The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan ended some years ago. In Iraq, the war ended with the fall of Saddam Hussein's government; in Afghanistan, with the fall of the Taliban government. What's been happening since is occupation and resistance to occupation. It's always...
Friday: 60 Iraqis Killed, 62 Wounded; Sadr Aide Assassinated
Updated at 9:00 p.m. EDT, April 11, 2008In Najaf, unknown gunmen assassinated a senior aide to Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. This may further unravel a now-tenuous ceasefire imposed by al-Sadr on his followers. At least 60 people were killed and another 62 were...
Iraqi Shi’ites: Calm on the Surface, Simmering Beneath
With the head of the occupying forces in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, and US ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker delivering a progress report to Congress this week, Iraq has been thrust back into the US public consciousness, along with all the political divisions the issue...
Serious Abuses No Bar to US Military Aid
Washington is providing military aid to six of the countries cited in the US State Department's latest series of human rights reports for recruiting and using child soldiers. They are Afghanistan, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sri Lanka, Sudan and Uganda. A...
‘CIA Infiltration’ Charges Prompt Shakeup in Ecuador’s Armed Forces
QUITO - President Rafael Correa's allegations that intelligence services in Ecuador had been infiltrated by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have led to a shakeup in the armed forces of unforeseeable consequences. Resignations and dismissals are the order of...
Israel Loves Mugabe
Two years ago, when I was in Kuala Lumpur as a guest of the Perdana Peace Forum, I had the singularly unpleasant experience of meeting Robert Mugabe. Well, "meeting" him is hardly the word: rather, I espied him, sitting directly across from me, at the opening banquet...
Iraq: Tell Us How This Ends
We are winning in Iraq, so the administration tells us. Gen. David Petraeus has appeared on Capitol Hill to explain the winning strategy. But his equivocal endorsement of current policy never answered the question he posed to a reporter at the war's start:...
Petraeus Points to War With Iran
The neocons may yet get their war on Iran. Ever since President Nouri al-Maliki ordered the attacks in Basra on the Mahdi Army, Gen. David Petraeus has been laying the predicate for U.S. air strikes on Iran and a wider war in the Middle East. Iran,...
Yoo’s on First?
Is it because John Yoo, the former Justice Department's hired hand, is such an easy target? Is it because of the cheeky, in-your-face way in which Yoo argues that the president has the authority to have your eyes poked out and your sons' testicles crushed, because we...
Nine Propositions on the U.S. Air War for Terror
Let's start with a few simple propositions. First, the farther away you are from the ground, the clearer things are likely to look, the more god-like you are likely to feel, the less human those you attack are likely to be to you. How much more so, of course, if you,...


