Veteran foreign correspondent Reese Erlich was in northern Iraq at the start of the U.S. bombing campaign against Islamic State. He interviewed Kurdish leaders, peshmerga fighters and U.S. officials. He says the reality on the ground is far different from the propaganda coming out of Washington. 1. Islamic State presents an immediate threat to the …
Continue reading “10 Myths About Obama’s Latest War in Iraq and Syria”
At a recent talk at the National Press Club in Washington DC, Daniel Ellsberg, who released the Pentagon Papers in 1971, says he believes there’s not one person in the Pentagon who would agree that President Obama can achieve his aim of destroying ISIS in Iraq and Syria with air strikes, along with training and …
Continue reading “Daniel Ellsberg Sees Vietnam-Like Risks in ISIS War”
At least 291 people were killed today and 49 more were wounded. Heavy fighting took place during a failed attempt by ISIS/DAASH to take over Hit, in Anbar province. Meanwhile, the United Nations released a gruesome report on the violence and abuses occurring across Iraq.
When President Obama attributed the rise in Iraq of the Islamic State, or ISIS, to the failures of the U.S. intelligence community earlier this week, naming and blaming directly National Intelligence Director Gen. James Clapper, he was attempting to deflect criticism of his own incompetence. He was discussing the fact that ISIS, right under his …
Continue reading “Clapper Under the Bus”
What if the so-called Islamic State (IS) didn’t exist? In order to answer this question, one has to liberate the argument from its geopolitical and ideological confines. Flexible Language Many in the media (Western, Arab, etc.) use the reference "Islamist" to brand any movement at all whether it be political, militant or even charity-focused. If …
Continue reading “What if ISIS Didn’t Exist?”
American officials underestimated ISIL’s threat, according to their Commander-in-Chief. Only last winter, Obama himself described ISIL as a "JV Team.” Yet a year ago, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin warned Americans of exactly that ISIL threat in an extraordinary New York Times op-ed. In the essay titled "A Plea for Caution from Russia: What Putin Has …
Continue reading “The Imponderable Will To Fight in Iraq”
At least 175 people were killed in Iraq today, mostly militants. Another 75 were wounded, mostly civilians in a bombing in southern Baghdad.
