Month: May 2007

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 privately there would be no war against Iran as long as he was … Continue reading “Commander’s Veto Sank Threatening Gulf Buildup”

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 lives in rural Salem, Mo., has served two deployments in the … Continue reading “Suicidal and Facing a Third Tour in Iraq”

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. troops in 2507 will no longer be “terrorists” in anyone’s … Continue reading “Who’s a Patriot,
Who’s an Oppressor?”

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 puts it in his latest jeremiad, to … Continue reading “The Wacky World
of Norman Podhoretz”

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 in the 1940s when imperial Japan was carrying … Continue reading “Ending the Empire”

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 let’s not stop there – let Abkhazia and South Ossetia be … Continue reading “Backtalk, May 15, 2007”

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 they need a fall guy for the resulting catastrophe, they are now in a virtual … Continue reading “George Tenet Lies About
His Lies”

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 foreign casualties were reported. In Baghdad, the bodies of an Industry … Continue reading “Tuesday: 78 Iraqis Killed, 114 Wounded”

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 will be confined, at least initially, to the situation in Iraq, some analysts see … Continue reading “Another Step Toward Realism in Iran Policy”

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 did manage to refrain from displaying another "Mission Accomplished" banner during his address … Continue reading “Mission Accomplished – for Iran”