For years the U.S. has attempted to mold Pakistan. The result is not pretty: an unstable, undemocratic state which possesses nuclear weapons, border provinces which offer safe haven to Taliban and al-Qaeda forces, and people who loath the American government. The...
Thursday: 3 Soldiers, 41 Iraqis Killed; 34 Iraqis Wounded
Updated at 1:10 a.m. EST, Jan. 4, 2008Although the surge in bombings continues in Baghdad, the latest attacks have not resulted in any significant amount of casualties. Overall, at least 41 Iraqis were killed and 34 more were wounded across Iraq. Three U.S. soldiers...
New Year Begins Unhappily In Iraq
The end of 2007 produced a telltale indication of what the New Year seems likely to bring to Iraq. "We the Iraqi members of parliament signing below demand a timetable for withdrawal of the occupation forces (MNF) from our beloved Iraq," 144 members of the...
Rice and Gates Divided over Iran’s Role in Iraq
A State Department official's assertion in late December that Iran had exerted a restraining influence on Iraqi Shi'ite militia violence signaled a major divergence of views between Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates over how to...
Terror Prosecutions Shed More Heat Than Light
The US government's spotty record in obtaining convictions of people charged with providing "material support" to terrorist organizations is adding new impetus to the efforts of prominent constitutional lawyers to seek substantial changes in the law. The...
Shilling for the Empress
The new year has hardly had time to properly start, but the Washington Post has already set the tone for things to come. In the January 2, 2008 issue, on page A13 (opinion), the Post carries an abridged article by Moisés Naím, titled "A Hunger for America." Never mind...
Journey to the Dark Side: The Bush Legacy
"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" – Emma Lazarus, 1883 If you don't mind thinking about...
Destabilizing the Islamic World
The following is an excerpt from Kolko's 2002 Book Another Century of War, published by New Press. Communism's virtual disappearance caused the geopolitical and strategic factors that produced alliances and coalitions after 1947 to decline and lose their...
Wednesday: 67 Iraqis Killed, 55 Iraqis Wounded
Updated at 11:58 p.m. EST, Jan. 2, 2008A female suicide bomber struck Baquba for the second time this week and only a day after a major bombing in Baghdad. The recent surge in bombings coincides with a message from Osama bin Laden threatening an increase in such...
Experts Agree: Iran Is Not Iraq
Have you heard the news? Iran is not Iraq. On the surface, the two neighboring countries seem similar enough. Iran and Iraq hold the world's 2nd and 3rd largest oil reserves respectively, have Shi'ite majorities, share a long border, and fought a pointless, bloody...