Month: October 2006

NEW DELHI – The controversial United States-India "civilian nuclear cooperation" agreement met with a major setback over the weekend when the Senate formally went into recess without voting for a bill that would have granted President George W. Bush the necessary powers to enable the deal to be implemented. The Indian government has been rattled … Continue reading “Indo-US Nuclear Deal Hits Doldrums”

Why We Can’t Win Against Guerrillas An excellent piece. If I have any disagreement, it with your comment about 2nd, 3rd, and 4th generation warfare, as if these neat little categories could be separated in battle, and guerrilla warfare was something new. Certainly, Patton used mobile warfare (so-called 3rd), but this was prefaced by hours … Continue reading “Backtalk, October 4, 2006”

Updated at 11:10 p.m. EDT, Oct. 3, 2006 Twelve new military deaths and at least 72 Iraqi deaths were reported Tuesday and overnight Monday. There were at least 85 reported injuries in various incidents as well. The International Organization for Migration released figures on the number of displaced Iraqis. They reported an estimated 190,000 have … Continue reading “84 Dead, 85 Injured Tuesday in Iraq”

Updated at 11:10 p.m. EDT, Oct. 3, 2006 Twelve new military deaths and at least 72 Iraqi deaths were reported Tuesday and overnight Monday. There were at least 85 reported injuries in various incidents as well. The International Organization for Migration released figures on the number of displaced Iraqis. They reported an estimated 190,000 have … Continue reading “84 Dead, 85 Injured Tuesday in Iraq”

The uproar over Bob Woodward’s new book has intensified the media focus on a basic controversy that’s summed up this way: Is Iraq a quagmire? Like many other debates that flourish in American mass media, the standard answers on both sides are wrong – because the question bypasses human realities. Most obviously, Iraq is not … Continue reading “‘Quagmire’ Isn’t the Right Word”

The bellwether of the cautious establishment press, Bob Woodward, has finally unloaded both barrels on the Bush administration’s Iraq policy, in his new book, State of Denial. The media hoopla surrounding the book has focused mainly on the administration’s deceptions surrounding the sorry state of affairs in Iraq and Andrew Card’s attempts, with the apparent … Continue reading “Kissinger Still Giving Bad Advice”

Congressman Mark Foley (R-Fla.), who co-chaired the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children and billed himself as an enemy of pedophiles and online predators everywhere, just resigned over e-mails and instant messages sent to underage male congressional pages who “said the congressman, under the AOL Instant Messenger screen name Maf54, made repeated references to … Continue reading “The Pentagon Befriends MySpace.com”

Updated at 11:30 a.m. EDT, Oct. 3, 2006 In the last day, the body count in Iraq exploded as at least 263 were killed or found dead; 30 of those were insurgents killed in Ramadi. Tensions are particularly high due to two mass kidnappings that occurred in Baghdad. At least 16 of a total of … Continue reading “Bloody Day in Iraq Leaves 263 Dead”

Updated at 11:30 a.m. EDT, Oct. 3, 2006 In the last day, the body count in Iraq exploded as at least 263 were killed or found dead; 30 of those were insurgents killed in Ramadi. Tensions are particularly high due to two mass kidnappings that occurred in Baghdad. At least 16 of a total of … Continue reading “Bloody Day in Iraq Leaves 263 Dead”

There has been a great deal of discussion about the Military Commissions Act of 2006 [.pdf], recently passed by both houses of Congress, and most of it has to do with the provisions allowing torture of alien detainees, that is, of non-citizens apprehended in, say, Afghanistan or Iraq, and their treatment at the hands of … Continue reading “Are You an ‘Unlawful Combatant’?”