As last week ended, the American and British military in Afghanistan finally launched a long-awaited operation to occupy the city of Marjah in Taliban-controlled Helmand province. According to Afghan war commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal, to win "hearts and...
Georgia: Nothing Is Coming Up Roses
The Russo-Georgian war of 2008 provides the clearest current example of how war propaganda works – and how counter-propaganda can negate it and turn the tables on the War Party. You'll recall that as news of the conflict broke in the West, the war was reported as...
Tuesday: 10 Iraqis Killed, 26 Wounded
Ironic Intervention: A Lebanese Doughboy in World War I
In 1914 Michael Zataney, born in the village of Zgharta in what is now Lebanon, lived in Birmingham, Ala., and looked forward to becoming an American citizen. The Zataney family left what geographers call "Greater Syria" to escape the oppression of the...
American Arrogance Overseas Should End
The arrest of the 10-member church group trying to "rescue" 33 Haitian children from the aftermath of the earthquake by smuggling them across the border to the Dominican Republic has wider implications for U.S. foreign policy. The group's besmirching of the...
Bin Laden: Dead and Loving It
The tallest Arab ever wanted dead or alive by a president of the United States is still at large. Either that or he's dead. Again. We've been hearing from intelligence sources and the media that bin Laden is dead for a long time. How dead can one evildoer get? In July...
US Steps Up Sanctions Diplomacy Against Iran
Faced with an increasingly impatient Congress and a defiant government in Tehran, the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama is currently stepping up its diplomatic efforts in the Middle East as it seeks to prepare the ground for tougher sanctions on Iran. A...
Dollars for Death, Pennies for Life
When the U.S. military began a major offensive in southern Afghanistan over the weekend, the killing of children and other civilians was predictable. Lofty rhetoric aside, such deaths come with the territory of war and occupation. A month ago, President Obama pledged...
Clinton Hails Yemen Ceasefire, but Aid Concerns Remain
The ceasefire announced late last week between Yemen's government and Houthi rebels in the northern part of the country is being greeted here as an important initial step toward stabilizing the Arab world's poorest country and reversing advances by al-Qaeda's...
Is Iran Running a Bluff?
Did Robert Gibbs let the cat out of the bag? Last week, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the world that Iran, unable to get fuel rods from the West for its U.S.-built reactor, which makes medical isotopes, had begun to enrich its own uranium to 20 percent. From his perch in...