Will We Suffer from the Iraq Syndrome?

In recent days, we've have two reports on timing, when it comes to the future of the president's "surge" plan for Baghdad. According to Richard A. Oppel of the New York Times, "The plan, which calls for 17,000 additional troops in Baghdad, will continue until at least...

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Talking Points for the Next War

At 10:16 p.m. on March 19, 2003, after copious military preparations in the Persian Gulf region and beyond, after months of diplomatic maneuvers at the United Nations, after a drumbeat of leaked intelligence warnings and hair-raising statements by top U.S. officials...

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Surging Into
Catastrophe in Iraq

U.S. casualties, which are at a post-invasion high: According to an Associated Press analysis, more American troops were "killed in combat in Iraq over the past four months – at least 334 through Jan. 31 – than in any comparable stretch since the war began";...

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The Pentagon’s Secret Air War in Iraq

Just last week, in a typical air strike of the Iraq War, two missiles were fired at targets somewhere in the city of Ramadi, capital of al-Anbar province in the heartland of the Sunni insurgency, in the course of a battle with American forces stationed there....

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Afghanistan: Just Another
Bush Success Story

Afghanistan remains the forgotten war, yet, in an eerie lockstep with Iraq, it seems to be following a distinctly Bush administration-style path toward "the gates of hell." While almost all attention in Washington and the U.S. media has been focused on the president's...

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The New Investigation Season

At the moment, the spectacle of the I. Lewis Libby trial, of the den of thieves falling out, of the unraveling of old administration war stories, and of the possibility that, in the near future, the vice president might appear in the witness stand for a grilling all...

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Empire v. Democracy: Why Nemesis Is at Our Door

The dream of the Bush administration – eternal global domination abroad with no other superpower or bloc of powers on the military horizon and a Republican Party dominant at home for at least a generation – long ago evaporated in Iraq. A midterm election and...

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The Forgotten American Dead

Rural America Pays the President's Price in Iraq When we hear about the American dead in Iraq, we normally learn about the circumstances in which they died. Last Saturday, for instance, was, for American troops, the third bloodiest day since the Bush administration...

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The State Spies on the Union

State of the what? Let's see, 28 percent, 31 percent, 33 percent, 35 percent. That pretty much sums up the state of the president – or, at least, of his ever more dismal approval ratings in four of the latest major polls (and don't even mention his state of...

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