Friday: 4 GIs, 53 Iraqis; 9 Wounded

Updated at 12:30 a.m. EDT, Sept. 1, 2007At least 53 Iraqis were killed or found dead and nine more were wounded during a relatively quiet Friday. Another four American servicemembers were killed in separate incidents as well. A U.S. C-130 also came under fire last night as it was carrying four U.S. lawmakers, but no [...]

Truth-Tellers

As good news continues to flow from the "surge" – some of it true, some of it false and all of it spun – it is easy to forget the bottom line. The bottom line is whether or not we are beginning to see the re-emergence of a state in Iraq. Three recent news [...]

Bush Puts Iran in Crosshairs

Not another warning about war with Iran! Well, suck it up. President George W. Bush’s speech Tuesday makes clear his plan to attack Iran, and how the intelligence, as was the case before the attack on Iraq, is being “fixed around the policy.” It’s not about putative Iranian “weapons of mass destruction” – not even [...]

Families of Iraqi Detainees Losing Hope

BAGHDAD – Hopes are fading for early release of the large number of Iraqis detained under the so-called surge. The "surge" is the new effort by US-led coalition forces to crack down on terror suspects. The number of detainees held by the US military has increased by more than 50 percent since the US administration [...]

The War Criminal in the Living Room

The media is silent, Congress is absent, and Americans are distracted as George W. Bush openly prepares aggression against Iran. US Navy aircraft carrier strike forces are deployed off Iran. US Air Force jets and missile systems are deployed in bases in countries bordering or near to Iran. US B-2 stealth bombers have been refitted [...]

Showdown Over Iran

More rumors of war with Iran are circulating here (via Juan Cole), with inside scuttlebutt from inside the neoconservative network: "They [the source's institution] have ‘instructions’ (yes, that was the word used) from the Office of the Vice-President to roll out a campaign for war with Iran in the week after Labor Day; it will [...]

George W. Bush, Iraq, and the Kitchen Sink

Length does not equal strength. That’s one lesson of President George W. Bush’s latest speech on Iraq. The president apparently believed that the more he talked to the American Legion on Tuesday, the more persuasive he would be. But tossing in every argument that he’d ever used before, along with the kitchen sink, is unlikely [...]

Thursday: 2 GIs, 30 Iraqis Killed; 26 Iraqis Wounded

Updated at 12:25 a.m. EDT, Aug. 31, 2007During a day of light violence, 30 Iraqis were killed and 26 more wounded. Two U.S. servicemembers were killed and one was wounded in separate events. An unspecified number of people were also wounded during an attack at a Baghdad power plant. Also, Iraqi newspapers are returning to [...]

Defusing Nuclear Hysteria

Even as the International Atomic Energy Agency is meeting with Iranian officials to discuss increasing the openness of Iran’s nuclear program, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad remains defiant about Tehran’s right to pursue such a program – including uranium enrichment, which would give Iran a de facto nuclear weapon capability. This raises the specter of [...]

The Language of Force

Soon after coming to power, Ariel Sharon started to commission public opinion polls. He kept the results to himself. This week, a reporter of Israel’s TV Channel 10 succeeded in obtaining some of them. Among other things, Sharon wanted to know what the public thought about peace. He did not dream of starting on this [...]