Makeup linkage

* Has the "tipping point" on Iraq been reached? Jim Lobe and Greg Mitchell weigh in with related analyses. See also: "Can Cindy Sheehan end the war?"

* "Just as President Bush claimed in the build-up to war that the U.S. was threatened by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and Saddam's connection to Osama bin Laden and 9/11 terrorists - we are now being told a new falsehood - U.S. troops are in Iraq to stabilize the country," argues Kevin Zeese.

* Juan Cole provides a sketch of a withdrawal plan from Iraq, and takes some deserved flack for it.

* Cole also has the goods on the status of the Iraqi constitution, which faces a referendum by Thursday. Plus: "Why Iraq's Sunnis fear constitution."

* Doug Ireland asks, incredulously, "If the Bush administration brokered a deal in Occupied Iraq to enshrine Islamic law as the guiding principle of the new Iraqi Constitution, you'd think it would be headline news in the U.S. media, wouldn't you?"

* Mark Levine explains why "the Oslofication of Iraqi politics will likely be the reality for the near future."

* Laura Bilmes projects in the NY Times, "if the American military presence in [Iraq] lasts another five years, the total outlay for the war could stretch to more than $1.3 trillion, or $11,300 for every household in the United States."

* Newly released memos indicate that the State Department started preparing for a post-Saddam Iraq as early as October 2001, and made several attempts to warn the DoD about its lack of a post-conflict plan before the war began.

* With Iraq said to be standing "at the gates of hell," a Salon article and photo gallery aim to tell the "grim reality" and reveal the war's "horrible human toll."

* The Guardian's Omer Mahdi files a dispatch from Haditha, which he describes as an "insurgent citadel," and Anthony Shadid and Steve Fainaru of the Washington Post report on the rise of militias around Iraq, "which instill a climate of fear that many see as redolent of the era of former president Saddam Hussein."

* "More than ever, al-Qaida militants have a global, non-territorial vision of jihad," announces Olivier Roy in Le Monde diplomatique. "Their goal is not to liberate the Middle East but to combat the world order as they see it. The young second-generation Muslims radicalised in the run-down suburbs and inner-city slums of Europe are motivated by their own situation, not Iraq. They have not been sent to fight somewhere: they fight where they live and where most of them were born."

* Who's winning the "war on terror"? US military contractors, for one.

* So much for the "biggest smoking gun" regarding Iran's nuclear program, which has been disproved by a consortium of international investigators.

* Largely out of public view, Knight Ridder reports that the war in Afghanistan has intensified over the past few months and the NY Times reports that the American death toll in country is at its highest level since 2001.

* With the Guardian's Jonathan Steele annoyed at the "exaggerated focus on the settlement evictions" from Gaza and Charley Reese lamenting the preponderance of "Israeli propaganda" in the media, Danny Schechter reviews what we've learned over the past week.

* Similarly, as the $2.2 billion option is still being considered -- "quietly" -- and Sharon still promising to expand West Bank settlements, the Sunday Herald asks, What Next For Gaza?

* Here's a wide-ranging interview with Jacqueline Rose, the author of the new book, The Question of Zion.

* "A new World Health Organisation (WHO) report shows that less than encouraging results have been obtained so far in the international community's efforts to fulfil the Millennium Development Goals," reports Gustavo Capdevila of IPS.

* Jim Lobe reports, "Nations where fewer people attend church tend to be more generous in their support for development in poor countries than those where church attendance is much greater, according to the third annual edition of the 'Commitment to Development Index (CDI),' published this week in Foreign Policy magazine."

* Peter Maas tackles peak oil, specifically as it relates to Saudi oil supplies, in the NYT Magazine this week. A related Reuters piece warns, "World Running Out of Time for Oil Alternatives."

* In the New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell rues "One of the great mysteries of political life in the United States" -- "why Americans are so devoted to their health-care system."

* According to the NY Times, Americans are declaring bankruptcy at increasing rates in order to beat changes in the law set to take effect in October.

* This is a very solid article from LBO on the state of Social Security, and why the efforts to "save it" are fraudulent.

* From Pittsburgh protests to Delaware bookstores to Utah raves, the health of civil liberties looks to be in doubt nowadays.