Month: September 2017

The number of fatalities in Iraq during September surpassed those in August.

A Turkish soldier was among the dead after a battle with P.K.K. guerrillas in northern Iraq.

This is the story: at 7 o’clock in the morning, an Arab approaches the gate of Har Adar, a settlement close to the Green Line near the Israeli-Arab village of Abu Ghosh. The man is a "good Arab". A good Arab with a work permit in the settlement. He lives in the nearby West Bank … Continue reading “A Tale of Two Stories”

Clean-up operations in Shirqat left dozens of militants dead.

Americans are really counting on President Trump’s vaunted team of generals who are widely regarded as “the adults in the room.” Chief of Staff John Kelly, National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster and Secretary of Defense James “Mad Dog” Mattis make up the much-touted troika that stands between Trump’s itchy Twitter finger and the big red … Continue reading “Trump’s Generals Fatten the Pentagon”

Militants staged an attack on Ramadi which was liberated last year.

The “insanity” label that America attaches to North Korea has a lot of political utility. First, it colors the interpretation of everything North Korea does. The consideration of a rational motivation for undesirable actions can be prevented: the actions are assumed to be crazy. Secondly, it makes the target of blame clear. Thirdly, and most … Continue reading “North Korea’s Rational Nuclear Strategy”

The laziness of journalists is legendary. Especially these days, when the line between journalist and propagandist has been blurred, the many ways in which these scribblers take shortcuts and otherwise seek to make their jobs less strenuous have been greatly increased. While outright plagiarism used to be the favored method, with the advance of technology … Continue reading “Propaganda and the Catalonia Referendum”

Barzani downplayed the threat of sanctions by declaring that any new sanctions can’t be worse than what has already been done to the Kurds.

The nature of the rhetoric in Donald Trump’s first speech at the United Nations General Assembly was largely predictable. Even his bizarre threat to "totally destroy North Korea" was consistent with his overall style and previous warnings. But how different was his speech, if compared with the first and last UN speeches of President Barack … Continue reading “In Their Own Words: When Trump and Obama Sounded the Same”