PORTLAND, Ore. - Veterans from the U.S. occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, along with Iraqis, Afghans, Vietnam veterans, and family members of U.S. military personnel, converged in this West Coast city over the weekend to share stories of atrocities being committed...
When Is a Child Not a Child?
When is a child not a child? Apparently, when he is Omar Khadr, a 15-year-old Canadian who was shot in the back after a firefight in Afghanistan in July 2002. Omar has been in U.S. custody ever since, first at a prison at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan, and for the...
Fears of Blowback Nixed Afghan Air Strikes in 2004
The present U.S. policy in Afghanistan of using air strikes to target local Taliban leaders was rejected by the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan in early 2004 as certain to turn the broader population against the U.S. presence. Lt. Gen. David Barno, the three-star...
Zero Plus Zero Equals Zero
Whoever wins the presidency in two weeks will have to put his own stamp on the United States' foreign and security policies. Though constrained by an economy that can no longer afford guns and butter, the U.S. president can pretty much call the shots on foreign...
Monday: 1 Marine, 28 Iraqis Killed; 16 Iraqis Wounded
Updated at 11:55 p.m. EDT, Oct. 20, 2008At least 28 Iraqis were killed and another 16 were wounded in the latest attacks. Also, a U.S. Marine was killed in a non-combat incident at a base in Anbar. Meanwhile, the U.S. and Iraq have apparently agreed on a security pact...
Susan Sontag Was Right
The former head of Britain's intelligence agency, MI5, says the U.S. response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks specifically the invasion of Iraq and the launching of a worldwide "war on terrorism" was "a huge overreaction." Those words would've gotten her...
Coffee With Robert Fisk
Militarily, the most helpful or least harmful thing the West can do is to withdraw all troops from the entire Middle East, and from South Asia to boot. That's the bottom line I got from a conversation with celebrated British foreign correspondent Robert...
Attack on Iran Off the Table?
On Sept. 23, the neoconservative chiefs of the Washington Post's editorial page mourned, in a tone much like what one hears on the death of a close friend, that "a military strike by the United States or Israel [on Iran is not] likely in the coming months."...
Sunday: 10 Iraqis Killed; 25 Wounded
Updated at 5:20 p.m. EDT, Oct. 17, 2008A spate of bombings opened the workweek in Baghdad. At least 10 Iraqis were killed and another 25 were wounded across the country. Meanwhile, the Shi'ite coalition in government suggested that a potential security pact with the...
Moving Towards a ‘Grand Bargain’ in Afghanistan
Increasingly frustrated by the "downward spiral" that the U.S. intelligence community sees in Afghanistan, the Pentagon appears to be moving in support of engaging leaders of the resurgent Taliban who are prepared to disassociate themselves from al Qaeda....


