Month: November 2008

The Bush administration’s time is draining away. President George W. Bush apparently believes that history will vindicate his policies, but a positive legacy is not likely to be. On the domestic side his record is a horrid mishmash of wild spending, massive corporate bailouts, civil liberties violations, and executive aggrandizement. On foreign policy the president’s … Continue reading “Barack Obama Takes Charge: Time to Leave Iraq”

Recently, TomDispatch launched a series of pieces aimed at the coming Obama era. Michael Klare wrote on the new president’s “energy challenge of a lifetime”; I explored his future arrival in “airless Washington”; and today, John Feffer, co-director of the Foreign Policy In Focus website and a Korea expert, considers the thorny issue of American … Continue reading “The North Korean Conundrum”

Most politicians wait at least until they’ve been sworn in before they start breaking their campaign promises. In this sense, as in so many others, Barack Obama represents an entirely new phenomenon: the politician who preemptively reneges. A recent Wall Street Journal piece describing the transition process as it relates to intelligence-gathering reveals we aren’t … Continue reading “Torture – Yes We Can?”

Updated at 10:59 a.m. EST, Nov. 14, 2008At least 12 Iraqis were killed and 40 more were wounded in the latest violence. One U.S. soldier died this morning of non-combat-related causes as well. Meanwhile, a civilian cargo plane has crashed in the desert near Fallujah, killing seven people. Among the dead were six Russian crew … Continue reading “Thursday: One US Soldier, 12 Iraqis Killed; 40 Iraqis Wounded”

The promotion of Robert M. Gates as President-elect Barack Obama’s secretary of defense appears to be the key element in a broad campaign by military officials and their supporters in the political elite and the news media to pressure Obama into dropping his plan to withdraw US troops from Iraq in as little as 16 … Continue reading “Obama Pressured to Back Off Iraq Withdrawal”

On the day that Americans turned out in near record numbers to vote, a record was set halfway around the world. In Afghanistan, a US Air Force strike wiped out about 40 people in a wedding party. This represented at least the sixth wedding party eradicated by American air power in Afghanistan and Iraq since … Continue reading “Don’t Let Barack Obama Break Your Heart”

Updated at 11:35 p.m. EST, Nov. 12, 2008Ten Iraqi militant groups have vowed to protest a proposed U.S.-Iraq security agreement by escalating violence against security forces. They have seemingly kept their promise in Baghdad where several significant bombings occurred today. Overall, at least 34 Iraqis were killed and another 108 were wounded in attacks across … Continue reading “Wednesday: 2 US Soldiers, 34 Iraqis Killed; 108 Iraqis Wounded”

TEL AVIV – The Israeli government has begun to actively promote voluntary army service for Israeli Arabs. The Knesset, the Israeli parliament, is meanwhile considering plans to make civil service compulsory for all Israeli citizens, including Israeli Arabs. The Arab community in Israel is opposing the plans, and leaders say these are only a way … Continue reading “Arabs Uneasy About Joining Israeli Army”

The Obama bandwagon is moving fast and furious, rolling over the few remaining pockets of dissent even as it prepares to take power. The mainstream media, particularly on television, has lost all sense of objectivity and proportion, and their reporting of the president-elect’s doings has taken on a distinctly Soviet air. "Our Glorious Leader Picks … Continue reading “The Audacity of Hype”

It wasn’t U.S. relations with an Arab country on the tips of many tongues at this year’s National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations meeting in the last week of October. Rather, much of the focus was on the Arab Middle East’s ethnic Persian neighbor to the east: Iran. The question and answer session of a panel … Continue reading “Pundits Debate the Inevitability of a Nuclear Iran”