Iraq Army Kill Scores, Bombers Wound Dozens; 210 Killed, 120 Wounded

Scores were reported killed during Anbar operations that are seen as precursors to a full assault on militants in Falluja. The numbers given are reported by Iraqi officials and cannot be independently confirmed. If the government figures are accurate, at least 210 people were killed and 120 were wounded. Well over half the dead were militants. Bombers also attacked a courthouse in Baghdad, but they were unable to penetrate the building.
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40 Killed, 47 Wounded in Ongoing Iraq Violence

In Anbar: Shelling killed seven civilians and wounded nine more in Falluja. A suicide bomber in Hit killed one policeman and wounded four more. In Abu Ghraib, police found a dumped body. A roadside bomb wounded four people. Seven militants were killed during a clash...

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Obama’s Cautious Approach to Foreign Policy

All in all, I don’t think Barack Obama has been a very good president. In a new updated version of my book, Recarving Rushmore: Ranking the Presidents on Peace, Prosperity, and Liberty, being published this fall, I rank him 34th of 41 presidents rated. His further...

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The American Republic Is Dead

The release of Glenn Greenwald’s new book, No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State, has been the occasion for a media storm: Greenwald is all over the place, from Colbert to "Democracy Now," and there is much new material...

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Baghdad Car Bombs Leave 60 Dead, 119 Wounded

The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ad-Dawla al-Isl·miyya fi al-‘Ir·q wa-sh-Sh·m) claimed responsibility for several bombings in Baghdad today. Today is the anniversary of the birth of Imam Ali, who is a central figure in the schism between Sunnis and Shi’ites. At least 60 people were killed and 119 more were wounded in the capital and elsewhere.
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How I Met Edward Snowden

Originally posted at TomDispatch. Make no mistake: it’s been the year of Edward Snowden.  Not since Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers during the Vietnam War has a trove of documents revealing the inner workings and thinking of the U.S. government...

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The Limits of Military Power

Is overwhelming national military power a reliable source of influence in world affairs? If so, the United States should certainly have plenty of influence today. For decades, it has been the world’s Number 1 military spender. And it continues in this role. According...

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Step by Step to World War III?

As 2014 commenced, the media was awash in the events leading up to WWI a hundred years previously: the diplomatic miscalculations, power plays, honor pride, and other human frailties in an ineluctable march to hostilities; all with a vain conceit that it could not...

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