Antiwar.com

Despite receiving some $8 billion a month in economic aid and military support over the past year, Iraq and Afghanistan rank among the world’s 10 weakest states, along with much of Central Africa, according to the "Failed States Index" for 2006 released here Tuesday. Iraq ranks number four – the same rating it received in … Continue reading “Iraq, Afghanistan Among Top Ten Failed States”

JERUSALEM – The often unruly Gaza Strip has become a hot zone of Palestinian frustration over the inability of the recently sworn-in Hamas government to pay civil servants. Many have reportedly not received salaries since March. Distressed police officers in the last few weeks briefly took control of several public buildings and threatened future attacks. … Continue reading “Internal Feuds Develop
Among Palestinians”

News that the Pentagon will soon release about a third of the prisoners still detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has prompted the U.S. media and many in the blogosphere to recall Defense Secretary Rumsfeld’s 2002 statement referring to Guantanamo prisoners as "the worst of the worst." And as recently as June 2005, he said, "If … Continue reading “Gitmo Releases Suggest Numerous Mistakes”

After those weapons of mass destruction never appeared and Saddam’s al-Qaeda connection proved but a figment of the overly vivid neocon (and vice-presidential) imagination, the Bush administration wheeled out the shiniest of American exports, democracy. It had worked for Ronald Reagan in Central America in the 1980s, why not in Iraq, too? Suddenly, actual democratic … Continue reading “Exporting the American Model”

Supporters of the Bush administration’s approach to what is sometimes grandly (or grandiosely) called the Global War on Terror (GWOT), if accounts of some intra-administration discussions are accurate, have sometimes been fond of asserting that the world changed on Sept. 11, 2001. Critics of aspects of the attack on Iraq are sometimes derided as having … Continue reading “Cold Assumptions”

Mad CowIf Condi is going around saying that the UNSC has approved a deadline for Iranian compliance with IAEA demands, then just what is that deadline supposed to be? Does she mention a specific date? If there really was no deadline approved, then how does she expect to get away with such an outrageous lie?~ … Continue reading “Backtalk, May 3, 2006”

Iranian leaders have been signaling to Washington since late 2005 that Iran wanted direct negotiations with the United States on Tehran’s nuclear program and other outstanding issues between the two countries. The campaign began with private talks between Iranian officials and foreign visitors in the country, and has included public suggestions by members of the … Continue reading “Iran Pushes for Talks With US on Nukes, Security”

However much President George W. Bush’s "freedom agenda" asserted itself into U.S. foreign policy in the wake of the Iraq invasion three years ago, traditional geo-politics – and the realpolitik that goes with it – is making a remarkably strong comeback. From the energy-rich Gulf of Guinea, across the Islamic Middle East to Central Asia, … Continue reading “Give Me That Old-Time Geo-Politics”

Hillary Clinton is pocketing enormous amounts of cash across the country for her reelection campaign, from Manhattan to Hollywood. Yet, Hillary is facing what seems to be fierce opposition from within her own party, as well as from third parties here in New York. The main reason candidates have signed up to challenge Hillary is … Continue reading “Challenging Hillary Clinton”

Unbelievably, a belligerent Bush administration is trying to rattle the saber again against Iran, because of its defiance of the United Nations Security Council’s resolution against Iran’s nuclear program. In the long term, such blustering by a superpower is only likely to speed the efforts of Iran and other countries with nuclear aspirations to get … Continue reading “The United States May Have to Live With a Nuclear Iran”