Month: October 2006

With U.S. casualties rising sharply and the level of sectarian violence reaching proportions that render the "debate" over "is there a civil war yet?" patently ridiculous, the great neocon vision of a "liberated" Iraq as a beacon for the region is a cruel joke. Slowly and inexorably, the realization that Gen. William E. Odom was … Continue reading “No Middle Way”

It’s fitting, on the first anniversary of my Antiwar.com column, to go back to the first issue I wrote about: the awarding of the 2005 Nobel prize in economics to game theorist Thomas Schelling. In particular, I want to highlight Schelling’s acceptance speech of Dec. 8, 2005. The speech, which is also the lead article … Continue reading “The Nuclear Taboo”

The violence in Iraq continued on Sunday and overnight Saturday leaving at least 107 dead and 70 wounded. Among the dead are two American soldiers, a senior Iraqi police official, a police chief and a Shi’ite cleric. This includes US/Iraqi fighting in Diwaniya resulting in the deaths of 30 militiamen. Two U.S. soldiers were killed … Continue reading “Sunday: 107 Iraqis, 2 GIs Killed, Including 30 Militiamen Killed by US/Iraqi Forces”

Updated at 5:00 p.m. EDT, Oct. 8, 2006 In another violent day in Iraq, at least 148 have died and 41 have been wounded. Among the deaths is that of an American soldier who was killed by enemy fire in the northern town of Baiji and the captain of the Iraqi handball team. Also in … Continue reading “148 Dead, 41 Wounded, Including US Soldier, in Saturday Iraq Violence”

Except for the fact that the crowd in the White House, however poorly it may do other things, like conducting a war, has a certain facility for pulling electoral victory from the jaws of defeat, Washington Post assistant managing editor Bob Woodward’s new book, State of Denial, would almost seem like piling on. To be … Continue reading “Denial of the Obvious”

On the 30th anniversary of the first midair bombing of a civilian airliner in the Americas, the plot’s suspected mastermind is hoping that a U.S. federal judge will soon release him from a Texas jail where he has been held on immigration-related charges for the last year and a half. In a brief submitted to … Continue reading “Bush’s Terrorism Hypocrisy”

Everyone now knows that the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) that Bush ordered prepared in the summer of 2002 to “justify” the preemptive invasion and occupation of Iraq was – to put it politely – a crock [pdf]. It relied heavily on disinformation – some of it provided by the neocrazies, themselves – and virtually ignored … Continue reading “Bush’s DPRK Follies”

Amid signs that the administration of President George W. Bush remains unwilling to take stronger steps to get Israeli-Palestinian peace talks back on track, a growing number of prominent U.S. and foreign figures are calling for a new international mechanism to set the framework for a comprehensive settlement between Israel and its Arab neighbors. Such … Continue reading “Appeals Grow For Comprehensive Mideast Settlement”

The message delivered to Condoleezza Rice this week by Israeli officials is that the humanitarian and economic disaster befalling Gaza has a single, reversible cause: the capture by Palestinian fighters of an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, in late June from a perimeter artillery position that had been shelling Gaza. When Shalit is returned, negotiations can … Continue reading “The Struggle for Palestine’s Soul”

Are You an ‘Unlawful Combatant’? “This kind of fear is understandable to Americans only on a very abstract level. We, after all, have no experience with a police state – not in the sense of a systematic totalitarian approach to repression – of which the European and Third World nations have plenty.” I think the … Continue reading “Backtalk October 7, 2006”