Month: May 2007

Updated at 12:08 a.m. EDT, June 1, 2007The U.S. military reported four more GI deaths today. At least 124 American servicemembers died during May, making it the third deadliest month for U.S. troops since the invasion. Also, 82 Iraqis were killed or found dead and 88 Iraqis were wounded during violent attacks.A GI died this … Continue reading “Thursday: 3 GIs, 82 Iraqis Killed; 88 Iraqis Wounded”

Even though the 1995 Dayton Accords stopped more than three years of brutal interethnic warfare, the conflict between communities in Bosnia-Herzegovina has continued ever since, through politics and media. Despite the near-dictatorial oversight of the "international community," embodied in the Office of the High Representative and the NATO (now EU) occupation force, the fundamental question … Continue reading “Bosnia’s Straitjacket”

UNITED NATIONS – The United Nations is commemorating its annual "International Day of UN Peacekeepers" to mixed reviews, its successes being tainted by increasing accusations of sexual abuse and misconduct by its troops, and more recently, charges of illegal arms trafficking in return for gold in resource-rich Democratic Republic of Congo. As the cost of … Continue reading “UN Peacekeeping Budget Soars Sky High”

Updated at 12:55 p.m. EDT, May 31, 2007At least 65 Iraqis were killed today and 97 wounded in violent attacks, including the deaths of two Iraqi journalists. Also, the U.S. military reported that an American soldier was killed in a Baghdad IED attack on Saturday. A roadside bomb also killed two GIs today in Baghdad, … Continue reading “Wednesday: 4 GIs, 66 Iraqis Killed; 97 Wounded”

ARBIL – More than four months after the launch of the U.S. government’s new Iraq strategy aimed at curbing violence in this war-torn country, the situation here shows no clear signs of improvement. Indeed, a recent report by a British think-tank warns [.pdf] that Iraq is a "failure" on the verge of "collapse and fragmentation." … Continue reading “The Surge: From Worse to Worst?”

BAGHDAD – A massacre by members of Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi army on Sunni worshippers earlier this month sparked clashes between patrolling Kurdish militiamen in southwest Baghdad and the Mahdi army, raising tensions that fighting between the groups could spread. Sadr, who emerged from hiding Friday, delivered a fiery anti-occupation sermon at a mosque … Continue reading “Kurds and Shia Fight for Power in Baghdad”

Has Congress given George Bush a green light to attack Iran? For he is surely behaving as though it is his call alone. And evidence is mounting that we are on a collision course for war: Iran has detained several Iranian-Americans, seemingly in retaliation for our continuing to hold five Iranians in Iraq. The UN … Continue reading “Does ‘The Decider’
Decide on War?”

Justin is traveling, his column will be back on Monday. It was 40 years ago this June 8 that the USS Liberty – a large, armorless, refitted freighter that was gathering intelligence in the Mediterranean at the outset of the Six Day War – was attacked by Israeli fighter jets and torpedoes. Thirty-four U.S. sailors … Continue reading “Remember the Liberty!”

Of the seven wonders of the ancient Mediterranean world, including the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the Colossus of Rhodes, four were destroyed by earthquakes, two by fire. Only the Great Pyramid of Giza today remains. We no longer know who built those fabled monuments to the grandiosity of kings, pharaohs, and gods; nowadays, at … Continue reading “The Colossus of Baghdad”

Euripides said that “Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad.” First there was the madness of cornering Osama bin Laden in Tora Bora and letting him go. Then there was the launching of the meaningless Global War on Terror, which turned most of the world against the United States, empowered al-Qaeda, and actually … Continue reading “Heckuva Job,
Homeland Security”