Month: March 2007

P> Updated at 12:48 a.m. EST, Apr. 1, 2007After several days of increased violence, the attacks have tapered off somewhat. However, 67 Iraqis were killed or found dead today and another 96 were injured. The Iraqi government release new figures on Tuesday’s Tal Afar bombing that make it the single deadliest event since the start … Continue reading “Saturday: 1 GI, 67 Iraqis Killed; 96 Iraqis Wounded”

Far be it from me to defend elected Democrats in most circumstances. However, a certain amount of criticism of Democrats in Congress for not acting strongly enough to end President Bush’s misbegotten war in Iraq suggests an inordinate impatience that reflects a certain lack of understanding of just how convoluted the political processes in the … Continue reading “Clumsy Political Process”

According to Russian intelligence, U.S.-allied armed forces in and around the Persian Gulf are being readied for an attack on Iran in the very near future. However, the pretext for the attack may not be related to the increasingly frantic, but totally unsubstantiated, charges that the Iranians have a nuclear weapons program, deep underground and … Continue reading “Any Casus Belli Will Do”

MEMORANDUM FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) SUBJECT: Brinkmanship Unwise in Uncharted Waters The frenzy in America’s corporate media over Iran’s detainment of 15 British marines who may, or may not, have violated Iranian-claimed territorial waters is a flashback to the unrestrained support given the administration’s warmongering against Iraq shortly before the attack. The … Continue reading “Brinkmanship Unwise in Uncharted Waters”

Updated at 12:45 a.m. EST, Mar. 31, 2008At least 78 Iraqis were reported killed or found dead today and another 58 Iraqis were injured. The numbers include updates of yesterday’s casualty tally from a Baghdad marketplace bombing and a large number of dumped bodies in Mosul. Meanwhile, a roadside bomb killed an American soldier. In … Continue reading “Friday: 78 Iraqis, 1 GI Killed; 58 Iraqis Wounded”

Ever since September 2001, the president’s central operative image has been “war” – specifically, his “global war on terror” (promptly transformed into the grim acronym GWOT). With it went the fantasy that we had been plunged into the modern equivalent of World War II with – as George loved to put it – “theaters” of … Continue reading “The Fantasy of American Diplomacy in the Middle East”

Our “free” media is so eager to accept the official British explanation of why their sailors/Marines wound up in Iranian custody that most Western “news” accounts are ignoring all evidence to the contrary, such as the trenchant observation of former British diplomat Craig Murray: “The British Government has published a map showing the coordinates of … Continue reading “The Real ‘Existential Threat’”

Americans opposed to war are a distinct minority. If the Iraq War were going well, most Americans would support it. Yet the Iraq venture has been such a disaster for America that peace groups have a chance to expose the pro-war interests in the nation and advance an alternative foreign policy based on law and … Continue reading “Left-Right Alliance Against War?”

"I joined the Army to go to war, and now I’m fighting to get out," says Pfc. Ryan Follan, laughing nervously. He quickly becomes serious. "Some of the causes are good, but I don’t think the war is for the right reasons." Follan laughs again, and there’s a long pause. "I’m deploying in a month, … Continue reading “Opposition to the War Growing Among Troops”

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) may be committed to war – in Iraq, against North Korea, and most everywhere else. But he occasionally speaks the truth, if only inadvertently. Like when he announced his presidential candidacy on the David Letterman show, observing that Americans are frustrated with Iraq: “We’ve wasted a lot of our most precious … Continue reading “The Waste of War”