Antiwar.com

Polls show that a majority of the Israelis support negotiations with Hamas, but official Israel refuses to talk to it, at any level. Israel instead launches a worldwide campaign to persuade all countries to boycott Hamas and to join its military and financial blockade on the newly formed Hamas government. If starving the Palestinian people … Continue reading “Why We Cannot Talk With Hamas”

Seymour Hersh’s stunning article – “The Iran Plans” – in the New Yorker magazine about Bush’s plans to preemptively take out the Iranian nuclear program, using bunker-buster nukes “if necessary,” has created quite a stir. And rightly so. In the first place, all known Iranian nuclear facilities and activities have been made subject to a … Continue reading “Nuke Bunker Busters”

The message is clear. Indeed, it’s gigantic for all Iraqis, for the entire world to see. A 100 acre compound – ten times the size of the typical U.S. embassy, the size of 80 football fields, six times larger than the UN, the size of Vatican City. The US Embassy Compound, in the middle of … Continue reading “They’re Staying in Iraq”

That’s the estimate, though only half of it has been appropriated so far: a billion dollars to build a new embassy in Iraq. It will be the largest on the globe, the largest the world has ever seen, the size of Vatican City in Italy. U.S. embassies typically cover 10 acres. This one, a 104-acre … Continue reading “The Billion-Dollar
Baghdad Embassy”

A major government watchdog group is charging that Muslim charities are being shut down for supposedly backing terrorist causes, while giant firms like Halliburton are receiving the full protection of U.S. law for allegedly breaking government sanctions against doing business with Iran – a country designated as a sponsor of terrorism. "There is unequal enforcement … Continue reading “In Terror War, Not All Names Are Equal”

Imagine 40 years from now how a global affairs columnist for the Fox-Xinhua (or New Shanghai Times) content-providing service will analyze the world’s geo-strategic and geo-economic balance of power. This might be the way he or she recalls the visit that China’s former president Hu Jintao made in April 2006 to Washington, the capital of … Continue reading “The War on Terror Is Over,
and China Won”

Is anyone surprised that our Supreme Leader has refused to rule out nuking Iran? Asked if there was anything to Seymour Hersh‘s scoop revealing U.S. plans for a nuclear strike against Tehran, Bush replied: “All options are on the table. We want to solve this issue diplomatically and we’re working hard to do so.” All … Continue reading “‘Diplomatic’ Terrorism”

With Arkan Hamed BAGHDAD – The new clashes between Shia militiamen dressed in Iraqi military and police uniforms and resistance fighters and residents from the Sunni Adhamiya district of Baghdad have convinced many that what Baghdad is witnessing is no less than a civil war. For long now, some leaders from both Shia and Sunni … Continue reading “Baghdad Slipping Into Civil War”

When U.S. President George W. Bush breaks bread with his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, for lunch at the White House Thursday, their diplomatic – if not their culinary – plates will almost certainly be full to overflowing. Given China’s astonishing ascent to global-power status over just the past decade, there is scarcely any issue in … Continue reading “Guest Hu Coming to Lunch”

As recognition of the defeat in Iraq spreads, so also does the process of sweeping up the debris. Both civilian observers and a few voices inside the military have begun the "lessons learned" business, trying to figure out what led to our defeat so that we do not repeat the same mistakes. That is the … Continue reading “Sweeping Up the Debris”