Month: June 2008

Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, is a collaborator with the his peoples’ chief tormentors, Israel and the United States. Without Israeli and American support, Abbas would be gone in an instant. The general commanding Israeli forces on the West Bank, Gadi Shamni, put it best: “He’s a joke, a nothing. We are the … Continue reading “Mahmoud Abbas’ Time Has Passed”

Updated at 11:55 p.m. EDT, June 25, 2008Three American soldiers were killed during a roadside bombing in Ninevah province, while a fourth U.S. servicemember was killed in during an EFP attack in Baghdad. Meanwhile, at least 27 Iraqis were also killed and 40 more were wounded in the latest incidents as well. A roadside bomb … Continue reading “Wednesday: 4 US Soldiers, 27 Iraqis Killed; 40 Iraqis Wounded”

The threat by the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki earlier this month to reject the U.S.-Iraq status of forces and strategic framework agreements was prompted in part by U.S. demands for access to bases that were unacceptable to a highly nationalistic Iraqi population. But an equally important factor in the apparent rejection of … Continue reading “Fear of US-Sunni Ties Undercut Security Talks”

The idea that warfare helps the economy is a prime example of Bizarro logic, which has pervaded our collective consciousness since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, ideological fallout from the explosion of national hysteria that followed. In Bizarro World, as we all know, the laws of nature and logic are inverted, so that up is down, … Continue reading “Is War Good For the Economy?”

In the history of legal challenges to the Bush administration’s assertion that it can hold "War on Terror" prisoners indefinitely without charge or trial, Parhat v. Gates has just joined a trio of Supreme Court verdicts – Rasul v. Bush (04), Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (06), and Boumediene v. Bush (12 days ago) – as significant … Continue reading “Six Years Late, Court Throws Out Guantánamo Case”

At $34 billion, you’re already counting pretty high. After all, that’s Harvard’s endowment; it’s the amount of damage the triple hurricanes – Charley, Ivan, and Jeanne – inflicted in 2004; it’s what car crashes involving 15-to-17-year-old teenage drivers mean yearly in “medical expenses, lost work, property damage, quality of life loss, and other related costs”; … Continue reading “The Pentagon’s Stealth Corporations”

BAQUBA – Iraqis seem divided on who they would like to see as the next U.S. president, but few believe that either will end the occupation. "The U.S administration has committed a big mistake in Iraq," Adil Ibrahim, a local physician in Baquba, capital city of Diyala province, located 60 mi. northeast of Baghdad, told … Continue reading “Iraqis Skeptical About Obama, McCain”

Did Hitler’s crimes justify the Allies’ terror-bombing of Germany? Indeed they did, answers Christopher Hitchens in his Newsweek response to my new book, Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War: “The stark evidence of the Final Solution has ever since been enough to dispel most doubts about, say, the wisdom or morality of carpet-bombing German cities.” … Continue reading “Hitchens Demands an
Eye for an Eye”

Improbably, an opportunity has arisen in Iraq for the U.S. to attain two of its most important goals, namely obtaining some legitimacy for the Maliki “government” and getting American troops out. This could be the last international express leaving Baghdad Central Station, and we should be on it. The opportunity arises from a breakdown in … Continue reading “Don’t Miss the Train”

The slogan of Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign is "change we can believe in." It’s clear that Obama believes we need to change course with regard to Iraq. In January 2007, he introduced legislation calling for removing combat brigades from Iraq by March 31, 2008, and declared, "It is time for us to fundamentally change … Continue reading “Change We Can Believe In?”