As the holy month of Ramadan winds down, at least 128 Iraqis were killed and 416 more were wounded. Large-scale attacks occurred across the country, even into relatively quiet southern Iraq. This scale of multiple attacks was likely coordinated to disrupt the Eid al-Fitr festivities.
Two recent interviews apparently given by Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak provide evidence that the new wave of reports in the Israeli press about a possible Israeli attack on Iran is a means by which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Barak hope to leverage a U.S. shift toward Israel’s red lines on Iran’s nuclear program. …
Continue reading “Israel’s Iran War Talk Aims at Deal for Tougher US Policy”
Mitt Romney has focused his run for the presidency on the superior skills he developed as a successful businessman, asserting that he alone has the knowledge, the experience, and the personal grit needed to repair the U.S. economy. Let us accept for a moment that Romney’s preferred narrative is true, i.e., that he actually was …
Continue reading “Romney the Businessman?”
In the past few days, I received an Israeli briefing document outlining Israel’s war plans against Iran. The document was passed to me by a high-level Israeli source who received it from an IDF officer. My source, in fact, wrote to me that normally he would not leak this sort of document, but “These are …
Continue reading “Bibi’s Secret War Plan”
Bombs in Diyala province killed and injured dozens at two separate locations. Gunmen left several fatalities in their wake further north. Overall, at least 20 Iraqis were killed and 37 more were wounded.
Her white hair peeked out from under a brilliant cerulean blue headscarf. Her lips and teeth were stained red from chewing areca nut and betel leaf, a mild stimulant favored by older Vietnamese women. She was missing her right eye. She also appeared to be in danger of floating away had a stiff breeze swept …
Continue reading “Perfecting Illegality”
TRIPOLI — The security situation in Libya remains tense as violence, by way of car bombings, political assassinations of high-ranking government and military officials, attacks on foreign diplomatic staff and NGOs, and young men sorting out minor disputes with AK-47s, continues unabated. IPS spoke with armed Gadhafi loyalists who vowed they will step up their …
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Grover Norquist is a bit of a punching bag for both the Hollywood–DC left and the neoconservative right. On the left, he’s often held up as an example of everything that’s supposedly wrong with the conservative movement and the GOP: his “no tax hike” pledge is excoriated by the Huffingtonpost–MSNBC–TPM axis of Obamaism as typical …
Continue reading “Grover Norquist Takes On the War Party”
For some time, Sen. John McCain and the Wilsonian neoconservatives have been beating the drum to escalate the U.S. intervention in Syria. Now, from the other side of the political spectrum, the Wilsonian progressives are calling for the same solution. The hawks on the left and right abhor each other on most policy issues, but …
Continue reading “Left and Right Call for Escalation in Syria”
At least 13 Iraqis were killed and 17 more were wounded in attacks across northern and central Iraq. Also, fugitive Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi’s trial on terrorism charges resumed.
