The Long-War Trifecta

Iran has announced that it will build 10 new nuclear facilities. Big deal. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the facilities are necessary to meet the country's goal to one day generate up to 20,000 megawatt-hours of electricity per year, a grand ambition....

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Tuesday: 9 Iraqis Killed, 9 Wounded

At least nine Iraqis were killed and nine more were wounded in light violence. Iraqi parliament speaker Iyad al-Samarrai warned that Iraqi jails are in desperate need of reform and criticized the slow implementation of the general pardon.
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The Hollow Politics of Escalation

An underlying conceit of the new spin about benchmarks and timetables for Afghanistan is the notion that pivotal events there can be choreographed from Washington. So, a day ahead of the president's Tuesday night speech, the New York Times quoted an unnamed top...

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US, Iran Moving Again Toward Confrontation

Iran's announced intention to build 10 new nuclear enrichment plants has been deemed "unacceptable" by the administration of President Barack Obama, which warned Monday of increased pressure on Tehran if it does not soon accept Western proposals to curb its...

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Monday: 4 Iraqis Killed, 15 Wounded

Updated at 6:59 p.m. EST, Nov. 30 2009 The Health Ministry reported the lowest casualty figures since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. According to their figures, less than 100 Iraqis were killed in November; howver, at least four Iraqis were killed and 15 more were wounded, many after the release of those results. The Eid al-Adha winds down today, so reports should normalize in the next day or so.
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The Galula Doctrine

Although we already know what President Obama is going to be selling this Tuesday – a radical escalation of the Afghan war involving 30,000 or more troops – we don't yet know what his sales pitch will be like. Can the peerless rhetorician apply his skills to the task...

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Obama’s Big Speech

President Obama will announce his big decision about Afghanistan on Tuesday. The sanctioned leaks about what he'll say are coming fast and furious. According to various reports, he'll commit somewhere between 30,000 and 34,000 extra U.S. troops to the region. When he...

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