Month: October 2007

Updated at 1:00 a.m. EDT, Nov. 1, 2007At least 94 Iraqis were killed and 20 others were wounded during a mostly quiet Wednesday. Many of the dead were killed during security raids. No Coalition troops were reported killed. In Basra, the British confirmed that the handover of security operations to the Iraqis will be completed … Continue reading “Wednesday: 94 Iraqis Killed, 20 Wounded”

The new, public debate about the Israel lobby is missing a major point – the lobby’s allies, the many other interests in America that want chaos in the Middle East. For example, in the Walt-Mearsheimer book there is no listing in the index for “military-industrial complex.” For all its vaunted power, the Israel lobby could … Continue reading “It’s Not Only the Israel Lobby”

L. Bruce Laingen was working as a senior U.S. Foreign Service officer in Tehran in 1979 when student protesters – caught up in the fervor of Iran’s Islamic Revolution – seized the U.S. embassy and irrevocably changed the course of relations between the two nations. Laingen and 51 other U.S. diplomats endured 444 days in … Continue reading “Tamping the Flames of War With Iran”

BAGHDAD – The recent attacks by Blackwater mercenaries in Baghdad are far from the first – and many believe they will not be the last. Seventeen Iraqis were killed Sept. 16, and another 27 were wounded at Nisoor square in western Baghdad when mercenaries from the company opened fire on them. Dozens of witnesses said … Continue reading “When Blackwater Kills,
No Questions Asked”

Progressive writer Philip Weiss reports on his excellent blog a speech by Andrea Levin, president of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA): “The fact is, you know, we may be unhappy with the New York Times from time to time, and we at CAMERA have been, but I have to … Continue reading “The Lobby, Unmasked”

Vice President Dick Cheney and his neoconservative allies in the George W. Bush administration only began agitating for the use of military force against Iran once they had finally given up the illusion that regime change in Iran would happen without it. And they did not give it up until late 2005, according to a … Continue reading “For Neocons, Iran Aim Is Still Regime Change”

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is at her mushroom-cloud hyperbolic best, and this time Iran is the target. Her claim last week that "the policies of Iran constitute perhaps the single greatest challenge to American security interests in the Middle East and around the world" is simply too much of a stretch. To gauge someone’s … Continue reading “Attacking Iran for Israel?”

One of the most famous lines penned by William Shakespeare is from Hamlet’s soliloquy, "To be, or not to be: that is the question." In Iraq, the question is whether to bomb or not to bomb. So far this year, the U.S. military is bombing more than last year (1,140 air strikes in the first … Continue reading “To Bomb, Or Not To Bomb”

Updated at 12:25 a.m. EDT, Oct. 31, 2007Baghdad took the brunt of today’s violence with a number of bombings occurring throughout the city. Overall, 31 Iraqis were killed and 31 more were injured there and in other parts of Iraq. Three MND-C soldiers were killed during an IED attack southeast of the capital as well. … Continue reading “Tuesday: 3 GIs, 31 Iraqis Killed; 31 Iraqis Wounded”

In his new revisionist study, No Simple Victory: World War II in Europe, 1939-45, renowned British historian Norman Davies challenges the “very superficial and Americanocentric view” of World War II reflected in the popular war histories. For instance, the American author Stephen Ambrose’s Band of Brothers and American director Steven Spielberg’s movie Saving Private Ryan … Continue reading “When Reel Tales Rewrite
Real History”