As part of a massive staff shakeup of Bush's Iraq team last week, it was announced that John Negroponte, the current U.S. National Intelligence Director who has also conveniently served as the U.S. ambassador to Iraq from June 2004 to April 2005 is being tapped as the...
Baghdad 2025: The Pentagon Solution to a Planet of Slums
In our world, the Pentagon and the national security bureaucracy have largely taken possession of the future. In an exchange in 2002, journalist Ron Suskind reported a senior adviser to President Bush telling him: "that guys like me were 'in what we call the...
The Surge: Political Cover or Escalation?
The new year began on the hopeful note that Bush’s illegal war in Iraq would soon be ended. The repudiation of Bush and the Republicans in the November congressional election, the Iraq Study Group’s unanimous conclusion that the US needs to remove its troops...
Monday: 99 Iraqis, 2 GIs Killed; 88 Iraqis Injured
Updated at 12:45 p.m EST, Jan. 9, 2006 At least 99 Iraqis were killed or found dead today and another 88 were injured during violent attacks; two Yemeni citizens associated with a militant group were also killed. U.S. military authorities also reported that two...
Is Bush’s War Winding Down or Heating Up?
Most Americans believe that Bush’s Iraqi misadventure is over. The occupation has lost the support of the electorate, the Congress, the generals and the troops. The Democrats are sitting back waiting for Bush to come to terms with reality. They don’t want to...
Defund the War
The twisting and turning, the double- and triple-talk, the obfuscation and evasion – is there any limit to the Democrats' duplicity when it comes to ending the Iraq war? Apparently not. Listen to newly-installed Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, appearing on...
Ford: A Lincoln and an Imperial(ist)
One of the late Gerald Ford's favorite sayings during his first few weeks of office was that he was "a Ford, not a Lincoln." Ford meant it as a statement of his humility. Ford's humility was, in fact, one of his best character traits. But in pardoning...
Sunday: 62 Iraqis, 3 GIs, Briton Killed; 42 Iraqis, 2 Britons, GI Injured
Updated at 11:55 p.m. EST, Jan. 7, 2006 In Iraq today, at least 62 Iraqis were killed or found dead and another 42 wounded in violent attacks. Also, three GIs and one British soldier were killed in separate incidents; another two Britons and one American were wounded....
Saturday: 130 Iraqis, 2 GIs Killed; 11 Iraqis, 2 Coalition Soldiers Wounded
Updated at 12:45 a.m. EST, Jan. 7, 2007 Although the week began relatively peacefully, violenge surged today, in part due to a renewed effort to control sectarian violence in the capital. At least 130 Iraqis were killed or found dead today and another 11 were wounded...
Clearing Decks or Rearranging Deck Chairs?
So what are we to make of all those apparently significant changes both in the Bush foreign policy team and his top military commanders? The question is whether he is clearing the decks for action or rearranging the deck chairs. Given that the Bushlet is supposed to...