Surge Exposing Iraqi Political Tensions

Despite assertions by the George W. Bush Administration that the escalation strategy in Iraq – known as the "surge" – has been a rousing success, many of the problems of pre-surge Iraq still exist and, along with new issues, are exacerbating a...

read more

The Lost Kristol Tapes

As Eric Alterman has written, he's the "journalist" of "perpetual wrongness" (as well as an "apparatchik" of the first order and a "right-wing holy warrior"). And for that, he's perpetually hired or published: Fox News, the Washington Post op-ed page, Time Magazine,...

read more

The War Party Targets Obama

He's said it many times, in many different venues, and perhaps the words change a bit over time, and the cadences, too, but the message is always the same: "I think the pundits have it wrong. I think the American people have had enough of politicians who go out...

read more

Thursday: 41 Iraqis Killed, 56 Wounded

Updated at 1:35 a.m. EST, Feb. 15, 2008At least 41 people were killed or found dead and 56 more were wounded during the latest attacks, which included a serious bombing in Sadr City. No Coalition deaths were reported, but two foreign security contractors were injured...

read more

A New Force Called Sahwa Shows Its Muscle

BAQUBA - The Awakening Councils in Diyala province are stepping up their protests against the government in Baghdad. The Awakening Councils, or the Sahwa as they are called, are a mostly Sunni Muslim force set up by the US to draw in resistance fighters into their...

read more

The Best Counterinsurgency: Unentangle

Retired Air Force Colonel Chet Richards has published another short, good book: If We Keep It: A National Security Manifesto for the Next Administration. The "it" in question is a republic, which we are unlikely to keep since republics require a virtuous citizenry....

read more

Europe: Divorce the US Military

Almost five years on from "Operation Iraqi Freedom," the neocon dreams of imperial conquest have hit the buffers. Despite the lies about the "surge" being a great success, Iraq remains in chaos: in the first week of February alone over 200 people...

read more

Wednesday: 19 Iraqis Killed, 12 Wounded

Updated at 7:20 p.m. EST, Feb. 13, 2008During light violence, at least 19 Iraqis were killed and 12 more were wounded. No Coalition troops were reported killed. In other news, the speaker of the Iraqi parliament is threatening to disband it over issues of distrust and...

read more

The Monster That Wouldn’t Die

As the ugly reality of what we had gotten ourselves into in Iraq settled on the national consciousness, like a viral infection settling on the lungs, the conventional wisdom was that the authors of this war – the political tendency known as the neoconservatives...

read more