Month: September 2014

America is a broad country with a limited imagination. At the same time every two-bit carny huckster grinding out his or her three-year contract on respectively obscure local news affiliates was working up increasingly hysterical tears in the hope of out-emoting peers regarding one admittedly unpleasant punch, nary an individual paused to mention the outrageously … Continue reading “The Year Ray Rice Knocked Out Common Decency”

Iran’s foreign minister arrived in New York last week with his sights set on a final deal on Iran’s nuclear program. But a pressing regional conflict is hanging heavily over the already strained negotiations as Iran and world powers resume talks on the sidelines of this week’s U.N. General Assembly. A Sept. 21 report by … Continue reading “ISIS Complicates Iran’s Nuclear Focus at UN”

At least 103 were killed today, mostly militants in Anbar province. Another 48 were wounded, almost all of them in a bombing in Sadr City. The political fallout following a massacre at an army base over the weekend has already claimed two generals, and more may follow.

President Obama’s war on the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is modeled on the U.S. war against Serbia in 1999 to essentially detach its province of Kosovo – in which the United States acted as the air force for the Kosovo Liberation Army group. This model was also used more recently in Libya … Continue reading “Congress Should Vote and Say No to Obama’s New War”

At least 107 people were killed today across Iraq; however, the actual figure is likely much higher. The details from what may be another massacre at an army base are very thin, but it appears that hundreds of soldiers were probably killed or injured during bombings and clashes. At least 47 more people were wounded, mostly in a bombing in Baghdad.

Editorial Note: This is the text of a speech given at the Casey Research Summit, 2014, "Thriving in a Crisis Economy." Part I appears here today: Part II will be published here on Wednesday. I’ve been a libertarian since I was a teenager, and so I’m quite used to the idea of the apocalypse – … Continue reading “Apocalypse Now – Or Apocalypse Later”

Last week, the House and Senate voted to rubber stamp President Obama’s war plans for the Middle East. Both bodies, on a bipartisan basis, authorized the US to begin openly training and arming the rebels who have been fighting for three years to overthrow the Assad government in Syria. Although the Syrian government has also … Continue reading “Congress Votes for More War in the Middle East”

At least 175 people were killed across Iraq, and 102 more were wounded. Baghdad suffered a series of bombings again, but an army base in Anbar province is where most of the action is probably occurring today. Also, the Islamic State militants are causing tremendous upheaval across the border in a Kurdish area of Syria.

Except for eight wounded security personnel, all of today’s casualties were among militant forces. At least 154 of them were killed and dozens more were wounded. More important news came from Turkey were dozens of hostages safely returned home.

As the Obama administration is busy forming a coalition to fight-eradicate the Islamic State (IS) or (ISIS/ISIL), the evolving coalition that gathered last week in Paris was a far cry from the one put together by George H. W. Bush in 1991 to fight and expel Saddam Hussein’s forces from Kuwait. Today’s participants of the … Continue reading “Heading Toward Failure: A Coalition of the ‘Reluctantly Willing’”