Parliament’s speaker, Salim al-Jabouri, visited Washington D.C. and was promised $9 million in humanitarian aid. The U.S. has given Iraq $416 million in such aid since 2004. Jabouri met with U.S. President Barack Obama and several other officials. At least 131 were...
Originally posted at TomDispatch. There’s an ugliness to war beyond the ugly things war does. There are scars beyond the rough, imperfectly mended flesh of the gunshot wound, beyond the flashback, the startle reflex, the nightmare. War finds peculiar and heinous...
Almost nine months after President Obama admitted that “we don’t have a strategy yet” to challenge the Islamic State – and just days after he said he still has “no complete Iraq strategy” – the non-strategy suddenly has a name:...
A brouhaha erupted when Diane Rehm, of National Public Radio, confronted Bernie Sanders during an interview with an allegation that's been making the rounds on the Internet for years: "Now, you're a dual citizen of Israel," she averred. Startled, he replied: "Well, no...
U.S. Army General Martin Dempsey explained a potential strategy for troops in Iraq. The Pentagon is envisioning a several new military bases (“lily pads”) around Iraq, which could mean even more U.S. personnel beyond those stationed there currently and the ones...
Last week, Republicans and Democrats in Congress joined President Barack Obama in congratulating themselves for taming the National Security Agency's voracious appetite for spying. By permitting one section of the Patriot Act to expire and by replacing it with the USA...
When George W. Bush put Iraq, Iran, and North Korea into his infamous “axis of evil” speech in 2002, the three countries seemed to have little to do with one another – except that Washington didn’t like them (and they didn’t like Washington). Iran and Iraq were...
U.S. President Barack Obama authorized the deployment of another 450 U.S. servicemembers to Iraq. The troops will transfer to al-Taqaddum military base near Habaniya. Baghdad Municipal councilman Mohammed al-Rubai claims that almost 70 percent of homes belonging to...
Jeb Bush – at barely over 10 percent in the polls – is acting as if he's already putting his preppy $500 loafers up on the Oval Office desk. Forget Iowa, and to heck with New Hampshire – he's off on a trip to Europe, where he'll reportedly echo the real President's...
Increased state surveillance can be thought of in several different ways, depending on where you stand. Described uncharitably, it’s a Faustian bargain that dissolves from within the very liberty and democracy it’s meant to defend. Viewed less negatively, it’s a...
