“In Syria, I will work … to identify and organize those members of the opposition who share our values and ensure they obtain the arms they need to defeat Assad’s tanks, helicopters and fighter jets.” This commitment by Mitt Romney in his VMI address has thrilled the neocons as much as it has unsettled the …
Continue reading “Stay out of the Syrian Maelstrom”
Three people were killed and eight more were wounded in Mosul.
The attacks on U.S. embassies in Libya and Egypt last month shocked and scared Americans, but the majority of Americans nevertheless recognize that the violence was the work of extremist minorities and not the majority of the population, according to a new poll. The poll, conducted by the University of Maryland, was released on Monday …
Continue reading “New Poll Finds Shifts in US Public Opinion Toward Middle East”
I am still trying to recover from the Republican Party’s overwhelming failure to understand that only Ron Paul was speaking good sense about the dismal state of U.S. foreign policy. Depending on whom you listen to, however, one might almost think in spite of all evidence to the contrary that the revolution is still going …
Continue reading “A Dream Dies, but the Beat Goes On”
Light violence left six dead and eight wounded in northern Iraq.
Editorial note: This is the second part of a three-part article. Part I is here. Part III will appear on Friday. It was and is a matter of high principle for the neoconservatives that the US unconditionally support Israel in its struggle against the Arab world. Disputing the neocons’ claim to the mantle of Wilsonianism, …
Continue reading “It’s All About Israel”
Americans lived in a “victory culture” for much of the twentieth century. You could say that we experienced an almost 75-year stretch of triumphalism — think of it as the real “American Century” — from World War I to the end of the Cold War, with time off for a destructive stalemate in Korea and …
Continue reading “Overwrought Empire”
Syrian rebels, in a stalemated conflict with the autocratic Bashar al-Assad, predictably are trying every trick to suck more help out of the United States. They are using the same tactic that developing nations used against U.S. policymakers during the Cold War to get more money and assistance: fear of takeover by extremists. The new …
Continue reading “Ignore Syrian Rebels’ Threats”
Although the surge of “insider attacks” on U.S.-NATO forces has dominated coverage of the war in Afghanistan in 2012, an even more important story has been quietly unfolding: the U.S. loss of the pivotal war of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to the Taliban. Some news outlets have published stories this year suggesting that the U.S. …
Continue reading “How the US Quietly Lost the IED War in Afghanistan”
According to U.S. and Iraqi officials, al-Qaeda is rebuilding its forces in Iraq. They say that an average of 20 attacks occur each day, about double what it was at the beginning of the year. Meanwhile, at least eight Iraqis were killed and 16 more were wounded in new violence.
