Updated at 5:04 p.m. EST, Dec. 3, 2009
At least 16 Iraqis were killed and 27 more were wounded in new violence today. In one attack, a significant bombing targeted a police official just north of Baghdad. Also, Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi is willing to discuss the elections law impasse ahead of a Sunday deadline, when he will likely extend his current veto of the bill.
…shame on… me? by Philip Giraldi
Grant Smith on Israel’s theft of US military tech
President Barack Obama’s speech Tuesday night at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point laid out his administration’s plan to deploy an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan and start a phased withdrawal beginning in 18 months, but the plan has won the White House few supporters in either its own party or across the aisle. …
Continue reading “Obama’s Afghan Plan Has Something for Everyone… to Hate”
Updated at 8:22 p.m. EST, Dec. 2, 2009
At least three Iraqis were killed and 18 were wounded in violence across central Iraq. Most of the wounded were from a previously reported incident, but the casualty figures were revised. The rest of the wounded and one of the dead were from a U.S. attack on a Kurdish security force in Diyala.
Untitled Document After 92 days of waiting for the Word from on high, the nation received its marching orders from our commander-in-chief – and it was a flop of major proportions. As his West Point audience looked on disdainfully – applauding only twice, and then tepidly – President Obama tried to make the case that …
Continue reading “Obama’s War Speech:
An Unconvincing Flop”
The Nov. 25 announcement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of a "moratorium" on settlement construction brought very different responses from the Jewish American "pro-Israel" groups J Street and the heavyweight American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), calling attention to the increasing divide within the American Jewish community. Both AIPAC and J Street welcomed Netanyahu’s …
Continue reading “Hawkish ‘Israel Lobby’ More Bark Than Bite?”
Congressman David Obey (D-Wis.), the powerful chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and an opponent of President Barack Obama’s Afghan War escalation, recently proposed a special "temporary" income surtax to fund the war. Although his intentions are good, this proposal should be rejected. Obey’s proposal is inconvenient for proponents of the escalation – most prominently, …
Continue reading “Pay for the War, or Just Call It Off?”
Tension between Iran and the United States and its allies has been rising, following Iran’s rejection of the preliminary agreement that was reached between the two sides on Oct. 1, 2009, in Geneva. Under the deal, Iran was supposed to send 75 percent of its stockpile of low-enriched uranium (LEU) to Russia for conversion into …
Continue reading “Double Standards for Iran’s Nuclear Program”
President Barack Obama presented a case Tuesday for sending 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan that included both soaring rhetoric and a new emphasis on its necessity for U.S. national security. Obama said the escalation was for a "vital national interest" and invoked the threat of attacks from the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area, asserting that such …
Continue reading “Obama Previously Rejected His New Surge Rationale” 
