Uh, happy anniversary?

In case you missed them...

The EU's anniversary logo (no joke).

The European Union turned 50 as mixed feelings remain about one of the world's most powerful institutions. The Economist compiled a survey of the EU and came to several conclusions (some parts of the survey are available only to subscribers). My personal favorite article in the survey is a mock article on the EU's 100th anniversary, which offers some of the usual political wit of the Economist.
See also EU website and, of course, Wikipedia article. The revered Economist also has more EU articles; as does the all-mighty BBC News and lest we forget The Guardian.

Oh Iraq. Always the news hog, for a good reason. Four years after the US-led invasion, Iraq is as close to a failed state as ever, with a civil war, political instability, meddling neighbors, a growing terrorist insurgency, ethnic rivalries, and, not least, foreign occupiers. The occupation continues — the Iraq war rages on. One major problem: who's on what side? The BBC offers some excellent articles and features on Iraq. Unlike with the EU's problems, Iraq does not look to have as many clear-cut solutions and is even more politically helpless than a large bureaucratic organization. Ouch. The Bush administration remains defiant on their thus-inflexable Iraq policies. However, are the tides finally changing against Bush & Co.? Congress, with its new Democratic majority, has hit back at the administration by passing a resolution (in both houses) to withdrawal troops sometime next year. The resolution was attached to a troop spending bill. Not surprising, the House of Representatives, which has more Democrats, has a stricter, binding timeline; whereas the Senate's is not. (The Senate vote was 51-47 with 48 Democrats, two Republicans, and an independent (not Lieberman) voting the affirmative.) The Iraq was has also tarnished the legacy of the British prime minister, Tony Blair.
See Wikipedia; and basically every reliable news and reference outlet for more, developing news.

Of course you can expect to read more on these two major topics on this blog.