Let’s mix some metaphors in the Middle East, all of them involving elephants. In the crisis zone that encompasses Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Syria, the Kurds are the elephant in the room. They are the “problem” that no one really wants to talk about. Because it would be stitched together from bits and pieces of …
Continue reading “The Kurdish Elephant and the Great Middle East War”
If you want a sleepless night – or month – just listen to what Western security officials are saying these days about a possible confrontation with Russia. “If you want to talk about a nation that could pose an existential threat to the United States,” warned General Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the U.S. Joint …
Continue reading “Just Listen to What Western Officials Are Saying About Russia”
Refugee children are dying of exposure to Iraq’s brutal summer conditions in poorly supplied camps.
We’re in the summer doldrums of the news cycle, a perfect time for our government and the media – or do I repeat myself? – to drop certain inconvenient stories down the Memory Hole. My job, of course, is to retrieve them…. Remember Ukraine? I seem to recall blaring headlines about a supposedly “imminent” and …
Continue reading “Monsters of Ukraine: Made in the USA”
The “P5+1” agreement with Iran basically mothballs the latter’s nuclear power activities for at least ten years. Israel and its American loyalists, however, have ordered Congress to wreck the deal. Congress must obey Israel’s orders. It’s right there in the Constitution – or, at least, in the version AIPAC must be handing out to newly …
Continue reading “Where Did We the People Go?”
After World War II, when Stalin encroached upon Turkey and Greece, Harry Truman came to the rescue. Turkey reciprocated by sending thousands of troops to fight alongside our GIs in Korea. Turkey joined NATO and let the U.S. station Jupiter missiles in their country. When JFK secretly traded away the Jupiters for removal of the …
Continue reading “Now the Turks Are All In”
At least 194 were killed and 64 were wounded across Iraq, including dozens found in a mass grave near Mosul.
As much of the Middle East sinks deeper into division between competing political camps, the so-called "Islamic State" ("IS") continues its unhindered march towards a twisted version of a Muslim caliphate. Many thousands have lost their lives, some in the most torturous ways, so that "IS" may realize its nightmarish dream. Of course, violence meted …
Continue reading “Darker Horizons Ahead: Rethinking the War on ‘IS’”
We love nuclear horror stories in America. We love them whether they’re somber like the film On The Beach, soapy-dramatic like the cult show Jericho, or retro-future like the Fallout series of video games. We laugh at the lunatic optimism of duck and cover, and marvel at the strangeness of the (perhaps exaggerated) all-encompassing fear …
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At least 175 were killed and 88 were wounded in the latest attacks. Turkey continued its airstrikes, but no casualty figures were made available.
