Month: September 2019

At least 264 people were killed or found dead across Iraq during September.

"I want no prisoners, I wish you to kill and burn, the more you kill and burn the better you will please me." – General Jacob Smith to subordinates on Samar Island during the Philippine-American War (1902) Not so long ago, in November 2010, I took command of B Troop, 4th Squadron, 4th US Cavalry … Continue reading “A Picture (of a War Crime) Is Worth a Thousand Words”

You don’t need to be a supporter of President Trump to be concerned about the efforts to remove him from office. Last week House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced impeachment proceedings against the President over a phone call made to the President of Ukraine. According to the White House record of the call, the President asked … Continue reading “Impeachment… or CIA Coup?”

All of a sudden, MoveOn wants to help “national security” whistleblowers. Well, some of them, anyway. After many years of carefully refusing to launch a single campaign in support of brave whistleblowers who faced vicious prosecution during the Obama administration – including Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning, NSA whistleblowers Thomas Drake and Edward Snowden, and CIA … Continue reading “MoveOn’s Phony New Campaign for ‘Protecting Whistleblowers’”

Its economy gutted by war, Afghanistan’s largest cash crop remains opium. Yet farmers there do grow other crops for export. Villagers in the Wazir Tangi area of Nangarhar province, for example, cultivate pine nuts. As a precaution, this year at harvest time, village elders notified the governor of the province that they would be bringing … Continue reading “The Wounds of War in Afghanistan”

Yesterday In 1982, Iraq changed the nature of their war on Iran. They began using chemical weapons. At first, it was only tear gas. But, within a year, Iraq was using mustard gas and the nerve agents sarin and soman on, not only Iranian soldiers, but Iranian civilians. The downpour of chemicals was prodigious: the … Continue reading “Iran, Islam, and Banning the Bomb”

In many ways it doesn’t really matter who – Houthis in Yemen? Iranians? Shiites in Iraq? – launched those missiles and drones at Saudi Arabia. Whoever did it changed the rules of the game, and not just in the Middle East. “It’s a moment when offense laps defense, when the strong have reason to fear … Continue reading “How the Saudi Oil Field Attack Overturned America’s Apple Cart”

A mass grave containing ISIS militants was found in Nineveh province.

A clash at a checkpoint drew in civilians near Khanaqin.

This is soooooo boring. For nearly a week, Washington has been consumed by reports that Donald Trump pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to dig up dirt on Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden. The furor began on Wednesday, Sept. 18, when the Washington Post disclosed that Trump had said something to an unknown foreign leader that “was … Continue reading “Another Day, Another Scandal. What the ‘Trump-Ukraine Collusion’ Is Really About”