While the Pentagon's budget has risen to heights not seen since World War II, US diplomatic and foreign aid assets have largely atrophied and must be quickly rebuilt by any new administration that takes office in January, according to a new report released here this...
Justice Dept. Drops ‘Dirty Bomb Plot’ Allegation Against Binyam Mohamed
As the Washington Post reported yesterday, the US Justice Department has dropped the key allegation against British resident and Guantánamo prisoner Binyam Mohamed that he was involved, with American citizen Jose Padilla, in a plot to detonate a...
Cheap Thrills
Almost eight months after the US followed by most NATO members recognized the occupied Serbian province of Kosovo as a dependent state, the Serbian government finally did something about it. On October 8, the UN General Assembly approved Serbia's request...
Wednesday: 41 Iraqis Killed; 60 Iraqis Wounded
Updated at 4:55 p.m. EDT, Oct. 16, 2008A mass grave containing 22 bodies was discovered near Karbala. At least 19 Iraqis were killed and another 60 were wounded in other incidents as well, but no Coalition deaths were reported. The White House dismissed earlier...
Bush Set to Go With a Whimper, Not a Bang
With only three months left in office, U.S. President George W. Bush appears increasingly determined to calm the international waters he so vigorously churned up, especially during his first term. In just the last several days, he has effectively rehabilitated a...
Beware of Big Ideas
I wish I had a dollar oops, better make that a euro for every recent obituary marking The Death or The Fall or The Collapse or just the End of the American Empire or the American Era. Hey, I would have been able to bail out almost all the world's...
Goodbye, GOP
Barring a catastrophe a terrorist attack on American soil, a calamitous gaffe, or the documented revelation that he really is a Muslim after all it looks like Barack Obama is going to be the 44th president of these United States. Not only that, but I'd...
Understanding the US-Iran Crisis
Editor's note: The following is adapted from Understanding the U.S.-Iran Crisis: A Primer. With George W. Bush's administration in its last year in office, the danger of a U.S. military attack on Iran still looms as a dangerous possibility. Widespread official...
Backtalk, October 15, 2008
Have No Illusions Hi Justin, I myself am a left-wing antiwar activist, but I must say that I love reading your blogs, which I generally agree with wholeheartedly, and I have now gained a great appreciation for the conservative antiwar advocates like yourself. I...
Tuesday: 1 US Soldier, 6 Iraqis Killed; 12 Iraqis Wounded
At least six Iraqis were killed and 12 more were wounded during light violence across the country. An American soldier was wounded in a small arms attack in Baghdad as well. Also, eight mortar rounds struck a U.S. base in Balad; no casualties were as yet reported. A...


