Withdrawal

Regarding your recent article about the continuing violence in Iraq, it's disturbing that it and many similar pieces all followed President Obama's Dec. 2010 announcement that all American troops would be withdrawn from Iraq by the end of 2011 ("Blasts targeting pilgrims kill 15, injure 52 in Iraq," Jan.10). It's quite obvious that the president's action was nothing more than a political ploy to position himself in a more favorable position for re-election in 2012. Unfortunately, Mr. Obama's announcement also created the chaotic situation the articles describe.

Addressing the nation from Kabul on Tuesday, President Barack Obama offered what may be his clearest statement yet about what he sees as the American role in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO combat troops in 2014 - along with a healthy dose of realism about what the U.S. can and can't ultimately expect to accomplish there. The president said the U.S. would gradually transition responsibility for the country's security to Afghan forces over the next two years, after which a scaled-back American military presence would assume a mostly training and advisory role.

Iraq has not turned out as we wanted. The government is led by religious Shiites along with Kurds, not by secular Shiites more willing to cooperate with the minority Sunnis who ruled Iraq under Saddam Hussein. The new constitution calls for a weak central government that gives too much autonomy to the Shiites in the south, where most of Iraq's oil is, and to Kurds in the north. The Sunnis voted against the constitution and the Sunni insurgency will continue in part because oil-poor Sunnis do not expect an adequate share of Iraq's oil revenues under this arrangement.

In reference the events of April 19, in which an explosion in Iraq killed at least 30 people, according to media accounts, it brought much sorrow to my heart. In my opinion, it could have been avoided if President Barack Obama had not withdrawn all of our troops from Iraq by the end of 2011, which was obviously a political ploy to please the general public in order to strengthen his position in the upcoming election of 2012. I strongly believed the U.S. should maintain a standing military force in Iraq to assure that a people's democracy would remain in operation there to prevent civil wars, and to eliminate the creeping influence of Iran, al Qaida, and the Taliban.

WASHINGTON -- Forcing the White House to renew its search for a new defense secretary, retired Adm. Bobby Ray Inman publicly withdrew his nomination yesterday at an extraordinary news conference in which he accused a columnist and Senate Republicans of plotting against him.In a rambling, often contradictory statement in Austin, Texas, the former deputy CIA director complained of a climate of "modern McCarthyism" and said that he was withdrawing his name...

WASHINGTON - The debate over what to do about Iraq, with August being one of the bloodiest months for U.S. forces since the invasion nearly 2 1/2 years ago, has reached new heights. President Bush is under intense pressure from media criticism and an energized antiwar movement inspired by military mom Cindy Sheehan. His poll numbers are dropping, and his vaunted message machine has suffered a rare setback. Yet much of the talk among Washington insiders is about the disarray within the Democratic Party, whose leaders are blamed for failing to present a unified opposition or not offering clear alternatives to the mess in Iraq.

Los Angeles. -- This city, transformed in a generation from a shimmering symbol of possibilities to a dark portent, now has a new mayor, Richard Riordan, 63, a nominal Republican whose problems begin with the civic culture itself.When Mayor Tom Bradley was elected in 1973, 674,555 people voted. Since then the city has grown by almost that many, but this year only 598,436 voted. A city where 40 percent of all households have unlisted telephone numbers is experiencing a great withdrawal -- from public life, including public schools, into gated neighborhoods, or just indoors, or to suburbs.

LONDON -- Gen. Colin L. Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said yesterday that the United States would settle for nothing short of "total, total withdrawal" of Iraq from Kuwait to resolve the Persian Gulf crisis.Rejecting partial Iraqi withdrawal as a basis of a peaceful settlement, he said, "Saddam Hussein better take into his calculus that the American leadership is not going to blink on this until the last Iraqi soldier leaves Kuwait."Addressing the Royal United Services Institute for Defense Studies in London, the general said he continued to hope that the crisis could be resolved by diplomacy, the use of sanctions and "the opprobrium of world opinion."

The University of Minnesota is among the few institutions in the world to be looking specifically at the effects caffeine has on children. In a lab at the university, 10 monkeys are currently recovering from their $37-a-week Kool-Aid habit that contained the caffeine equivalent of an 8- to 10-year-old drinking two cans of pop a day.To approximate this, controlled amounts of caffeine were added to the tropical punch-flavored drink that was given to the...

WASHINGTON -- Jack Kemp's decision against running for president next year leaves a conspicuous vacuum in the field of Republican candidates.The former New York congressman and Cabinet member had enormous appeal to those conservative Republican activists who thought the party should put its emphasis on using government to promote economic growth rather than on simply reducing the government role in American life. And he brought to national politics more positive energy and optimism than any of those now in the field of potential presidential candidates.

Howard County school board member Allen Dyer, who is battling the board's attempts to oust him, lost his bid for re-election Tuesday, finishing eighth among 14 candidates in a primary in which the top six move on to the November election. He will likely continue to face the possibility of being removed before his term expires. Board Chairwoman Sandra French said Wednesday that the panel has no plans to withdraw its request that the state remove Dyer. A board majority voted to have him removed, saying, among other things, that he breached confidentiality requirements and bullied fellow board members.

Update on my Tuesday column about "forced bundling," where an insurance company requires you buy an auto policy from it if you want a homeowner's policy. Maryland wants to ban this practice.  I mentioned that Florida-based Merastar Insurance Co. notified Maryland officials of its intention to require consumers to buy both homeowner's and auto insurance from it if they want any coverage. State officials say Merastar has withdrawn its filing.

Sens. Benjamin L. Cardin and Barbara A. Mikulski urged President Barack Obama on Wednesday to speed the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Afghanistan. The Maryland Democrats joined a group of 24 senators in declaring the mission in Afghanistan largely accomplished. “It is time to bring our troops home from Afghanistan,” the group, which included 21 Democrats, two Republicans and an independent, wrote in a letter to Obama. “The United States intervened in Afghanistan to destroy al Qaeda's safe haven, remove the Taliban government that sheltered al Qaeda, and pursue those who planned the September 11th attacks on the United States.

There has been widespread fury in Afghanistan and parts of neighboring Pakistan over the burning of the Quran at the Bagram Air Base. Several U.S. and NATO servicemen have been killed by angry Afghans, and violent demonstrations continue days after the incident despite the swift and sincere apologies issued by President Barack Obama and the chief of army operations in Afghanistan. The "inadvertent" burning of old Qurans was an inexcusable blunder on our part and shows how culturally insensitive our troops and advisers are, despite our presence in Afghanistan and Iraq for over a decade.

Back in May, we reported on a 47-year-old attorney and magician who ran an entertainment company in Baltimore County, was charged with flying to Florida to have sex with a 14-year-old boy. The Essex man, Howard Scott Kalin, ran Funhouse Entertainment on York Road in Lutherville, and was known for making balloon animals for children. Police said that he met the boy over the Internet. The only problem was that the "boy" was an undercover police detective with theLake County Sheriff's Office cybercrime division.

The Board of County Commissioners are citing a bank mistake for errors in the deposit of customers' payments of water and property tax bills - which county officials said affected some 230 accounts. In a press release dated, Jan. 17, the county said that on Jan. 5, officials deposited checks and cash payments made to the county by property owners for water bills and property tax bills to the county bank, BB&T. On Jan, 6, the bank submitted the checks to the various institutions for payment.

ZAGREB, Croatia -- In a warning to the factions in Bosnia that the time for a settlement is running out, France announced yesterday that it had asked the United Nations and NATO to draw up detailed plans for the withdrawal of peacekeepers from the war-ravaged country."

I have turned 70 as of March 15 this year. I think I have until April 1 of next year to start drawing a specified amount on my IRA. If I'm correct on this, I'd appreciate an answer. You're right, but waiting can trigger tax complications. An Individual Retirement Account (IRA) offers tax breaks to encourage you to save for retirement. In general, the only time the money in your account is taxed is when you withdraw it. With a traditional IRA, you must begin withdrawing at least a minimum amount each year, starting about the time you turn 70 1/2 . Technically, you must begin these withdrawals by April 1 of the year after the year in which you reach 70 1/2 . Some people wait until then to make their first withdrawal.

Exelon Corp. and Constellation Energy Group have reached an agreement with Electricite de France, a large Constellation shareholder, for the French utility to withdraw its opposition to a proposed merger between the companies. The terms of the agreement address Constellation Energy Nuclear Group, a joint venture between Constellation and EDF that owns and operates three nuclear facilities with generating units in Maryland and New York. No payment was made by either party associated with the agreement, which reaffirms the terms of the joint venture.

Regarding your recent article about the continuing violence in Iraq, it's disturbing that it and many similar pieces all followed President Obama's Dec. 2010 announcement that all American troops would be withdrawn from Iraq by the end of 2011 ("Blasts targeting pilgrims kill 15, injure 52 in Iraq," Jan.10). It's quite obvious that the president's action was nothing more than a political ploy to position himself in a more favorable position for re-election in 2012. Unfortunately, Mr. Obama's announcement also created the chaotic situation the articles describe.