In the wake of the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, Beirut and Kenya, CNN Senior White House Correspondent Jim Acosta asked Barack Obama, “Why can’t we take out these bastards?” Acosta echoes many Americans who are hungry for revenge, and favor further military intervention in the Middle East. Ironically, those wishing to exact revenge with …
Continue reading “Fight Terrorism Through Nonintervention, Not War!”
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi was elected to great promise, but a fractured party behind him provides little support to accomplish the work Iraq needs. Iraqi citizen Yanar Mohammed returned to Iraq from exile in Canada and is now helping Iraqi women overcome the devastating issues that are hurting them. At least 57 were killed and …
Continue reading “Suicide Bomber Targets Soldiers; 57 Killed across Iraq”
Turkey’s decision to shoot down a Russian warplane was a provocative and portentous act. That Sukhoi Su-24, which the Turks say intruded into their air space, crashed and burned – in Syria. One of the Russian pilots was executed while parachuting to safety. A Russian rescue helicopter was destroyed by rebels using a U.S. TOW …
Continue reading “Stumbling to War With Russia?”
A Note From the Author: Well, I was going to write an original Thanksgiving column, but my Significant Other has other plans. And so below I present you with a Thanksgiving column from ten years ago – just to give you some historical perspectve. And while I’m on the subject of history: yes, it’s Antiwar.com’s …
Continue reading “A Feast of Scandal”
Military sources in northern Iraq say a French airstrike killed over two dozen schoolchildren in Mosul.
Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty states that an “armed attack” on a NATO member “shall be considered an attack against them all” and that all parties to the treaty must join in to “restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.” Left unspecified is what happens when a NATO member itself …
Continue reading “NATO: This Deal Is a Turkey”
Gunfire erupted at a television station last night in Baghdad when a political dispute between M.P. Kadhim al-Sayadi of the State of Law bloc and Baligh Abu Gallal, who is a Citizen’s Bloc spokesman, got out of hand. No casualties were reported. Turkish warplanes bombes suspected Kurdistan Workers Party (P.K.K.) targets in Zakho. At least …
Continue reading “112 Killed across Iraq as Turkey Resumes Bombing Runs”
Lately, a heated debate has broken out over the question of admitting Syrian refugees. On the Republican side, Donald Trump’s previously hyperbolic suggestions of an ISIS "Trojan Horse" have essentially become mainstreamed. Meanwhile, on the Democratic side of the aisle, President Obama has criticized the Republicans for demonizing Muslims and has argued that accepting Syrian …
Continue reading “Stop the Political Grandstanding on Refugees”
Shi’ite militiamen are accused of seizing a hospital in Tuz Khormato.
War is the great clarifier, and in the case of the battle against Islamist insurgents, including ISIS and al-Qaeda in Syria, the downing of the Russian war plane by the Turkish military has demonstrated this principle quite dramatically. The US and its NATO allies, including Turkey, claim to be fighting ISIS, otherwise known as the …
Continue reading “Turkey’s Stab in the Back” 
