Looking at visual images from U.S.-run prisons in Iraq, news watchers now find themselves in the midst of a jolting experience that roughly resembles a process described by Donald Rumsfeld: "It is the photographs that gives one the vivid realization of what actually...
As revolting images of torture and degradation of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib flooded the media, it was only a matter of time before someone would invoke the comparison with atrocities (allegedly) committed in the Balkans. But unlike the lurid Balkans stories...
Yesterday at the General Hospital of Fallujah, doctors spoke of atrocities that occurred during the month-long siege of the city in April. Dr. Abdul Jabbar, an Orthopedic Surgeon, said that it was difficult to keep track of the number of people they treated, as well...
Last week, CBS's Sixty Minutes II program showed footage of American soldiers creating "human pyramids" from detained Iraqis. However, it should be remembered that Iraqis, and indeed Muslims in general, are no strangers to "human pyramids." The last time that such...
Several major weapons manufacturers and military contractors reported higher than expected first quarter profits or increased revenue at the end of April. Boeing, Northrop-Grumman, and Halliburton were three of the companies that have benefited from recent US military...
I oppose the House resolution that claims to condemn prisoner abuse in Iraq. Like so many resolutions we have seen here on the Iraq war, this one is not at all what it purports to be. Were this really a resolution condemning abuse of prisoners and other detainees, I...
With pictures of the sadistic sexual abuse of Iraqis in Abu Ghraib prison still spilling out onto the front pages, it is not too early to draw some conclusions. The neoconservative hour is over. All the blather about "empire," our "unipolar moment," "Pax Americana"...
In a 1972 book, Victims of Groupthink: A Psychology Study of Foreign-Policy Decisions and Fiascoes, Irving Janis identified the Vietnam War and the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba as particularly compelling examples of how very smart people can collectively make very...
THE SETTING Toby Dodge's Inventing Iraq: The Failure of Nation Building and a History Denied 1 (03) constitutes a very interesting guide to the British period in Iraq - or Mesopotamia, as it was then called. The period began, naturally enough, in World War I. Like...
