May 18 to June 16, found that "the image of the United States has improved markedly in most parts of the world, reflecting global confidence in Barack Obama." The poll even found that in Germany, Obama enjoys greater confidence than Chancellor Angela Merkel and French citizens are more confident in Obama than they are in President Nicolas Sarkozy. The Pew report found that the United States' image has not only improved dramatically in Western Europe, but "opinions of America have also become more positive in key countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, as well." Even countries with a Muslim majority, Indonesia in particular, where the United States was incredibly unpopular during the Bush Administration, have seen an increase in favorable American sentiment since Obama was elected.

"However for the most part, opinions of the U.S. among Muslims in the Middle East remain largely unfavorable, despite some positive movement in the numbers in Jordan and Egypt. Animosity toward the U.S., however, continues to run deep and unabated in Turkey, the Palestinian territories and Pakistan." At the same time, Pew's survey also "confirms a drop in confidence in the United States among Israelis." Immediately after Obama's Cairo speech, Israeli confidence in him to do the right thing slipped from 60 percent before the speech to 49 percent. On policies, Obama's personal popularity doesn't always translate. For example, Obama's plan to increase troop numbers in Afghanistan "is the only Obama policy tested that does not engender broad global support. In fact, majorities in most countries oppose the added deployments."

KBR "Burn Pits" on US Bases in Iraq Cause Serious Illness

Josh Eller, a military contractor stationed in Iraq in 2006, was driving through Balad Air Base when he spotted the wild dog. He wasn't sure what was in its mouth—but when Eller saw two bones, he knew he was looking at a human arm. The dog had pulled the limb from an open-air "burn pit" on the base used to incinerate waste. Eller says it's "one of the worst things I have seen."

Since hearing Eller's story, lawyer Elizabeth Burke has signed on 190 additional clients with complaints about burn pits at 18 military sites in Iraq and Afghanistan. By now, she says, all pits should have been replaced by pollution-controlled incinerators. She's filed suits in 17 states against KBR, the company contracted to provide waste-disposal services at these bases, accusing it of negligence and harm. Burke was shocked to learn what her clients saw incinerated: Humvees, batteries, unexploded ordnance, gas cans, mattresses, rocket pods, and plastic and medical waste (including body parts, which may explain the arm). Fumes containing carcinogenic dioxins, heavy metals, and particulates, according to an Army–Air Force risk assessment, waft freely across bases.

KBR is accused of allowing thick, noxious smoke – coming off of flames sometimes colored blue or green by burning chemicals – to hang over U.S. bases and camps across Iraq and Afghanistan since 2004. It’s alleged that round-the-clock hazardous emissions from the burn pits caused serious respiratory illnesses, tumors and cancers in the Plaintiffs. It’s alleged in the lawsuit:

U.S. soldiers and other residents of the military bases and camps have become seriously ill, been diagnosed with serious and potentially fatal diseases and in some cases have died from the physical injuries and diseases caused by the exposure to hazardous smoke and fumes. KBR promised to minimize the environmental effects of the burn sites they operated in Iraq and Afghanistan and to minimize smoke exposure to people in and near the bases and camps. Instead, by forsaking safety for money, KBR willfully endangered these men and women who honorably served their country in military service or in support of the military.

Conservatives Criticize the Pullback that Republicans Stipulated

Say what??? A number of conservatives have criticized the U.S. pullback, seeming to forget that the date was stipulated in an agreement hammered out by the Bush administration (and hailed at the time by the war's supporters as a victory for President Bush's Iraq policy). Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute called the pullback a "projection of weakness," and warned that the day "will likely mark another milestone: the end of the surge and the relative peace it brought to Iraq." Vice President Cheney -- who assured Americans in May 2005 that the insurgency was in its "last throes" -- used the occasion as another opportunity to cast the Obama administration as irresponsible, warning that he "would not want to see the US waste all the tremendous sacrifice that has gotten us to this point." Responding to Cheney's attacks, former White House counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke said on MSNBC's Countdown this week, "He's trying to predict disasters -- another al Qaeda attack, more violence in Iraq; and say, in advance of these things happening, if they happen, it will be because of something Obama did. Even though in this case, it's something that Bush did.