Month: May 2007

While the White House has often denied having a Plan B for Iraq, it turns out that the Pentagon has thought about what to do if Plan A, the "surge" doesn’t work. According to Steve Inskeep and Guy Raz of National Public Radio, plan B would involve maintaining a series of military bases around Iraq … Continue reading “Permanent Bases: A Recipe for Permanent Terrorism”

Updated at 11:15 p.m. EDT, May 24, 2007At least 101 Iraqis were killed or found dead today and 81 more were injured in violent events that included a car bombing at a funeral in Fallujah. Three American servicemembers were killed today, while the U.S. military reported that three GIs were killed on Monday. U.S. troop … Continue reading “Thursday: 6 GIs, 101 Iraqis Killed; 81 Iraqis Wounded”

Nationalist Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s bid to unite Sunnis and Shi’ites on the basis of a common demand for withdrawal of U.S. occupation forces, reported last weekend by the Washington Post‘s Sudarsan Raghavan, seems likely to get a positive response from Sunni armed resistance. An account given Pentagon officials by a military officer recently returned … Continue reading “Sunni Resistance Receptive to Sadr Alliance”

For some, patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. For others, it means dissent against a government’s abuse of the people’s rights. I have never met a politician in Washington or any American, for that matter, who chose to be called unpatriotic. Nor have I met anyone who did not believe he wholeheartedly supported … Continue reading “On Patriotism”

The Ron Paul Effect In the dozen-plus years I have been active in matters relating to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, I have watched them go from a small Islamist organization to a worldwide insurgent movement, while bin Laden has established himself as the primary source of inspiration and leadership for tens of millions of … Continue reading “Backtalk, May 24, 2007”

Updated at 12:52 a.m. EDT, May 24, 2007The body of a missing American soldier was found floating in the Euphrates River today. Another nine American servicemembers were also killed in separate events. So far, 81 U.S. servicemembers have been killed during May making it one of the deadliest months since the early days of the … Continue reading “Wednesday: 10 GIs, 127 Iraqis Killed; 98 Iraqis Wounded”

SAMARRA – At least 10 residents have died as the result of a curfew imposed by the U.S.-backed Iraqi government, local doctors say. Residents in this city of 300,000 located 125 km north of Baghdad have been struggling to find food, water, and medical supplies. Vehicles have been banned from entering or leaving the city … Continue reading “Curfew Begins to Choke Samarra”

Despite deep dissatisfaction with U.S. foreign policy and President George W. Bush, U.S. Muslims tend to be better assimilated and more content with the larger society in which they live than their European counterparts, according to a major new survey [.pdf] released here Tuesday by the Pew Research Center. The survey, based on interviews with … Continue reading “Survey Finds US Muslims Mostly Mainstream”

As everyone except for a dwindling band of Bush supporters now knows, the U.S. is in a terrible situation in Iraq from which it cannot extract itself. For Bush and Cheney, their own pride and delusion are more compelling than U.S. casualties, the destruction of Iraq and its people, and the inflaming of sectarian strife … Continue reading “Will the GOP Destroy Itself Before It Destroys America?”

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert continues to resist pressure that he resign following the publication late last month of the interim report by a special Israeli commission on Israel’s war on Lebanon last summer. Military chief Dan Halutz has already been forced to step down, and Defense Minister Amir Peretz has announced he will also … Continue reading “Sometimes the Dog
Wags the Tail”