At least seven Iraqis were killed and 16 more were wounded in violence today. Also, a U.S. soldier was killed in southern Iraq. Officials did not give details, but the death may have occurred during a bombing near Najaf. Four activists who were released on bail yesterday held a press conference today and said they …
Continue reading “Wednesday: 1 US Soldier, 7 Iraqis Killed; 16 Iraqis Wounded”
The jockeying for position on troop withdrawals from Afghanistan and Iraq continues. Recently, departing Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and the U.S. military have tried to box the Obama administration into leaving as many troops in Afghanistan as possible. Gates argued that a rapid withdrawal would threaten the gains accrued from the surge of 30,000 …
Continue reading “Accelerate Withdrawals From Afghanistan and Iraq”
Iraq? Where’s that? Most Americans no longer seem to know and evidently could care less, but don’t tell that to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, various key military figures and Washington officials, or some of the neocons, warrior-pundits, and liberal war-fighters circling them. They continue to relentlessly promote Iraq as a mission-never-accomplished-but-never-to-be-ended experience. Somehow, two …
Continue reading “How Not to Withdraw From Iraq”
As libertarianism becomes more visible, politically, and gains ground in the GOP, the enemies of freedom are poised – on both the right and the left – for the attack. Libertarians have never had to deal with this problem before, in the main because their movement was considered marginal, if it was considered at all. …
Continue reading “Ron Paul vs. the GOP Establishment”
The expansion (and contraction) of great empires has long been driven by tactical and strategic “asymmetries” in the conduct of war. Norman archers overcame sword- and spear-wielding Anglo-Saxons at Hastings in 1066. Musket- and rifle-bearing Europeans slaughtered Native Americans opposing them with bows and arrows. And vast fleets of heavy bombers laid both Japan and …
Continue reading “Perfect Asymmetry: The Predator and the Suicide Bomber”
Al-Qaeda strategists have been assisting the Taliban fight against U.S.-NATO forces in Afghanistan because they believe that foreign occupation has been the biggest factor in generating Muslim support for uprisings against their governments, according to the just-published book by Syed Saleem Shahzad, the Pakistani journalist whose body was found in a canal outside Islamabad last …
Continue reading “Slain Writer’s Book Says US-NATO War Served al-Qaeda Strategy”
At least seven Iraqis were killed and 10 more were wounded in today’s attacks. Also, four protestors who were detained last month during a demonstration in Baghdad were released.
Late last month, when U.S. air strikes caused civilian casualties in Afghanistan, an angry Hamid Karzai issued an ultimatum. If future U.S. strikes are not restricted, we will take “unilateral action” and America may be treated like an “occupying power.” That brought this blistering retort from one Republican hawk. “If President Karzai continues with these …
Continue reading “Return of the Anti-Interventionist Right”
Listen to Rep. Ron Paul deliver this address. Last week, more than 70 days after President Obama sent our military to attack Libya without a congressional declaration of war, the House of Representatives finally voted on two resolutions attempting to rein in the president. This debate was long overdue, as polls show Americans increasingly are …
Continue reading “Holding the President Accountable on Libya”
This is the fourth year I’ve attended and written about the perennial flocking of Washington’s military courtier class, otherwise known as the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) annual conference, always at the luxurious Willard Continental Hotel, always attended by thousands of dark blue suits and an impressive contingent of active duty military officers. …
Continue reading “CNAS Conference Becomes ‘Thumbsucker’” 
