Readings in the Age of Empire

The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created a War Without End Peter Galbraith Simon & Schuster, 2006 261 pp. Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq Thomas E. Ricks Penguin Press, 2006 482 pp. Losing Iraq: Inside the Postwar Reconstruction Fiasco David...

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ISG Report Faces
Uncertain Future

One day after its official release, the package of 79 recommendations on U.S. Iraq and Middle East policy released Wednesday by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group (ISG) faced a very uncertain future. Denounced by hawks and doves alike in both major parties, the ISG's...

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We Can’t Wait for 2008

As an attempt to clean up the mess created by President Bush and his neocon advisors, the report [.pdf] of the Baker-Hamilton commission is an admirable effort. Yet, in the end, it is too little, too late. The report is divided into two major sections – an...

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Republic Takes Another Hit
at Gates Hearing

At Tuesday's Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the nomination of Robert Gates to be secretary of defense, I felt as though I were paying last respects to the Constitution of the United States. But there was none of the praise customarily given to the...

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Backtalk December 8, 2006

Is President Bush Sane? Paul Craig Roberts asks a compelling question: "Is President Bush sane?" Though Bush is apparently power-mad, don't underestimate his ruthlessness. Cunning is the word for Bush. He is shrewd enough to know that Hitler took total power in the...

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Thursday: 57 Iraqis Killed, 10 Wounded

Updated at 7:35 p.m EST, Dec. 7, 2006 At least 57 Iraqis were killed or found dead today and another 10 were wounded in several attacks. U.S. military authorities reported that another U.S. soldier was killed yesterday in Iraq, and a GI died today from wounds received...

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Iraq Study Group:
How Big a Change?

Today's release of the Iraq Study Group report [.pdf] raises as many questions as it answers. A few highlights of the report and its 79 recommendations follow. Troop Withdrawals? Despite some early headlines suggesting that the Iraq Study Group would be calling for a...

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Catastrophe Still Awaits

"The real difficulty in changing any enterprise lies not in developing new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones." - John Maynard Keynes A ray of realism appeared in the confirmation hearings for Secretary of Defense nominee Robert Gates before the Senate...

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