"It will be like in Lebanon during the civil war. The only person who could move outside the embassy then was the ambassador, with a tank in front and a tank in back." – Edward S. Walker, Jr., former ambassador to Egypt, former deputy chief of mission in Saudi...
As Violence Rises, an Unexpected Ceasefire
BAGHDAD – The daily mortar attacks on Camp War Eagle of the U.S. First Cavalry at the edge of the seething Shia Muslim Sadr City tapered off over the weekend. Just a few dry pops of exploding mortar grenades could be heard in the late afternoons. During the week...
A Tale of Two Movies
Michael Moore's new film embodies all the virtues, and vices, of the American left at the present moment: it is trenchant and wrongheaded, serious and superficial, startlingly original and horribly clichéd. There is humor, sophomoric as well as dark; emotion,...
Casus Belli: High-Pitched Whine
Well, there they go again. The neo-crazy media sycophants are quoting unnamed "Western diplomats" to the effect that Syria is secretly developing nukes. Evidence? Well, it seems someone’s "experimental" sensors may have picked up what may be the acoustic or...
The ‘Prop-Agenda’ at War
ROME – In an interview with Arabic broadcaster al-Jazeera, President Bush's national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said in 2001 that she did not want U.S. networks to show Osama bin Laden tapes because "it was not a matter of news, it was a matter of...
A Boy and His Nukes
According to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Russia today is estimated to have 7,800 operational nuclear warheads in its arsenal. I emphasize "estimated" because Russia, like all the nuclear powers, remains quite secretive about its nuclear arsenal. Altogether,...
Neocons Earn an 'F' The Neocons and their champions should be charged, at the very least, with malfeasance for leading the US into an unnecessary Iraq war. By steering US foreign policy down the preemptive path without imminent threat, they have set precedents that...
US Device Seen at Iran Nuclear Site
According to the U.S. government, these before and after satellite images from Iran are evidence of nuclear activity and a subsequent cover-up. Ironically, the accusation is based on the identification of a U.S.-made radiation monitor at the site.
In Your Ear, Bolton
It hasn't been a good week for Undersecretary of State Bolton. Some of the eggs he's laid in the past year or so hatched as turkeys and have come home to roost. Back in October of 2002, one of Bolton's munchkins claimed he had accosted a Democratic People's Republic...
Where Children Laugh at Bombs
From Dahr's weblog How much worse does it need to get here before the occupiers consider changing their policy? 100 dead every day? In light of what happened here yesterday, it appears as though we're heading in that direction. For those of you who think June 30 will...