ARBIL - In a strongly worded statement, the president of Iraq's northern Kurdistan region rejected in its entirety the report by the Iraq Study Group, and threatened that Kurds would opt for secession from Iraq should Washington try to implement some of the key...
Nice Try, Daddy
What it looks like to me and to some people in Houston a friend and I have talked to who are in a much better position to know firsthand is that Daddy called on his old friend and consigliere to save Junior from himself. Jim Baker, impelled by friendship...
Public Found Likely to Support Baker Report
With the administration of President George W. Bush under mounting pressure to alter U.S. strategy in Iraq and the Middle East, a new public opinion survey quietly released this week found strong popular support for pursuing new diplomatic avenues as proposed by the...
Saturday: 59 Iraqis, 1 Marine Killed; 51 Iraqis Wounded
Updated at 7:20 p.m. EST, Dec. 9, 2006 A pair of separate car bombs, including one near an important shrine, added to today’s tally of Iraqi victims of violence. Overall, at least 59 Iraqis were killed or found dead and another 51 were wounded. Also, U.S....
Readings in the Age of Empire
The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created a War Without End Peter Galbraith Simon & Schuster, 2006 261 pp. Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq Thomas E. Ricks Penguin Press, 2006 482 pp. Losing Iraq: Inside the Postwar Reconstruction Fiasco David...
Friday: 78 Iraqis, 3 GIs Killed; 43 Iraqis, 2 Marines Wounded
Updated at 10:00 p.m. EST, Dec. 8, 2006 Although a regular car curfew helped quash violence towards religious observers in the capital, at least 78 Iraqis were killed today and 43 wounded in violent attacks across the country. Also, three U.S. soldiers were killed and...
Backtalk December 8, 2006
Is President Bush Sane? Paul Craig Roberts asks a compelling question: "Is President Bush sane?" Though Bush is apparently power-mad, don't underestimate his ruthlessness. Cunning is the word for Bush. He is shrewd enough to know that Hitler took total power in the...
Republic Takes Another Hit
at Gates Hearing
At Tuesday's Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the nomination of Robert Gates to be secretary of defense, I felt as though I were paying last respects to the Constitution of the United States. But there was none of the praise customarily given to the...
We Can’t Wait for 2008
As an attempt to clean up the mess created by President Bush and his neocon advisors, the report [.pdf] of the Baker-Hamilton commission is an admirable effort. Yet, in the end, it is too little, too late. The report is divided into two major sections an...
ISG Report Faces
Uncertain Future
One day after its official release, the package of 79 recommendations on U.S. Iraq and Middle East policy released Wednesday by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group (ISG) faced a very uncertain future. Denounced by hawks and doves alike in both major parties, the ISG's...


