If politics makes strange bedfellows, then the relationship between Iran, the United States and the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq is the strangest ménage à trois in international relations today. Violent Shia-on-Shia hostilities officially came to an...
Iraq ‘Divide and Rule’ Strategy Called Shortsighted
Five years since U.S. President George W. Bush's infamous "Mission Accomplished" speech, critics say the administration has yet to show a credible way to actually "accomplish" the mission that could see a peaceful Iraq and a return home of U.S....
Chaos Hardening Sectarian Fiefdoms
There are an estimated 2.7 million Iraqis who have been displaced within their own country. No house; no food; no security. Who do they turn to for help? The international community's humanitarian organizations? The occupying United States government? The central...
McCain’s Vietnam Lessons Unlearned
Throughout a long career in politics, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain has had his foreign policy shaped by his and the United States' experience in the Vietnam War. But that shaping has been very dynamic – not beholden to any one...
Iraqi Shi’ites: Calm on the Surface, Simmering Beneath
With the head of the occupying forces in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, and US ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker delivering a progress report to Congress this week, Iraq has been thrust back into the US public consciousness, along with all the political divisions the issue...
Campaigns Spar Over Where to Focus Troops
Last week's violent clashes in the Iraqi cities of Baghdad and Basra reverberated all the way to Washington, where suddenly, the Iraq war was thrust back into the limelight just as the 2008 primary season enters its final stretch. On Monday at the Washington...
Opening the Door to Hamas
Undermined by recent violence, the US-brokered Palestinian-Israeli peace process laid out in Annapolis, Maryland is in critical condition. And bringing the militant Islamic group Hamas into the fold could be the only way to save the faltering plan – an idea that...
Strategic Alliances Remain Elusive in Iraq
The George W. Bush administration has ballyhooed recent legislation passed by the Iraqi parliament as a sign that its troop escalation strategy has indeed created space for political reconciliation. But observers say a closer look at the legislation in the context of...
Overstretched Forces Concern US Officers
The US military is "severely strained" by two large-scale occupations in the Middle East, other troop deployments, and problems recruiting, according to a new survey of military officers published by Foreign Policy magazine and the centrist think-tank Center...
Surge Exposing Iraqi Political Tensions
Despite assertions by the George W. Bush Administration that the escalation strategy in Iraq – known as the "surge" – has been a rousing success, many of the problems of pre-surge Iraq still exist and, along with new issues, are exacerbating a...