Month: May 2014

A new offensive was launched in Anbar today. The outcome of that is still unknown, but at least 46 people were killed in other clahses and attacks.

On 16 May, Libya’s rogue general Khalifa Haftar staged several bloody attacks against other Libyan militias in the name of eradicating terrorism by leading a paramilitary force evasively named the Libyan National Army. His well-equipped brigades were rapidly joined by officers from national army bases in the eastern parts of the country. Units from the … Continue reading “Haftar Leads a Coup: A General’s Odd War on the Muslim Brotherhood”

There is something rotten at the heart of Europe. The festering wound of Ukraine cannot heal. Hopes associated with the election of the new president disappeared as fast as the bubbles of the celebratory champagne, replaced by images of Donetsk airport bombing. What are the reasons behind such a debut? Does it represent a strong … Continue reading “Ukraine: New President, Old Violence”

Scattered attacks across Iraq left 26 killed and 32 wounded

With his address at West Point, President Obama succeeded where all his previous efforts had failed. He brought us together. Nobody seems to have liked the speech. A glance shows that the New York Times and Washington Times, the Financial Times and Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal were all disappointed with it. As … Continue reading “Is Obama Blundering Into a Syrian Quagmire?”

Newly declassified postwar Naval Intelligence files shine new light on a little-known chapter of U.S.-Israel relations. Massive supplies of American WWII military surplus under liquidation by the War Assets Administration were an irresistible target for Israel’s government-in-waiting the Jewish Agency and nascent military the Haganah in the years immediately preceding Israel’s declaration of statehood in … Continue reading “Israel’s First US Espionage and Smuggling Network”

Note: It’s that time of year again when graduates, watched by friends and family, leave campuses across the country amid celebrations and enter our increasingly strange world. I admit to having a weakness for commencement addresses. Though often degraded, they can be inspiring and insightful. On occasion, TomDispatch has carried actual commencement addresses – from … Continue reading “The Big Brotherness of It All”

The War Party is facing a dilemma: how to do an end run around the doggedly "isolationist" American people, who have had it up to here with the overseas adventurism of our out-of-control leaders? After a decade-plus of uninterrupted warfare, with a new intervention waxing on the horizon as soon as the previous one wanes, … Continue reading “Barack Obama’s Foreign Policy Dilemma”

The only fighting reported in Anbar was in and around Falluja. The hospital was struck by artillery fire just a day after the Iraqi government denied it was intentionally shelling the hospital there. Across the country at least, 92 Iraqis were killed and 23 more were wounded.

The US doesn’t want peace in Ukraine — it wants control. So now that the situation there has largely blown up in their face, it’s not unreasonable to suspect them of fomenting more unrest in an attempt to change momentum. Monday’s ruthless attack by the Ukrainian government in Donetsk in which up to 100 people … Continue reading “Heads Up – The US Is Losing in Ukraine”