Month: August 2008

The latest report on Iran’s uranium enrichment program by the International Atomic Energy Agency, made public in early June, provides strong evidence that the facts on the ground are changing. According to the report, Iran has been making progress in mastering uranium enrichment technology. It has managed to increase the efficiency of the enrichment process … Continue reading “To Prevent War With Iran,
a Paradigm Shift Is Needed”

Well, just about everybody in the U.S. hierarchy, from commanders on the ground to the Joint Chiefs to the CIA to Barack Obama to John McCain to members of both parties in Congress, seems to agree now. It’s time for the United States to focus on Afghanistan and apply the valuable lessons we learned in … Continue reading “From the Frying Pan…”

Updated at 12:25 a.m. EDT, Aug. 4, 2008At least 36 Iraqis were killed and 63 more were wounded in the latest attacks. One U.S. soldier was killed and other was wounded in a vehicular accident southwest of the capital. In Baghdad, the Iraqi parliament failed to resolve issues surrounding a provincial elections law; a power-sharing … Continue reading “Sunday: 1 US Soldier, 36 Iraqis Killed; 63 Iraqis Wounded”

Tensions in Kirkuk are extremely high ahead of a special parliamentary session that will take place tomorrow. No new attacks were reported in the oil-rich, northern city, but at least 16 Iraqis were killed and 18 more were wounded in attacks across Iraq. No Coalition deaths were reported. Parliament will hold a special session tomorrow … Continue reading “Saturday: 16 Iraqis Killed, 18 Wounded”

In 1939, a group of Hungarian-born physicists – including Leo Szilard, Edward Teller and Eugene Wigner – persuaded Einstein to write President Roosevelt, bringing to his attention the possibility that recent scientific discoveries, by Lise Meitner and others still in Europe, could result in “extremely powerful bombs of a new type.” Roosevelt was interested enough … Continue reading “Nukes and Holocausts”

Many opponents of the Bush administration’s invasion and occupation of Iraq have always argued that this conflict is an irrelevant and even counterproductive sideshow to the real "war on terrorism" in Afghanistan. In fact, Barack Obama led the parade to initiate a troop surge in Afghanistan after having opposed it in Iraq. The more hawkish … Continue reading “We Don’t Need a War on Terrorism”

The existence of a secret, CIA-run prison on the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean has long been a leaky secret in the “War on Terror,” and yesterday’s revelations in Time – based on disclosures by a “senior American official” (now retired), who was “a frequent participant in White House Situation Room meetings” … Continue reading “Secret ‘War on Terror’ Prison on Diego Garcia Confirmed”

Despite all the blather about democracy, we did not invent it, do not support it and have, during the recent administration, become less democratic than we were before. We are and always have been too large a country for a true democracy. That’s why the Founding Fathers created a republic. In a true democracy, the … Continue reading “The Republic, Slip-Sliding Away”

Every war has a story line. World War I was "the war to end all wars." World War II was "the war to defeat fascism." Iraq was sold as a war to halt weapons of mass destruction; then to overthrow Saddam Hussein, then to build democracy. In the end it was a fabrication built on … Continue reading “Afghanistan: Not a Good War”

In the first hours of dawn, Nader Elayan was woken by a call from a neighbor warning him to hurry to the house he had almost finished building. By the time he arrived, it was too late: a bulldozer was tearing down the walls. More than 100 Israeli security guards held back local residents. The … Continue reading “The Struggle Against Jerusalem’s Quiet Ethnic Cleansing”