While some politicians are trying to resolve a political crisis that could ignite a sectarian war, the Iraqi government chose instead to ratchet-up tensions by suspending several Sunni cabinet members. Meanwhile, at least 14 Iraqis were killed and 19 more were wounded in new violence.
The predominant feeling one gets coming off a weekend reading Michael Hastings’ The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America’s War in Afghanistan is not outrage, nor gleeful satisfaction in seeing everything one suspects about this rotten war confirmed in tawdry black and white detail and in the rise and fall of one …
Continue reading “Michael Hastings vs. Team America”
The postponement of a massive joint U.S.-Israeli military exercise appears to be the culmination of a series of events that has impelled the Barack Obama administration to put more distance between the United States and aggressive Israeli policies toward Iran. The exercise, called “Austere Challenge ’12” and originally scheduled for April, was to have been …
Continue reading “In Signal to Israel and Iran, Obama Delays War Exercise”
At least 24 Iraqis were killed and 42 more were wounded in attacks across the country. The worst two took place in predominantly Shi’ite neighborhoods, intensifying fears of a new sectarian war.
Will Israel succeed in dragging us into war with Iran? If not, it won’t be for lack of trying. Their influential lobby in the US has been agitating for a US strike since the last year of the Bush presidency, when they almost succeeded in pulling it off: fortunately for us, Bush demurred, perhaps because …
Continue reading “Under a False Flag”
After almost two months in abeyance and the (possibly temporary) loss of Shamsi Air Base for its air war, the CIA is again cranking up its drone operations in the Pakistani tribal borderlands. The first two attacks of 2012 were launched within 48 hours of each other, reportedly killing 10 ___s, and wounding at least …
Continue reading “Drone Disasters”
With Arbaeen observances completed, violence was refocused on Sunni targets today, most notably on a police station in Ramadi. Overall, at least 23 Iraqis were killed in the violence and 34 more were wounded.
Today is Arbaeen, which marks the end of the 40-day mourning period observed by Shi’ite pilgrims in honor of Hussein bin Ali, the Prophet Mohammad’s grandson. As expected, insurgents staged a major bombing against pilgrims. It alone left about 200 casualties. Overall, at least 71 people were killed and 145 more wounded. It is unknown if any foreigners were among the casualties.
During his confirmation hearings this past June, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned the Senate, "The next Pearl Harbor we confront could very well be a cyber attack that cripples our grid, our security systems, our financial systems, our governmental systems." The use of Pearl Harbor provided powerful imagery: a mighty fleet reduced to smoking ruin, an …
Continue reading “Cyber War: Reality or Hype?”
The US Department of Defense recently promulgated a new "defense" guidance document: "Sustaining US Global Leadership: Priorities for 21st Century Defense." I use scare quotes because it just doesn’t seem quite right to use "defense" to describe a document that — like its predecessors — envisions something like an American Thousand-Year Reich. The greatest shift …
Continue reading “War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery … and Fighting Back is ‘Aggression’” 
