Several more cities fell today, and even more will likely fall in the coming days. Due to the chaos, it impossible to estimate how many have been killed this week, but at least 161 people were killed today, and 119 more were wounded. Also, Turkey has threatened retaliation if any of at least 76 Turkish hostages are harmed.
President Obama has announced that all U.S. forces will be withdrawn from Afghanistan by the end of 2016, just before he leaves office. By taking this action, Obama is finally saying "touché" to a military brass that he believed sandbagged him in upping the quantity of forces needed for the troop surge in Afghanistan when …
Continue reading “Messy Endgame in the Afghan War”
Originally posted at TomDispatch. The United States has been at war – major boots-on-the-ground conflicts and minor interventions, firefights, air strikes, drone assassination campaigns, occupations, special ops raids, proxy conflicts, and covert actions – nearly nonstop since the Vietnam War began. That’s more than half a century of experience with war, American-style, and yet few …
Continue reading “Don’t Walk Away from War”
I’ve been plagued with kidney stones recently and I’m afraid I’m in no shape to write today: but these things tend to pass rather quickly (no pun intended!) so I’ll be back at the usual stand on Friday.
At least 36 people were killed and 69 more were wounded officially; however, many more were killed as several northern cities, including Mosul, fell into militant control.
Libya is teetering on the verge of its worst crisis since the 2011 overthrow of the Gaddafi regime. Last month, forces loyal to General Khalifa Haftar launched a brazen assault on the sitting national congress in Tripoli, accusing the Islamist-dominated parliament of being complicit with hostile militias and of fostering terrorism. Proclaiming an anti-Islamist offensive …
Continue reading “Libya: A Cautionary Tale”
Two of today’s attacks focused on Kurdish political party offices, but this time the bombers targeted Tuz Khormato. Yesterday, bombers attacked an office in nearby Jalawla. Also, militants overran the provincial government building in Mosul. It is unclear how much of Mosul is occupied by militants at this point, but it is considerable. The city could fall within days, according to a senior security official. Also, Baghdad suffered a series of bombings. At least 123 people were killed and 261 were wounded.
It’s time to ask: Is John McCain losing it? At 77, the irascible Arizona Senator has become the "get off my lawn" cranky-old-man symbol of the GOP’s generational problem, but it’s gotten worse lately, with his most recent pronouncements on the Bowe Bergdahl-Taliban prisoner swap calling into question his mental competence. Commenting on the prisoner …
Continue reading “Taliban Prisoner Swap: A Fact-Free Controversy”
President Obama’s recent foreign policy speech, delivered at this year’s West Point graduation ceremony, was a disappointment to anyone who hoped the president might be changing course. The failure of each US intervention thus far in the 21st century might have inspired at least a bit of reflection. However, the president made it clear that …
Continue reading “Obama’s Foreign Policy Rhetoric Does Not Match US Actions”
On June 8, 1967, Israeli leaders learned they could deliberately attack a U.S. Navy ship and try to send it, together with its entire crew, to the bottom of the Mediterranean – with impunity. Israeli aircraft and torpedo boats attacked the USS Liberty, a state-of-the-art intelligence collection platform sailing in international waters off the Sinai, …
Continue reading “Leaving the USS Liberty Crew Behind” 
