Initial press reports on information provided to the Senate by Robert Gates, President George W. Bush's nominee for the post of defense secretary, show Gates hewing very closely to the rhetoric of his predecessor. Gates is more parrot than innovator in his responses...
Gates, Hadley:
Bush Seems Determined to
Stay the Course
Despite a growing and virtually universal consensus both in America and abroad that the United States must engage Syria and Iran if it hopes to stabilize Iraq, U.S. President George W. Bush appears determined to ignore Baghdad's two key neighbors as long as possible....
Spying Won’t Deter Us,
Peace Groups Say
A coalition of U.S. peace groups is pressing ahead with plans for what it hopes will be a massive march on Washington Jan. 27, even though newly released documents show the antiwar community is under Pentagon surveillance. "The peace and justice movement helped make...
Thursday: 92 Iraqis, 2 GIs Killed; 42 Iraqis Wounded
At least 92 Iraqis were killed or found dead and another 42 were wounded today as President Bush is in Jordan for talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki and others. Also, Coalition sources reported that an American soldier was killed on Wednesday and another GI today,...
China, India Make Progress at No Cost to Pakistan
NEW DELHI - At the end of an important week-long visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao to South Asia, what does the complicated triangular relationship among Beijing, New Delhi, and Islamabad, three of Asia's four nuclear powers, look like? Going by conventional...
Wednesday: 83 Iraqis, 2 GIs Killed; 61 Iraqis Wounded
Updated at 6:40 p.m. EST, Nov. 29, 2006 Today, at least 83 Iraqis were killed or found dead and 61 were wounded in separate incidents across Iraq. Also, U.S. military sources reported on the death of an American soldier from "enemy action" in Anbar province....
Who Makes the Middle East?
A revealing book I have recently read about the present Middle East is Joris Luyendijk's Almost Human. Luyendijk was a Dutch journalist who spent several years (1998-2003) in Arab countries as well as in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, working for two...
Rural America Suffering High Death Toll in Iraq, Afghanistan
Rural communities are experiencing a disproportionate amount of U.S. military deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a new study by the Carsey Institute, a think tank at the University of New Hampshire. "The mortality rate for soldiers from rural America is...
The Abominables of
The New Republic
I find it almost impossible to write another post about our nauseatingly immoral invasion and occupation of Iraq. I've made my views clear, and offered numerous reasons for my conclusions. See, for example, "No Way Out But Out," "A Genuine Mission Impossible,"...
The Balkanization of Iraq
While ethnic cleansing plagues "liberated Iraq," Moqtada al-Sadr, the leader of the powerful Shi'ite Mahdi militia, has issued an ultimatum to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Sadr warned that if Maliki met President Bush in Jordan this week, the cleric and...


