About 1300 Peshmerga fighters have been deployed into contested areas of Diyala province, where they will operate in the heavily Kurdish areas of Jalawla, Saidiya, Qara Tappa, and Mandali. Due to increased security concerns, the Kurdish parliament recently voted to redeploy the soldiers even though Diyala is not one of the three provinces that belong to Iraqi Kurdistan. The Peshmerga, so far, have been able to work peacefully alongside Iraqi army troops. Meanwhile, at least 43 Iraqis were killed and eight were wounded across the country.
In Cairo in 1943, when the tide had turned in the war on Adolf Hitler, Winston Churchill, who had embraced Joseph Stalin as an ally and acceded to his every demand, had a premonition. Conversing with Harold Macmillan, Churchill blurted: "Cromwell was a great man, wasn’t he?" "Yes, sir, a very great man," Macmillan replied. …
Continue reading “What 9/11 Wrought: The Bush Legacy”
A counter-narrative
When it comes to government handouts, there’s no bigger welfare queens than the Pentagon and the legions of mercenaries and weapons manufacturers profiting from America’s half-dozen ongoing wars and its global empire of military bases. In fact, more than half of U.S. income taxes are funneled, not to welfare mothers and underprivileged youths, but to what President …
Continue reading “The Congressional ‘Supercommittee’: Debt Panel or Death Panel?”
Let’s bag it. I’m talking about the tenth anniversary ceremonies for 9/11, and everything that goes with them: the solemn reading of the names of the dead, the tolling of bells, the honoring of first responders, the gathering of presidents, the dedication of the new memorial, the moments of silence. The works. Let’s just can it all. Shut …
Continue reading “Let’s Cancel 9/11”
An Iraqi journalist who was detained at a protest and tortured last February was shot to death last night in Baghdad. Hadi al-Mehdi had been openly criticizing the government through his radio show and had received death threats over a demonstration planned for Friday. He was found with two bullet wounds to the head at …
Continue reading “Iraqi and Kurdish Journalists Still Under Attack”
This weekend will mark the 10th anniversary of 9/11, the day that changed the United States forever. There will be remembrance ceremonies in many cities and towns. In many cases, they will be accompanied by military displays, to remind everyone that the America of George W. Bush and Barack Obama responded with anger, striking first …
Continue reading “A 10-Year Reckoning”
We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men — not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to …
Continue reading “Ten Years After 9/11: Have We Become the Enemy of Freedom?”
Although Iraq has not publicly requested American troops remain in the country after 2011, the White House and U.S. lawmakers are open about their preferences for post-withdrawal Iraq. Across the country, meanwhile, at least six Iraqis were killed and 13 more were wounded in new attacks.
The effort to paint the Libyan rebels as freedom-loving democrats is visibly faltering, especially in view of the rise of Abdelhakim Belhaj, alias Abu Abdullah al-Sadiq, as the top military commander in Tripoli. Belhaj’s biography is interesting, to say the least: the founder of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), he traveled to Afghanistan in …
Continue reading “Islamist Neocons?” 
