Commander’s Veto Sank Threatening Gulf Buildup

Adm. William Fallon, then President George W. Bush's nominee to head the Central Command (CENTCOM), expressed strong opposition in February to an administration plan to increase the number of carrier strike groups in the Persian Gulf from two to three and vowed...

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Suicidal and Facing a Third Tour in Iraq

At the beginning of May, Cpl. Cloy Richards tried to kill himself. "He punched out all his windows and cut major arteries," his mother, Tina Richards, told IPS. "He had to go to the hospital because he almost bled to death." Cloy Richards, who...

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Who’s a Patriot,
Who’s an Oppressor?

If 500 years from now American soldiers are still on patrol in Iraq, they won't be called Iraq's "liberators." After five centuries of armed occupation, it would be hard to describe them as anything other than an oppressive imperial force. And Iraqis who attack U.S....

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The Wacky World
of Norman Podhoretz

People tend to stay fixated on the best time of their lives, and in the case of the neocons, that was undoubtedly the Cold War era. It is therefore no surprise that, with the coming of the "war on terrorism," they have likened the enemy, as Norman Podhoretz...

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Ending the Empire

Way back in 1999, when I was still a TomDispatch-less book editor, I read a proposal from Chalmers Johnson. He was, then, known mainly as a scholar of modern Japan, though years earlier I had read his brilliant book on Chinese peasant nationalism – about a period...

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Backtalk, May 15, 2007

Back in the EUSSR The standards used by the Empire to justify independence for Kosovo from Serbia should then be applied also to Nagorno Karabakh. The Republic of Nagorno Karabakh should be recognized by the UN as a sovereign country independent from Azerbaijan. But...

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George Tenet Lies About
His Lies

The neoconservatives around Vice President Dick Cheney and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and their media allies bear the principal blame for bringing about the invasion of Iraq. As they cannot temperamentally consider themselves in any way culpable and...

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Tuesday: 78 Iraqis Killed, 114 Wounded

Updated at 12:41 a.m. EDT, May 16, 2007At least 78 Iraqis were killed and 114 wounded in violent events today. There were no significant events today, but forces in the Diyala province are stepping up security operations to curb overall violence there. Also, no...

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Another Step Toward Realism in Iran Policy

Realists in the administration of President George W. Bush appear to have won another victory over the dwindling ranks of neoconservatives and others hawks with this weekend's announcement that Washington will soon engage in bilateral talks with Iran. While the talks...

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Mission Accomplished – for Iran

With its usual tin ear for public relations, the Bush administration provided another Kodak moment of incompetent belligerence by yet again sending a high-level administration official to use an aircraft carrier as a prop for a hawkish rant. Vice President Dick Cheney...

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