Originally posted at TomDispatch. Last week, the New York Times front-paged a story about plans for "Iraq" to mount "a major spring offensive against Islamic State fighters." Its goal, among other things: to take back the country’s second largest...

The major adversaries of the U.S. Empire are China, Russia and Iran. Of the three, China is the greatest threat to U.S. hegemony since its economy has already surpassed that of the U.S. in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP) according to the IMF. And military power...

For an administration that has put so much emphasis on hunting down "leakers," it’s pretty amazing how leaky Washington gets when it comes to matters of concern to the Israelis. Take the recent Wall Street Journal story on President’s Obama’s alleged letter...

At least 202 people were killed and eight were wounded. Among the wounded is Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The nature of his injuries remains unknown. No major attacks took place against civilians on Sunday, leading to the low number of injuries. However, another massive execution of Albu Nimr tribe members was reported.

Bombers returned to Baghdad on Saturday, killing dozens of people in Shi'ite neighborhoods. Overall, at least 279 were killed and 144 more were wounded. In Baghdad, a car bomb killed 10 people in Karrada. Nine people were killed and 18 were wounded in a blast in Amin....

We want no Gestapo or secret police. The FBI is tending in that direction. They are dabbling in sex-life scandals and plain blackmail. J. Edgar Hoover would give his right eye to take over, and all congressmen and senators are afraid of him....

The U.S., via the State Department, is spending considerable effort and money producing anti-ISIS videos and other media (actual example, left), the goal of which is to convince American and other would-be jihadis not to join ISIS. The efforts won’t work, almost...

I rarely agree with Henry Kissinger, our latter day Metternich, but his recent Washington Post Op Ed was on the mark: Western “demonization of Vladimir Putin is not a policy; it is an alibi for the absence of one.” He suggested instead that the U.S. goal should be to...

The White House said it will deploy 1,500 more U.S. troops to train and assist Iraqi forces. Meanwhile, at least 92 people were killed on Friday and 50 were wounded.

Originally posted at TomDispatch. Let me tell you my modest post-9/11 dream. One morning, I'll wake up and see a newspaper article that begins something like this: "The FBI is attempting to persuade an obscure regulatory body in Washington to change its rules of...