Another good news day

Here we go: First off some more analysis of the situation in Iraq. Today, as reports of a 10-year-old Iraqi boy is shot by American soldiers, another helicopter is shot down and the US military is accused of roughing up journalists, another report just published, this time by the US Army War College, calls the invasion of Iraq "unnecessary" and criticizes the administration for squandering resources in the war that could otherwise go towards fighting al-Qaida. On top of all of this I found a story in the Toronto Star that reports Bush admitted to seeking regime change when he first came to power. The wonderful thing about this article is how it puts together the Bush scorecard for invading Iraq:

"The White House has not denied the central contention made by O'Neill: That the administration was already planning ways to invade Iraq and oust Saddam and the Sept. 11 attacks gave them that cover.

Bush has since conceded there was no link between Saddam and the Sept. 11 attacks and there has been no proven ties between the deposed Iraqi leader and the Al Qaeda terrorist network.

Two other claims the Bush administration used to justify the war, that Saddam was hiding weapons of mass destruction and posed an imminent threat to the United States, have also never been proven."

In other news, Paul Martin is meeting with Bush for the first time in Mexico. According to the Star he will be pushing for an economic development policy in underdeveloped nations that emphasizes both economic and social growth, as opposed to the American model which is concerned primarily with the former. For a long time I wished that Canada would play a more important role in global politics and this might be the beginning of something good.

As an example to why we need new fuel-emissions laws in the United States, a story reporting that Subaru has altered its Outback sedan so that it can be classified as a light truck instead of a car. Why, you ask? Because then it doesn't have to meet the 27 MPG target of cars, but the 21 MPG target of the light truck category. I don't really have an issue with Subaru for doing this since their goal is to maximize profit and presumably this helps them achieve that goal. My problem is with this current administration and congress for not improving the laws so that loopholes like this one can't be exploited to the detriment of the environment.

It looks like Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is going to be tried for corruption charges after all. The Italian Constitutional Court overturned the law he passed that would have given him immunity from prosecution as long as he remained Prime Minister. After making Italy into a laughingstock with his antics, I can only hope that justice is ultimately served.

Finally, it looks like a Belgian cardinal and possible papal successor has condoned the use of condoms between partners when one is HIV positive. Although he prefers that partners refrain from sexual intercourse, he states that there is a moral difference between using condoms to prevent conception and using them to prevent death. It should be interesting to see how this one plays out in the church.