Month: April 2007

It has not been a good week for the dwindling band of true believers who still think just a little more effort using somewhat different tactics will yield something resembling a U.S.-Iraqi-quasi-government military victory, or even a tolerable stability, in Iraq. Earlier this month Henry Kissinger told the Associated Press that "A ‘military victory’ in … Continue reading “Portents of Failure”

Updated at 1:06 a.m. EDT, April 14, 2007Like on most Fridays, Iraq was relatively quiet today. Only 28 people were killed and another 55 were wounded in violent attacks. Three U.S soldiers were killed today.The U.S. military reported that one GI was killed and another wounded in a roadside bomb attack south of Baghdad. Two … Continue reading “Friday: 3 GIs, 28 Iraqis Killed; 55 Iraqis Wounded”

John McCain was really caught off guard not only by the reaction to his recent walk in the Iraqi marketplace – ringed by a veritable wall of security, while US army helicopters hovered overhead – but also by subsequent events on the ground. "I just returned from my fifth visit to Iraq," he told the … Continue reading “McCain, the Militarist”

Ann Hagedorn, Savage Peace: Hope and Fear in America, 1919 (New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2007), 543 pp., $27.00. The more awful the war, the more joyous the peace, or at least the moment the war ends. The peace itself often disappoints, like that after World War I, which acted as a mere interlude … Continue reading “Savage Peace: Wilson’s Failure”

Like a giant piece in an intricate, if ugly, jigsaw puzzle, the aircraft carrier, the USS Nimitz, and its strike group are now sailing toward the Persian Gulf. On arrival, they will join the strike groups of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (which it is officially replacing) and the USS John C. Stennis patrolling the … Continue reading “How a CIA Coup in Iran and My Life Became One”

The Pentagon’s most likely next target is Iran. Hillary Clinton says "no option can be taken off the table." Barack Obama says that the Iranian government is "a threat to all of us" and "we should take no option, including military action, off the table." John Edwards says, "Under no circumstances can Iran be allowed … Continue reading “MoveOn Whitewashes Hillary’s Iran Belligerence”

Magnanimous Mahmoud With all due respect to Mr. Buchanan, the Middle East is not the South Atlantic. Defending your own people in a colony which is yours, the Falklands, is a far cry from operating in disputed waters where you are the country which invaded another sovereign nation. It is the next-door neighbor of the … Continue reading “Backtalk, April 13, 2007”

Updated at 11:29 a.m. EDT, April, 13, 2007A bomb at the Iraqi Parliament building in the fortified Green Zone and another on a major bridge shook Baghdad today and underscored weaknesses in the security crackdown. Overall, at least 53 Iraqis were killed and 107 injured during violent attacks today. One GI was killed when his … Continue reading “Thursday: 2 GIs, 53 Iraqis Killed; 107 Iraqis Wounded; Iraqi Parliament Bombed”

President George W. Bush’s ongoing "surge" of some 35,000 troops to add to the 140,000 already deployed in Iraq is highlighting growing concern, particularly among the military brass, that the U.S. army is overstretched and fast becoming "broken." An increasing number of senior retired officers, some of whom had previously expressed optimism that the active-duty … Continue reading “Breaking the Army”

BASRA – The eruption of demonstrations in the south of Iraq this week could rob the occupation forces of what was considered a critical bastion of support. The southern areas of Iraq have long been said to be secure, and people there peaceful towards the occupation forces. Iraqis living in the south were also believed … Continue reading “Now the South Erupts”