Israel unveiled “Iron Dome” last week, a missile-defense system that is designed to strike a knock-out blow against short-range rockets of the variety fired into Israel by Hamas and Hezbollah. In the short term, Iron Dome is supposed to herald the demise of the rocket...
Congressman Prepares Legislation to Ban Blackwater
As multiple scandals involving Blackwater continue to emerge almost daily, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence is preparing to introduce legislation aimed at ending the US government’s relationship with...
Wednesday: 10 Iraqis Killed, 13 Wounded
Updated at 9:21 p.m., EST, Jan. 13, 2010 At least 10 Iraqis were killed and 13 others were wounded in the latest violence. Baghdad, meanwhile, remains under a security crackdown. Seven people were killed and six others were wounded during a suicide truck bombing at a...
Need for Presidents to ‘Look Tough’ Isn’t Getting US Anywhere
President Barack Obama is said to feel he is in trouble politically because his enemies in Congress and among the Washington journalists who decide what the "mood" of Washington is on any given day say he is not tough enough. This is the kind of mind reading...
World’s Most Controversial Prison Enters Ninth Year
As the world marked the beginning of the ninth year of detention at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Monday, a leading legal advocacy group filed suit against the Library of Congress for firing Guantanamo's former chief prosecutor for writing articles...
The COIN Myth, Part II
Part I noted that two key requirements of our counterinsurgency doctrine – a legitimate host-nation government and a competent, trustworthy host-nation security force – will never be accomplished in Iraq or Afghanistan. Part II will illustrate the lack of reliable...
End the Korean War
We're at war – old news, you say? Well you don't know how old – because I'm not talking about our eternal "war on terrorism," but the Korean war. Yes, in case you didn't know, it's still on, at least in the formal sense: a truce was signed, on July 27, 1953,...
Iran, 1979 and 2010
The Obama administration's Iran policy is a riddle wrapped inside a conundrum folded into a pickle. So many signals are being sent in so many directions that it's a wonder the Iranians (or other involved parties) have any idea what's going on. Barack Obama came into...
Politics Gets in the Way of Obama’s Perceptiveness
President Barack Obama recently expressed a reluctance to send U.S. forces to Yemen and Somalia, two "failed states" where al-Qaeda is active. Obama seemed to realize that such a U.S. military presence might make the terrorism problem worse. If he...
Tuesday: 5 Iraqis Killed, 6 Wounded; Massive Security Sweep
Updated at 7:39 p.m. EST, Jan. 12, 2010 A massive security sweep in Baghdad has suppressed other news reporting in Iraq. The operation, which government officials say was against a bomb plot, even drowned out the stunning assessment that Dutch involvement in the Iraq...