The Long Retreat

"The situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating," said President Obama, as he announced deployment of 17,000 more U.S. troops. "I'm absolutely convinced that you cannot solve the problem of Afghanistan, the Taliban, the spread of extremism in that...

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Friday: 9 Iraqis Killed, 3 Wounded

Updated at 5:58 p.m. EST, Feb. 20, 2009The weekly prayer day was fairly quiet, only nine Iraqis were reported killed and three more were wounded. Meanwhile, a U.S. Army medic accused of murdering four Iraqi detainees was found guilty today. In a message read during...

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The Military’s Expanding Waistline

The name search took a year, while the company became persona non grata in Iraq, but now it's a reality. The notorious Blackwater Worldwide has officially rebranded itself Xe. According to a company memo, "Xe will be a one-stop shopping source for world class...

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The Joan Walsh Syndrome 

Joan Walsh, the Salon.com political editor who appears often on MSNBC with Chris Matthews, is emblematic, for me, of a type I know all too well: the well-meaning Bay Area liberal. Her politics exemplify the psychology of our opinion elites who got behind Barack Obama...

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The US and Afghan Tragedy

*with Khushal Arsala One of the first difficult foreign policy decisions of the Obama administration will be what the United States should do about Afghanistan. Escalating the war, as National Security Advisor Jim Jones has been encouraging, will likely make matters...

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Still Homeless in Baghdad

BAGHDAD – "We only want a normal life," says Um Qasim, sitting in a bombed out building in Baghdad. She and others around have been saying that for years. Um Qasim lives with 13 family members in a brick shanty on the edge of a former military...

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The Asian Century

Former Antiwar.com columnist Doug Bandow writes this week in The National Interest Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is off on her first foreign trip, and the destination of Asia is well-chosen. Economic, cultural and political ties with Europe remain strong, but...

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A Year After

This week, the self-proclaimed state of Kosovo celebrated the anniversary of the Albanian provisional government declaring "independence" from Serbia. On February 17, 2008, following two years of sham negotiations and diplomatic farce, the institutions ostensibly...

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Afghan Civilian Casualties May Surge as Well

U.S. President Barack Obama announced Tuesday that he is sending two additional combat brigades to Afghanistan, marking the start of what many believe will be an escalation that will ultimately see the U.S. forces there double. There are some 36,000 U.S. troops...

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