The United States Institute of Peace (USIP) has now corrected some of the errors I pointed out in my Oct. 24 article, “U.S.-Funded ‘Iran Primer’ Needs Editing.” More can be done. For one thing, they had an impossibly wrong date for an Ahmadinejad speech in their Iran timeline (March 27 – months before he even …
Continue reading “US Institute of Peace Corrects ‘Iran Primer’ Errors… Sort Of”
UNITED NATIONS – When the shah of Iran, a strongly pro-U.S. ally, was ousted from power after the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the stridently anti-U.S. regime of Ayatollah Khomeini that captured power also inherited a military bonanza: billions of dollars worth of state-of-the-art weapons provided by the United States. The U.S. equipment in the Iranian …
Continue reading “Multi-Billion-Dollar Arms Deals Could Haunt US”
Oh, good. I see that Sen. Lindsey Graham wants to attack Iran. The U.S., he says, should “sink their navy, destroy their air force, and deliver a decisive blow to the Revolutionary Guard.” Sen. Graham has the brains of a tapeworm, making him eminently qualified for the Senate. Tapeworms, I note, do not have brains. …
Continue reading “Children With Matches”
Less than a week after Republicans made major gains in the U.S. midterm elections, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called on President Barack Obama to “create a credible threat of military action” against Iran. Initial official reaction was negative, with Defense Secretary Robert Gates insisting that Obama’s preferred strategy of enhanced multilateral sanctions and …
Continue reading “Netanyahu Pounds War Drums”
Listen to Rep. Paul deliver this speech by clicking here. This month the U.S. administration notified Congress that it intends to complete one of the largest arms sales in U.S. history to one of the most repressive regimes on earth. Saudi Arabia has been given the green light by the administration to spend $60 billion …
Continue reading “Saudi Arms Deal Is About Iran”
Though Obama “may lose control of Congress,” says columnist David Broder, he “can still storm back to win a second term in 2012.” How does Broder suggest Obama go about it? “Look back at FDR and the Great Depression. What finally resolved that economic crisis? World War II.” Conceding the prospect of a new war …
Continue reading “Broder’s Brainstorm”
You can’t turn on the TV news or pick up a paper these days without stumbling across the latest political poll and the pros explaining how to parse it, or some set of commentators, pundits, and reporters placing their bets on the midterm elections. The media, of course, loves a political horse race and, as …
Continue reading “Handicapping the Global Midterms”
A newly released WikiLeaks document on Iraq and the new political alignment between Moqtada al-Sadr and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki both provide fresh evidence that Gen. David Petraeus’s war against Shi’ite militias in 2007-2008 was a futile exercise. The WikiLeaks document is an intelligence report identifying the Shi’ite commander who Petraeus said was the …
Continue reading “Leaked Report, New Iraqi Alignment Reveal US War Failure”
Today’s attacks concentrated on police personnel, but one also came close to harming the United Nation’s top envoy to Iraq. At least 19 Iraqis were killed and 25 more were wounded in those and other attacks. As many as 15 Iranian pilgrims were injured as well. Also, an Iraqi general says he will investigate claims that journalists are still being beaten by security personnel.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is in Tehran garnering support for his claim to another term as premier while at least 10 Iraqis were killed and 22 more were wounded in new violence back home. Also, one U.S. soldier was killed in a non-combat event in southern Iraq. The Pentagon is asking news outlets to ignore, …
Continue reading “Monday: US Soldier, 10 Iraqis Killed; 22 Iraqis Wounded” 
