Month: December 2008

Anticipating the ascent of President-elect Barack Obama to the Oval Office, groups of hawks, among them neoconservatives, have begun to offer public advice on just exactly what the new administration should do to deal with Iran. Accusing Iran of a covert plan to pursue nuclear weapons under the guise of peaceful ambitions, most Washington voices … Continue reading “Hawks Campaign to Preempt Iran Talks”

Sunday morning, before dawn, I read in the New York Times that "the Pentagon is planning to add more than 20,000 troops to Afghanistan" within the next 18 months – "raising American force levels to about 58,000" in that country. Then I scraped ice off a windshield and drove to the C-SPAN studios, where a … Continue reading “The Silent Winter of Escalation”

Did you know that the IBM Center for the Business of Government hosts a “Presidential Transition” blog; that the Council on Foreign Relations has its own “Transition Blog: The New Administration“; and that the American University School of Communication has a “Transition Tracker” Web site? The National Journal offers its online readers a comprehensive “Lost … Continue reading “The Imperial Transition”

Updated at 7:00 p.m. EST, Dec. 8, 2008Iraqis began Eid al-Adha observances at dawn, so there will be little news out of the country today. Instead, the focus is on Utah, where five Blackwater Worldwide guards handed themselves over to U.S. authorities. No Coalition deaths were reported. Meanwhile, the Marine Corps commandant, believes that a … Continue reading “Monday: 20 Iraqis Killed”

If U.S. President-elect Barack Obama wants to begin dismantling Washington’s nearly 50-year-old trade embargo against Cuba, it appears he will have widespread support for doing so. Not only have some major foreign policy heavyweights recently called for ending the embargo if, for no other reason, than to create desperately needed goodwill elsewhere in the Americas … Continue reading “Business Groups Support Dismantling Cuba Embargo”

The idea that a nuclear war could be started by a hoax caller may seem too Bizarro Worldish, even for the post-9/11 era, but there you have it: "A hoax caller claiming to be India’s foreign minister threatened Pakistan’s president with war during the final hours of the Mumbai attacks, prompting Islamabad to put its … Continue reading “The Case of the Telltale Hoax”

In international politics, events can precipitate crises few had expected, although the elements of crisis may have been lying apparently dormant. Just a few weeks ago, Newsweek‘s John Barry could write a piece suggesting that whatever domestic economic problems he faced on Inauguration Day, his "foreign policy and national-security inbox shows that, even on pressing … Continue reading “Mumbai and Obama”

The U.S. government does not have a monopoly on hypocrisy, but no other government can match the hypocrisy of the U.S. government. It is now well documented and known all over the world that the U.S. government tortured detainees at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo and that the U.S. government has had people kidnaped and "renditioned," … Continue reading “If Only US Law Applied to the US Government”

The Meaning of Mumbai I am an Indian and I am against going to war with Pakistan over these attacks, but I have many reservations about your article. Your theory seems to be that the West (which, really, I suppose means America) wants to use India as a tool to expand its war against terror … Continue reading “Backtalk, December 8, 2008”

Updated at 8:20 p.m. EST, Dec. 7, 2008At least 12 Iraqis were killed and 65 more were wounded during the latest attacks. In one, the mayor of Baquba suffered injuries. No Coalition deaths were reported. Meanwhile, a National Police commander announced new programs as Iraqi forces begin to take over more responsibility for security, while … Continue reading “Sunday: 12 Iraqis Killed, 65 Wounded”