Only one Iraqi was killed and two more were injured in unusually light violence. Meanwhile, during a speech to the Security Council, U.N. envoy to Iraq, Ad Melkert, warned that the political deadlock is harming infrastructure and services in the fragile country.
read moreWhat to Do About the Wars
As President Obama pooh-poohed as old news the many WikiLeaks documents showing the sad state of the conflict in Afghanistan, the chief executive also began an entire month of crowing about keeping his campaign promise to “bring the war in Iraq to a responsible end.”...
A Warning to the President
MEMORANDUM FOR: The President FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) SUBJECT: War With Iran We write to alert you to the likelihood that Israel will attack Iran as early as this month. This would likely lead to a wider war. Israel's leaders would...
Obama Drops 2009 Pledge to Withdraw Combat Troops From Iraq
Seventeen months after President Barack Obama pledged to withdraw all combat brigades from Iraq by Sept. 1, 2010, he quietly abandoned that pledge Monday, admitting implicitly that such combat brigades would remain until the end of 2011. Obama declared in a speech to...
Can Americans Who Oppose War and Empire Work Together?
Lindsey Graham, a war-supporting senator from South Carolina, said what he fears most is a Left-Right alliance against the Afghanistan War. He recognizes that such an alliance could stop war funding and force American troops to return home. But the masters of war may...
The War Party
I often make reference to “the War Party” in this space: it's a convenient shorthand, one that evokes an image of something sinister, even Satanic, and this serves my rhetorical purposes well. But if we unpack the concept, and look for examples in real...
Tuesday: 53 Iraqis Killed, 123 Wounded
Updated at 2:40 p.m. EDT, Aug. 3, 2010
A rare car bombing in a southern, Shi’ite city and another flag-planting attack on security forces in the capital were just two of the many attacks witnessed across Iraq today. Overall, at least 53 Iraqis were killed and 123 more were wounded. The figures are expected to rise in the Kut bombing. Meanwhile, 26 Kurdish families have crossed the frontier into Iraqi Kurdistan to escape Iranian artillery attacks against suspected Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) rebels.
read moreIsraeli Settlers Step Up ‘Price-Tag’ Policy
A rabbi from one of the most violent settlements in the West Bank was questioned on suspicion of incitement last week as Israeli police stepped up their investigation into a book in which he sanctions the killing of non-Jews, including children and babies. Rabbi...
GOP Blank Check for War?
High among the blunders of history was the "blank cheque" Kaiser Wilhelm gave Vienna, after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, to deal with the Serbs as they saw fit. Five weeks later, Vienna cashed the check and declared war, after Belgrade refused to...
Newt Gingrich: A Menace to Society?
Like a bad penny, Newt Gingrich is back, this time demanding that Tea Partiers grab their muskets for the next revolution – in fact it's a World War – looming on the horizon. While it sounds farcical, Gingrich's usual demagoguery and naked opportunism have taken on an...
