What would you do if you had evidence of war crimes? What would you do if ‘following orders’ meant participating in grave abuses that you opposed? Would you have the courage to risk everything – even your life – to do the right thing? Most of us would keep our mouths shut. Not Pfc. Bradley …
Continue reading “Bradley Manning’s Own Words: Blowing the Whistle on War Crimes”
Overall, at least 31 Iraqis were killed and 22 more were wounded today. Although much of the violence targeted security forces or politicians, attacks on demonstrators in Mosul and the harassment of worshippers in Baghdad underscore the increasing sectarian tensions.
The most positive outcome of Rand Paul’s 13-hour filibuster – which ended when Paul was forced to take a bathroom break – was giving the American public a sense of the treacherous path that President Obama’s drone program could take, i.e. the targeted killing of Americans here at home. It was a marathon civics lesson …
Continue reading “Rand Paul’s Message to Obama: Don’t Drone Me Bro”
We don’t get it. We really don’t. We may not, in military terms, know how to win any more, but as a society we don’t get losing either. We don’t recognize it, even when it’s staring us in the face, when nothing — and I mean nothing — works out as planned. Take the upcoming …
Continue reading “The Iraq Disaster”
In Mosul, drive-by shooters killed two people. A car bomb killed one civilian and wounded six more. An army brigadier was shot dead. A car bomb wounded a lieutenant colonel. A bomb killed two soldiers and wounded a third one. Gunmen killed two civilians at separate locations. 24 25 In Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed …
Continue reading “Scattered Iraq Violence Claims 24 Lives”
I started writing this as Rand Paul entered the 9th hour of his historic filibuster against the nomination of John Brennan as CIA director, but I had to stop. As I listened and watched, real tears clouded my vision, raining down on the keyboard – tears of pure joy. Quite an emotional reaction, and it …
Continue reading “#StandwithRand”
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is in trouble again with Washington and Tel Aviv because he dared to equate Zionism with fascism and anti-Semitism as an ideology or political movement that has brought oppression. Erdogan was speaking at a United Nations sponsored Alliance of Civilizations conference in Vienna dealing with instilling tolerance. He spoke …
Continue reading “Talking Turkey About Zionism”
Review: Kill Anything That Moves by Nick Turse Metropolitan Books, 2013, 320 pages On August 18, 1980, Republican candidate for president Ronald Reagan addressed the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. In his speech, Reagan identified a disease plaguing America: "the Vietnam Syndrome." Infected by North Vietnamese propaganda, the Gipper argued, Americans had …
Continue reading “‘They All Looked Alike’”
The war in Syria continues to be a threat to Iraq’s western flank. Violence today included attacks from both the Syrian Army and Syrian rebels. Overall, at least 13 Iraqis were killed and eight more were wounded.
The Global War on Terror has had many victims since it was launched by President George W. Bush soon after September 11, 2001. In his “crusade,” a word he used publicly before he thought better of it (“This crusade,” he said, “this war on terrorism”), the history of kidnappings and renditions, torture and abuse, imprisonment …
Continue reading “War on Terror, Women, and Children” 
