Month: January 2009

Our interventionist foreign policy stands ready to be put on a new course with the new administration. Unfortunately, it seems the new administration is likely to continue the mistakes of the past. I’ve often discussed interventionist foreign policy and the resulting blowback. The current administration’s foreign policy, I’m afraid, has created a huge impetus for … Continue reading “Obama’s Opportunity”

It may finally be 2009, but in some ways, given these last years, it might as well be 800 BCE. From the ninth to the seventh centuries BCE, the palace walls of the kings who ruled the Assyrian Empire were decorated with vast stone friezes, filled with enough dead bodies to sate any video-game maker … Continue reading “The Ponzi Scheme Presidency”

Updated at 7:05 p.m. EST, Jan. 5, 2009A half dozen bombs struck Baghdad today, but none seemed to target foreign pilgrims streaming towards Karbala. Across Iraq, at least 7 Iraqis were killed and 45 were wounded in reported attacks. The Constitutional Freedoms and Rights Observatory said that 43,111 Iraqis were touched by violence last year; … Continue reading “Monday: 7 Iraqis Killed, 45 Wounded”

We all know the rationalization for Israel’s brutal invasion of the Gaza Strip. After all, it’s been reiterated endlessly over the airwaves by official and unofficial spokesmen for the Israeli government, on all channels, and with no rebuttal or skeptical perspective from Palestinians or, indeed, from anyone vaguely sympathetic to their plight. Their argument goes … Continue reading “Rationalizing Gaza”

If America were blessed with a noninterventionist foreign policy, we could all thank Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for giving President-elect Barack Obama a thoroughgoing lesson in the absolute irrelevancy of Israel and Palestine to the national interests of the United States. More than a week into Israel’s invasion of Gaza, America is still alive … Continue reading “Bringing the Arab-Israeli War Home”

There’s got to be some irony in the U.S. transference of control to Iraqi security forces while the Israelis pound Gaza. Why? Because, despite the hoopla in the U.S. press and its Iraqi clones, the nature of the control being “given back” to the Iraqis seems quite similar to the control given back to the … Continue reading “The New Iraqi Sovereignty”

My early reaction to the Israeli ground invasion of the Gaza Strip is perhaps more U.S.-centered than some others’. But the most significant aspect of the U.S. response, implicitly acknowledged in most news reports and commentary, is precisely that nobody really expects the U.S. to respond in anything other than a ritualistic fashion. The world … Continue reading “The Empire Shrugs”

Updated at 10:46 p.m. EST, Jan. 4, 2009Thousands of Shi’ite pilgrims, many foreign, are making their way to Karbala to observe the Ashuraa holiday which culminates in three days. As in the past, troublemakers have taken advantage of the 10-day holiday despite increases in security. Overall, at least 27 Iraqis were killed and 52 Iraqis … Continue reading “Sunday: 27 Iraqis, 16 Iranians Killed in Iraq; 89 Wounded”

Updated at 12:10 a.m EST, Jan. 4, 2009At least eight Iraqis were killed and 20 more were wounded during light violence. No Coalition deaths were reported. Meanwhile, more information was released on a New Year’s Day shooting incident involving U.S. troops. Also, the father and brother of a suicide bomber who staged an attack in … Continue reading “Saturday: 8 Iraqis Killed, 20 Wounded”

As 2009 dawns, there is some good news.  For example, Bonkers Bolton is no longer, officially, in a position to precipitate an illegal (under international law) attack by the Bush-Cheney Administration on certain Iranian facilities.  Those facilities being subject – as required by the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons  – to frequent inspections whereby … Continue reading “Bolton’s Still Bonkers”