Month: February 2008

On February 5, I gave a luncheon talk on the Iraq war at the World Affairs Council in San Francisco. About 60 people attended. I spoke after fellow Antiwar.com columnist Ivan Eland. Ivan laid out a plan for partitioning Iraq or at least having a very weak central government with relatively strong regional governments representing … Continue reading “The Information Problem: Pull Out of Iraq”

So it’s out in the open now. Central Intelligence Agency Director Gen. Michael Hayden admitted to the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday that the CIA used the coercive interrogation technique known as waterboarding, a form of simulated drowning, on three al-Qaeda operatives in 2002 and 2003. The technique is widely viewed as torture, which is … Continue reading “Tortured Justifications”

BAGHDAD – Now that the smoke has cleared and the rubble settled, residents of a group of bombed Iraqi villages see the raid as really a US loss. Many Iraqis view the attack Jan. 10 by bombers and F-16 jets on a cluster of villages in the Latifiya district south of Baghdad as overkill. "The … Continue reading “More Bombing Creates New Enemies”

As pre-trial hearings take place in the US prison complex at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, Andy Worthington, author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison, looks at the stories of the three defendants whose cases are being heard this week and next – two alleged "child soldiers," and a … Continue reading “Guantánamo Trials: Where Are The Terrorists?”

Suharto, the Model Killer, and His Friends in High Places John Pilger’s article is stunning in its description of the brutality of Suharto and the venality of western corporate interests. There is no nation of Indonesia, only a Javanese Empire (see George Szamuely’s article “Gangster Nations“). Examples of Javanese hegemony and corporate connivance include the … Continue reading “Backtalk, February 9, 2009”

Updated at 2:45 p.m. EST, Feb. 8, 2008At least 31 Iraqis were killed or found dead and 17 more were wounded in the latest violence. Clashes took place in a pair of Diyala province cities and a mass grave was found just outside Baquba. Five American soldiers were killed in two separate incidents. Also, an … Continue reading “Friday: 5 US Soldiers, 31 Iraqis Killed; 17 Iraqis Wounded”

I was skeptical, at first, of speculation over the cutting of two cables linking the Middle East with the Internet, which had it as part of some Vast Neocon Conspiracy to isolate the region prior to a US military assault. However, when two more cables – this time, in the Persian Gulf – were mysteriously … Continue reading “The Cable-Cutter Mystery”

The appalling presidential election campaign drags on. On Super Tuesday Democrats split almost evenly between Hillary Clinton, a hawk turned slightly dovish, and Barack Obama, an Iraq war opponent who otherwise has found no foreign intervention he opposes. A divided Republican electorate boosted John McCain, an enthusiast of war in the Mideast (Iraq and Iran), … Continue reading “Election 2008: What’s a Peacenik to Do?”

Updated at 11:40 p.m. Feb. 7, 2008Today’s battle in Sadr City may hint at the direction anti-U.S. cleric Moqtada al-Sadr will take when his unilateral ceasefire comes to an end in a few weeks. Although there were few casualties in that clash, the ceasefire is of great importance. Overall, at least 29 Iraqis were killed … Continue reading “Thursday: 3 US Soldiers, 29 Iraqis Killed; 42 Iraqis Wounded”

As President George W. Bush returned from his visit last month to Israel to reinvigorate the Annapolis process, the international media was dominated by reports of Palestinian militants firing rockets into Gaza, and Israel’s response – an unprecedented blockade of the territory to effectively squeeze the population to turn against the Islamist group Hamas. For … Continue reading “Annapolis Hopes Withered by Gaza Crisis”