Antiwar.com

I know it’s terribly naive to suggest such a thing, but you might have thought that if even a secondary purpose of the vaunted war on terrorism and the sidetrack into Iraq had something to do with demonstrating the superiority of democracy and the rule of law, that the administration would have taken steps to … Continue reading “Thugs With Lawyers”

Did American soldiers killed and maimed in Iraq, and Israeli soldiers killed and maimed in Gaza and the West Bank, die for nothing? Americans are dying now because of ideologues and zealots. Israeli soldiers are dying for settlements and unattainable goals. Both are trapped. Take the United States, for example, bogged down in a war … Continue reading “US, Israel Caught in Traps”

In my last column, I referenced “the canon,” the seven books which, if read in the correct order, take the reader from the First Generation of modern war through the Second and Third Generations and into the Fourth. A number of people responded with requests for a description both of the canon and of the … Continue reading “The Canon and the Four Generations”

NEW DELHI (IPS) – This week’s stunning confessions by two Indian soldiers that they helped stage fake encounters with Pakistani troops on Siachen, often called the world’s highest, coldest and costliest battlefield, has renewed calls for demilitarizing the Himalayan glacier. On Monday, rifleman Shyam Bahadur Thapa told a military court that he not only demolished … Continue reading “A Fake War in the Himalayas?”

While a restful experience, driving around the mountains and green fields of Kurdistan did not provide the complete escape from the troubles of Iraq for which we had hoped. The cousin of a friend manages a hotel in Erbil … one of the nicer lodges in the city. While dining with him in the empty … Continue reading “Troubles in Kurdistan”

ARBIL, Iraq (IPS) – And now the United States is running into difficulties in Northern Iraq where it has enjoyed the support of the largely Kurd population. Since the 1991 Gulf War whole swaths of Northern Iraq have been controlled by two Kurdish militias, the guerrilla armies of Masoud Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and … Continue reading “Kurds Worry About Future”

The Dog Days of the War Party Pat’s latest is a cogent and too-brief listing of the unresolved issues facing the current administration – and, of course, the American people. For all of us old Goldwater conservatives the travesty of neocon Republicanism is deeply disheartening. There really is only one answer – develop the intestinal … Continue reading “”

WASHINGTON, June 8 (IPS) – National elections in Afghanistan planned for September will be increasingly in doubt unless western nations commit more troops to the war-weary country, international human rights groups told leaders of the Group of Eight (G8) industrialized nations, gathering this week on Sea Island in the state of Georgia. With less than … Continue reading “Failed Promises Imperil Afghanistan Polls, Groups Tell G8”

On the eve of the Iraq war, Pentagon lawyers gave license to torturing suspected terrorists in custody. Use of drugs on prisoners wasn’t banned in all cases. Even killing in some cases was justified. That’s the gist of a March 6, 2003, draft Pentagon report titled, “Working Group Report on Detainee Interrogations in the Global … Continue reading “The Torture Working Group”

Nebojsa Malic is on vacation this week. Five years after the NATO occupation of Kosovo began, the Balkans remains as restive as ever. Serbs in the occupied province have just suffered another terror attack, even as the UN occupiers fuss about gender quotas. Tensions are mounting in Bosnia, as viceroy Ashdown, NATO and the Hague … Continue reading “The Pointless Poll”