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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 serve an average of 3,000 daily visitors. I was taken on a tour where … Continue reading “Struggling to Survive”

Will the Sept. 11 Commission follow the example set by Congress and the Intelligence Community and let itself be intimidated by Vice President Dick Cheney? Now that the commission’s staff report has pulled the rug out from under the notion so successfully fostered by the administration that Iraq played a role in the attacks of … Continue reading “Will the Commissioners Cave?”

From Dahr’s weblog The evening of the 21st found me at a CPA-approved demonstration of Shia men in support of the recent U.S airstrike of Fallujah. Remember, demonstrations in Iraq now must obtain permission from the CPA, otherwise risk being broken up by the military, which has so often led to making casualties of unarmed … Continue reading “‘Our Duty Is to Export Violence’”

The victors in the Iraq war are now moving rapidly to consolidate their gains, and carry out the second phase of their operation. No, I don’t mean the June 30 American handover of pseudo-"sovereignty" to a puppet regime, but the ongoing invasion of Kurdistan by Israeli operatives trying to spark a war of secession. Thanks … Continue reading “The Stab in the Back”

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 accordance with our republican form of government, I … Continue reading “The Honest Case for War”

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 U.S. troop reductions from the Korean peninsula since the … Continue reading “Bring the Troops Home (from Korea)”

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 tactics similar to those used by U.S. soldiers … Continue reading “Egyptian Police Learn From Abu Ghraib”

LAHORE – Protests against Pakistan’s acquisition of vast tracts of land for mega military projects in its western Balochistan province are snowballing, with armed tribesmen blowing up an airport in the gas-rich region of Sui last week, and local nationalist parties threatening political action on August 1. The tribesmen battled security forces in Balochistan, which … Continue reading “Military Steals Peasants’ Land – Could Pakistan Face Another Secession?”

While more than 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq continue trying to impose security in advance of the June 30 handover of limited sovereignty to the new Iraqi administration, the security situation in nearby Afghanistan continues to deteriorate. With national elections just three months away, observers here say that tribal warlords, as well as resurgent Taliban … Continue reading “Afghan Elections Threatened by Lack of Security”

From Dahr’s weblog The floor of my hotel rumbled as yet another bomb detonated in central Baghdad at 8:55 a.m. today. My colleague down the hall showed up and asked, “Did you feel that?” I responded, “Yeah, Abu Talat is scheduled to show at nine so we can go to work … get your stuff.” … Continue reading “‘Bush Is a Great Actor’”