Struggling to Survive

From Dahr's weblog I revisited Chuwader General Hospital in Sadr City yesterday. Unlike at Yarmouk Hospital, the manager at Chuwader was very open about the desperate plight facing his hospital, where 78 doctors work with desperate medicine and equipment shortages to...

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US Abandons War Crimes Exemption

UNITED NATIONS – Faced with the prospect of a humiliating defeat, the United States abandoned its proposal to seek Security Council exemption for U.S. soldiers from possible war crime charges in future UN peacekeeping operations overseas. Unable to muster the...

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Egyptian Police Learn From Abu Ghraib

WASHINGTON – In what may be the first concrete example of the effects of the Abu Ghraib prison torture scandal in Iraq, lawyers and human rights groups in Egypt, a major U.S. ally in the Middle East, say that local police are increasingly resorting to new torture...

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Bring the Troops Home (from Korea)

The vortex of Korean politics can make even Donald Rumsfeld sound like the most radical Korean peace activist. "After the cold war," he declared on June 3, "U.S. forces have been stationed in South Korea for too long." The occasion was the announcement of the largest...

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The Honest Case for War

What if, instead of giving the speech he actually gave on the eve of war, President Bush had said the following? Would America be in Iraq today? "My fellow Americans, I come before you tonight to make my case for invading Iraq and deposing Saddam Hussein. In...

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Israel’s Intelligence Scandal

Two weeks ago, the international community made a shocking declaration. Giving in to a demand by George Bush, the "Quartet" accepted the "Revised Disengagement Plan" of Ariel Sharon. This means that the United Nations, the European Union, the Russian Federation and...

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Dealing with Iran’s Nuclear Challenge

Over the coming months, few Middle Eastern issues are likely to become more pressing than Iran's nuclear program. Admitting only to the pursuit of civilian energy, the Iranians are now preparing to complete a heavy water reactor at Arak from which the fissile material...

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