Sound and Fury10 Jan 2007Excerpt: Five days before he announced on NBC that he would be running for president, senior Democratic Senator Joseph Biden (D-Del.) published a belligerent, fact-challenged and demagogic editorial in London’s Financial Times, spelling out what the Democrats considered successful foreign policy. It was a throwback to the darkest days of Clintonism, that only look bright and nave in comparison with the nightmare of Bush the Lesser that came afterward.
Jimmy Carter Speaks Truth to Propaganda10 Jan 2007Excerpt: Jimmy Carter, probably the most decent man to occupy the White House, received a lot of grief during his term in office, most of it undeserved. His latest book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid has brought him even more grief, none of it deserved.
Wednesday: 126 Iraqis, 3 GIs Killed; 73 Iraqis Wounded9 Jan 2007Excerpt: Updated at 12:20 p.m. EST, Jan. 10, 2007 At least 126 Iraqis were killed or found dead today and another 73 were wounded in violent acts across the country. Attacks were light in Baghdad where combined U.S. and Iraqi forces had been conducting raids. Also, the U.S. military reported that two American soldiers died from combat wounds yesterday in Anbar province, one soldier was killed by an explosive device in Fallujah; the death of a fourth soldier had already been reported yesterday.
Israel’s Purging of Palestinian Christians9 Jan 2007Excerpt: For tourists and pilgrims, getting in or out of Bethlehem has been made reasonably straightforward, presumably to conceal from international visitors the realities of Palestinian life. I was even offered a festive chocolate Santa Claus by the Israeli soldiers who control access to the city where Jesus was supposedly born. Seemingly oblivious to the distressing historical parallels, however, Israel forces foreigners to pass through a “border crossing”—a gap in the menacing grey concrete wall—that recalls the stark black and white images of the entrance to Auschwitz…
Raptors, Robots, and Rods from God9 Jan 2007Excerpt: Just this week, the Bush administration is considering making a little futuristic news. The president might soon approve “a major step forward in the building of the country’s first new nuclear warhead in nearly two decades,” the Reliable Replacement Warhead. If only names were reality…
Hardliner’s Hardliner Led Bush’s Iraq Review9 Jan 2007Excerpt: When President George W. Bush’s unveils his long-awaited new strategy on Iraq Wednesday night, he will be relying heavily on the counsel of one J.D. Crouch II, perhaps the most hardline—if most obscure—of his hawkish advisers.
They Never Learn9 Jan 2007Excerpt: The series of blunders and willful miscalculations that led to our present predicament in Iraq are now being replicated in Somalia, where a rather large U.S. footprint is being stamped into the hard Somali soil.
Baghdad 2025: The Pentagon Solution to a Planet of Slums8 Jan 2007Excerpt: So you think that American troops, fighting in the urban maze of Baghdad’s huge Shi’ite slum, Sadr City, add up to nothing more than a horrible mistake, an unexpected fiasco? The Pentagon begs to differ. For years now, U.S. war planners have believed that guerrilla warfare is the future—not against Guevarist focos in the countryside of some recalcitrant, possibly-oil-rich land, but in growing urban “jungles” in the vast slum cities that increasingly dot the planet.
Managing Escalation: Negroponte and Bush’s New Iraq Team8 Jan 2007Excerpt: As part of a massive staff shakeup of Bush’s Iraq team last week, it was announced that John Negroponte, the current U.S. National Intelligence Director who has also conveniently served as the U.S. ambassador to Iraq from June 2004 to April 2005 is being tapped as the new Deputy Secretary of State.
Say Good-bye to a Future Republican Presidency8 Jan 2007Excerpt: President George W. Bush, contrary to the will of the American and Iraqi peoples and his own military commanders, seems ready to embark on a potentially disastrous escalation of the Iraq war, which was lost long ago. This mind-numbingly idiotic strategy is sure to needlessly cost more American and Iraqi lives and to lose the presidency for the Republicans in 2008.
Terrified Soldiers Terrifying People8 Jan 2007Excerpt: FALLUJAH —Ten-year-old Yassir aimed a plastic gun at a passing US armored patrol in Fallujah, and shouted “Bang! Bang!” The soldiers followed Yassir to his house and smashed almost everything in it. “They did this after beating Yassir and his uncle hard, and they spoke the nastiest words,” Ahmed said.
More Subpoenas Come Down in Watada Case8 Jan 2007Excerpt: In a case that could have repercussions for free speech and press freedom in the United States, the U.S. military has subpoenaed two peace activists and a journalist in its case against Lt. Ehren Watada, the first commissioned officer to be court-martialed for refusing to serve in Iraq.
Tuesday: 120 Iraqis, GI Killed; 34 Foreigners Killed in Plane Crash8 Jan 2007Excerpt: Updated at 12:20 a.m. EST, Jan. 10, 2007 In Iraq today, at least 120 people were killed or found dead and another 18 were injured during violent attacks. Also, at least 34 more were killed during a plane crash. No foreign military casualties were reported today. Also, one American soldier was shot dead in Diyala province.
Ford: A Lincoln and an Imperial(ist)7 Jan 2007Excerpt: One of the late Gerald Ford’s favorite sayings during his first few weeks of office was that he was “a Ford, not a Lincoln.” Ford meant it as a statement of his humility. Ford’s humility was, in fact, one of his best character traits. But in pardoning Richard Nixon a month after becoming president, Ford showed himself to be very much like Lincoln. And in doing so, Ford set a bad precedent, making it easier for future presidents to break the law and to abuse the power of the presidency because he had increased the probability that they would not be held to account.
Is Bush’s War Winding Down or Heating Up?7 Jan 2007Excerpt: Most Americans believe that Bush’s Iraqi misadventure is over. The occupation has lost the support of the electorate, the Congress, the generals and the troops. The Democrats are sitting back waiting for Bush to come to terms with reality. They don’t want to be accused of losing the war by forcing Bush out of Iraq. There are no more troops to commit, and when the “surge” fails, Bush will have no recourse but to withdraw. A little longer, everyone figures, and the senseless killing will be over.
Defund the War7 Jan 2007Excerpt: The twisting and turning, the double- and triple-talk, the obfuscation and evasion—is there any limit to the Democrats’ duplicity when it comes to ending the Iraq war?
Monday: 99 Iraqis, 2 GIs Killed; 88 Iraqis Injured7 Jan 2007Excerpt: Updated at 12:45 p.m EST, Jan. 9, 2006 At least 99 Iraqis were killed or found dead today and another 88 were injured during violent attacks; two Yemeni citizens associated with a militant group were also killed. U.S. military authorities also reported that two American soldiers were killed in separate events on Sunday. And, Iraqi police said that a U.S. vehicle was attacked in Mosul, but no casualties have been reported there.
Sunday: 62 Iraqis, 3 GIs, Briton Killed; 42 Iraqis, 2 Britons, GI Injured6 Jan 2007Excerpt: In Iraq today, at least 62 Iraqis were killed or found dead and another 42 wounded in violent attacks. Also, three GIs and one British soldier were killed in separate incidents; another two Britons and one American were wounded. Three U.S. airmen were killed by a car bomb in Baghdad. Meanwhile, a roadside bomb went off near a U.S. patrol in Iskandariyah, but no casualties were reported there. Also, the British Ministry of Defense announced that one British soldier died and two more were injured in a non-combat-related traffic accident this morning. U.S forces, using tear gas, also dispersed a demonstration in Nahrawan; two people suffered from asphyxia.
Kashmir Resolution in Sight?5 Jan 2007Excerpt: NEW DELHI —A month after President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan proposed a four-point formula to resolve the troubled question of Kashmir jointly with India, exploratory contacts between the two governments have gathered momentum.
Somalia’s ‘Government’ Still on the Brink5 Jan 2007Excerpt: While U.S. officials were euphoric over last month’s unexpectedly easy rout by Ethiopia and Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of the Islamic Courts Union, skepticism that stability can be restored to the long-suffering African nation remains high.
Antiwar.com original