It's Christmas, no there's no column today. But I'll be back on Friday!As the world celebrates Christmas, one has to wonder what we have to be thankful for: after all, war rages around the world. The liberty our forefathers died for has dissipated like mist in the...

Following yesterday’s ill-fated military operation in Wadi Horan, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has warned demonstrators in Ramadi to leave their protest camp before security forces move in on the site. Meanwhile, at least 13 people were killed and 34 more were wounded in today’s attacks.

This week’s introduction by a bipartisan group of 26 senators of a new sanctions bill against Iran could result in the biggest test of the political clout of the Israel lobby here in decades. The White House, which says the bill could well derail ongoing negotiations...

At least 52 people were killed and 66 more were wounded in fresh violence. The one reported attack against pilgrims did not produce the high casualty figures. Instead, it was a military operation in Anbar province that went awry.

Originally posted at TomDispatch. The headline – “Bride and Boom!” – was spectacular, if you think killing people in distant lands is a blast and a half. Of course, you have to imagine that smirk line in giant black letters with a monstrous exclamation...

GAZA CITY, Dec. 20 2013 (IPS) – Wearing tattered shoes and hopping between dirty puddles, 14-year-old Sabeh manages to find his way to the market at the Al Shati refugee camp, one of Gaza’s most heavily populated and poor areas. He asks a man selling socks if he...

At least 42 people were killed and 41 more were wounded in prayer day attacks. The only major attack took place in northern Iraq, and it did not seem to be targeting pilgrims.

"Neo-isolationism is the direct product of foolish globalism. ... Compared to people who thought they could run the universe, or at least the globe, I am neo-isolationist and proud of it." Those are not the words of an old America Firster, but the declaration of that...

As the Arbaeen observance draws nearer, Shi’ite pilgrims remain easy targets for insurgents. At least 73 people were killed today, and another 121 were wounded. Most of the casualties occurred between Baghdad and Karbala.

“Almost Orwellian” – that’s the description a federal judge gave earlier this week to the massive spying by the National Security Agency (NSA) on virtually all 380 million cellphones in the United States. In the first meaningful and jurisdictionally grounded judicial...