Month: June 2006

As the president convenes a policy summit on Iraq – and speaks only to his neocon “critics,” whose big beef is that he hasn’t yet invaded the entire Middle East – we have more defections from the War Party to report. In the American Spectator, Neal B. Freeman, 54, a longtime conservative activist and member … Continue reading “Eating Crow”

The U.S. government sought to distance itself Tuesday from an official’s statement calling the suicides of three Guantánamo Bay prisoners a “public relations move,” as human rights groups, legal experts, and newspapers in the Middle East renewed calls for the prison’s closing. Colleen Graffy, deputy assistant U.S. secretary of state for public diplomacy, told the … Continue reading “Rights Groups Call for Probe of Guantánamo Suicides”

David Danelo’s new book, Blood Stripes, comes on the market at exactly the right time. Just as Americans are trying to understand what might have happened at Haditha, where Marines may have killed as many as 15 Iraqi civilians, Danelo offers a thoughtful and insightful look into the Iraq war through the eyes of enlisted … Continue reading “Fourth-Generation Hell”

Fearful residents are now pouring out of Ramadi after the U.S. military has been assaulting the city for months with tactics such as cutting water, electricity, and medical aid; imposing curfews; and attacking by means of snipers and random air strikes. This time, Iraqis there are right to fear the worst – an all out … Continue reading “Ramadi: Fallujah Redux”

The French, Brits, and Germans (the E3, allegedly acting on behalf of the European Union) have just made a confidential take-it-or-you’ll-be-sorry offer to Iran to “come back to the negotiating table.” To what table and to negotiate what? Well, with the Tehran Agreed Statement of 2003, Iran had hoped to get the EU to ignore … Continue reading “More Condi Diplomacy?”

War Criminal Nation Thanks again for telling the truth about the wars that the imbecile in the White House has dragged us into. There are plenty of jokes about Bush, the Texas cowboy, but unfortunately, Bush is significantly motivated by a sham honor, living out a solemn farce aping the Texans of old, that runs … Continue reading “Backtalk, June 14, 2006”

Is the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), which did so much to promote the invasion of Iraq and an Israel-centered"global war on terror," closing down? In the absence of an official announcement and the failure since late last year of a live person to answer its telephone number, a Washington Post obituary would … Continue reading “‘New American Century’ Project Ends With a Whimper”

With Arkan Hamed BAGHDAD – In the wake of the Haditha massacre, reports of another atrocity have surfaced in which U.S. troops killed two women in Samarra, and then attempted to hide evidence of their responsibility. Among the innumerable such cases people speak of, this one too has now come to light. According to an … Continue reading “Another US Cover-Up Surfaces in Iraq”

The death of the sadistic sociopath Abu Musab al-Zarqawi shouldn’t bring a tear to anyone’s eye, but it is primarily a short-lived public relations triumph for the Bush administration that may mask an actual victory for the Sunni insurgency. Inside the Washington beltway, public relations is often more important than reality. Good policy is less … Continue reading “Probably a Plus for the Insurgency”

The press tells us that our “thrilled” president was “conservative” or “carefully guarded,” or expressed “cautious optimism” in responding to the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the smalltime thug, beheader, fomenter of Sunni/Shia civil war, and all-around violent extremist who became an American poster boy for terrorism in Iraq. Who had even heard of him … Continue reading “Turning Points and
Ebbing Tides”