Month: October 2008

Updated at 5:25 p.m. EDT, Oct. 18, 2008At least 25 Iraqis were killed and another 14 were wounded in light violence today. No Coalition deaths were reported. Also, Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr condemned a contentious U.S.-Iraqi security deal as tens of thousands of his followers rallied in Baghdad.A mass grave containing 11 bodies was found … Continue reading “Saturday: 25 Iraqis Killed, 17 Wounded”

At 76, Daniel Ellsberg is still vocal. The man who leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1969, leading to the fall of President Richard Nixon, is speaking out this time on the 2008 presidential election. IPS correspondent Bankole Thompson caught up with Ellsberg in downtown Detroit, where he keynoted the opening of the 2008 National Lawyers … Continue reading “The President Is Not a King”

Just last month, Russia Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko had this to say – “We do not see any sort of ‘fire’ that requires us to toss everything aside and meet to discuss Iran’s nuclear program in the middle of a packed week at the United Nations General Assembly. "On the contrary, there are more … Continue reading “Has the ‘Amber Light’ Turned Green?”

Both candidates in the US presidential election have bought the questionable argument that the war in Afghanistan needs to be salvaged for the "war on terror" to succeed. On top of that, to accomplish this rescue, they both have called for an Iraq-like surge of US troops into Afghanistan beyond the 8,000 more that President … Continue reading “Will Transplanting the Strategy in Iraq to Afghanistan Save the Day?”

Updated at 5:14 p.m., Oct. 17, 2008At least 14 Iraqis were killed and 21 more were wounded during light violence on the prayer day. No Coalition deaths were reported. Also, Iran and Turkey bombed separate targets in Sulaimaniyah province. In Baghdad, as many as three people were killed and seven more were wounded during a … Continue reading “Friday: 14 Iraqis Killed, 21 Wounded”

The impact of the Russia-Georgia war continues to reverberate. Gen. James Craddock, NATO’s Supreme Commander, has requested authority to develop contingency plans to defend the Eastern European countries. Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski recently told an American audience that "We need to make NATO’s traditional security guarantees credible again" and that "NATO needs to recover … Continue reading “The NATO Alliance: Dangerous Anachronism”

The recently passed financial bailout package has drawn the ire of citizens throughout the United States. Both conservatives and liberals have condemned Congress and the White House for rescuing Wall Street titans, who caused the economic death spiral in the first place, by transferring an enormous fiscal burden to middle- and working-class taxpayers. At a … Continue reading “Goodbye to Defense’s Gilded Age?”

“The eternal hourglass of existence is turned upside down again and again, and you with it, speck of dust!” – Friedrich Nietzsche Nietzsche eventually went mad, some say due to the effects of syphilis, others blame the implications of his complex and darkly ironic philosophy of life, which included, as its central precept, the doctrine … Continue reading “Back to the Future”

Israel has been suffering its worst bout of inter-communal violence since the start of the second intifada, with a week of what has been widely presented as "rioting" by Jewish and Arab residents of the northern port city of Acre. The trigger for the outbursts occurred on the night of Yom Kippur, or the Day … Continue reading “Israel’s ‘City of Coexistence’ Shows Its True Colors”

Updated at 9:30 p.m. EDT, Oct. 16, 2008At least 12 Iraqis were killed and 24 others were wounded in light violence. Also, Two U.S. soldier deaths were reported as well. In political news, the Iraqi Parliament accused U.S. General Odierno of meddling in Iraqi affairs when he said that Iran was bribing parliament members. Elsewhere, … Continue reading “Thursday: 2 US Soldiers, 12 Iraqis Killed; 24 Iraqis Wounded”