Gareth Porter

The decision by President-elect Barack Obama to keep Robert M. Gates on as defense secretary has touched off a debate over whether Obama can pursue his commitment to rapid withdrawal from Iraq even though Gates has defended George W. Bush’s surge policy and opposed Obama’s 16-month timetable for withdrawal. Obama did not explicitly address Iraq … Continue reading “JFK Episode Suggests Obama’s Iraq Plan at Risk”

The text of the U.S.-Iraq status of forces agreement (SOFA) signed by U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari Monday closes the door to a further U.S. military presence beyond 2011 even more tightly than the previous draft and locks in a swift end to Iraqi dependence on the U.S. military that … Continue reading “Pact Will End Iraqi Dependence on US Military”

Last April, top George W. Bush administration officials, desperate to exploit any possible crack in the close relationship between the Nouri al-Maliki government and Iran, launched a new round of charges that Iran had stepped up covert arms assistance to Shia militias. Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates suggested that there was “some sense of … Continue reading “US Task Force Found Few Iranian Arms in Iraq”

The promotion of Robert M. Gates as President-elect Barack Obama’s secretary of defense appears to be the key element in a broad campaign by military officials and their supporters in the political elite and the news media to pressure Obama into dropping his plan to withdraw US troops from Iraq in as little as 16 … Continue reading “Obama Pressured to Back Off Iraq Withdrawal”

The threat by the George W. Bush administration last week to withdraw all economic and military support from the Iraqi government if it does not accept the US-Iraq status of forces agreement has raised the stakes in the political-diplomatic struggle over the issue. However, most Iraqi politicians are now so averse to any formal legitimization … Continue reading “US Cutoff Threat Unlikely to Save Iraq Troop Pact”

The final draft of the US-Iraq Status of Forces agreement on the US military presence represents an even more crushing defeat for the policy of the George W. Bush administration than previously thought, the final text reveals. The final draft, dated Oct. 13, not only imposes unambiguous deadlines for withdrawal of US combat troops by … Continue reading “Final Text of Iraq Pact Reveals a US Debacle”

The present U.S. policy in Afghanistan of using air strikes to target local Taliban leaders was rejected by the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan in early 2004 as certain to turn the broader population against the U.S. presence. Lt. Gen. David Barno, the three-star general who commanded the Combined Forces Command-Afghanistan, the overall U.S. and … Continue reading “Fears of Blowback Nixed Afghan Air Strikes in 2004”

The beginning of political talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban revealed by press accounts this week is likely to deepen the rift that has just erupted in public between the United States and its British ally over the US commitment to an escalation of the war in Afghanistan. According to a French diplomatic … Continue reading “Afghan Peace Talks Widen US-UK Rift on War Policy”

New evidence from former U.S. officials reveals that the George W. Bush administration failed to adopt any plan to block the retreat of Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders from Afghanistan to Pakistan in the first weeks after 9/11. That failure was directly related to the fact that top administration officials gave priority to … Continue reading “Bush Had No Plan to Catch Bin Laden After 9/11”

The George W. Bush administration’s decision to launch commando raids and step up missiles strikes against Taliban and al-Qaeda figures in the tribal areas of Pakistan followed what appears to have been the most contentious policy process over the use of force in Bush’s eight-year presidency. That decision has stirred such strong opposition from the … Continue reading “Vested Interests Drove New Pakistan Policy”