Tuesday: 37 Iraqis, 1 GI Killed; 11 Iraqis Injured1 Jan 2007Excerpt: In Iraq today, at least 37 Iraqis were killed or found dead and another 11 wounded in various attacks throughout the country. Also, U.S. authorities reported that an American soldier was killed yesterday, and in a separate incident a GI killed an Iraqi soldier during an “altercation.”
Tuesday: 70 Iraqis, 1 GI Killed; 11 Iraqis Injured1 Jan 2007Excerpt: Updated at 6:25 p.m. EST, Jan. 2, 2007 In Iraq today, at least 70 Iraqis were killed or found dead and another 11 wounded in various attacks throughout the country. Also, U.S. authorities reported that an American soldier was killed yesterday, and in a separate incident a GI killed an Iraqi soldier during an “altercation.”
The Shi’ites Have Their Revenge31 Dec 2006Excerpt: The execution of Saddam Hussein took place at the beginning of Eid al-Adha, the Muslim religious feast that marks the sacrifice the prophet Abraham was prepared to make when God ordered him to kill his son. The symbolism is powerful but twofold: while Iraqi Shi’ites will regard Saddam’s death as a sign that God backs their leadership, Sunnis may see Saddam as a martyr. Eid al-Adha is celebrated with the slaughter of a lamb, representing the innocent blood of the young Ishmael, which Abraham was willing to shed in the name of God.
George W. Bush: Islamism’s Best Friend31 Dec 2006Excerpt: As 2006 comes to a close, the world is in flames and George W. Bush’s foreign policy is both directly and indirectly to blame. He has caused a civil war by invading Iraq, continued an occupation of Afghanistan that motivated a revival of the deposed radical Islamist Taliban movement, pushed for elections in Palestine that elected the Islamist group Hamas, cooperated with Israel’s failed attack on Lebanon that enhanced the status of the Islamist group Hezbollah in that country’s politics, and created an al-Qaeda-friendly Islamist threat to Somalia by supporting unpopular warlords. What other foreign policy disasters can George W. Bush perpetrate in his last two years in office?
Monday: 76 Iraqis, 2 GIs Killed; 10 Iraqis, 2 GIs Wounded31 Dec 2006Excerpt: Updated at 12:30 a.m. EST, Jan. 2, 2007 Violence continued on Monday, following a weekend where Iraq saw the execution of Saddam Hussein and the 3,000th American casualty. At least 76 Iraqis were killed or found dead today, 10 were injured, and the deaths of two more GIs were reported.
Saddam’s Death Leaves Unanswered Questions30 Dec 2006Excerpt: Iraqi-Americans reacted with sadness to the execution of Saddam Hussein Saturday, calling the former Iraqi president’s death by hanging early this morning Baghdad time a missed opportunity for justice.
Nuclear Disarmament Gets Critical29 Dec 2006Excerpt: NEW DELHI —If prospects for nuclear weapons reduction took a turn for the worse in 2006, the New Year holds out little hope for containing proliferation.
Preserve, Protect and Defend29 Dec 2006Excerpt: On hearing of the death of former President Gerald Ford, syndicated columnist Robert Novak—who infamously “outed” a CIA covert agent in what appears to have been a White House conspiracy, involving Vice President Dick Cheney, to discredit the CIA operative’s husband, who had joined the international chorus of those claiming that President Bush had knowingly invaded Iraq on false pretenses—told CNN he “didn’t think Ford was much of a President.”
Ends and Means in the New Year29 Dec 2006Excerpt: I happened to hear an old country classic today that somehow got me thinking about the New Year: Charlie Daniels’ “The Devil went down to Georgia.”...
Saturday: 110 Iraqis, 1 GI Killed; 167 Wounded29 Dec 2006Excerpt: Updated at 6:05 p.m. EST, Dec. 30, 2006 Saddam Hussein was hanged at dawn. He joins the 110 other Iraqis who were killed or found dead today; another 167 Iraqis were wounded in violent attacks throughout the country. Also, the death of another American soldier brought the total number of GIs killed in Iraq to 2998 deaths. U.S. authorities reported that a roadside bomb killed a U.S. servicemember in southwestern Baghdad on Friday. This death brings the total number of GI deaths in Iraq to 2998, just shy of the 3000 mark. December has also been the deadliest month for 2006 and the third bloodiest of the war with 109 deaths so far.
Bush Iraq Policy Murky on the Real Enemy28 Dec 2006Excerpt: This year saw the emergence of a sectarian civil war in Iraq and much more open Sunni-Shi’ite conflict in the Middle East. Sunni regimes in the region expressed acute anxiety both about the possibility of the Sunni-Shi’ite civil war in Iraq spreading to their own countries and about the growth of Iranian influence.
More Troops but Less Control in Iraq28 Dec 2006Excerpt: BAGHDAD —More US troops are expected to be deployed in Iraq in the New Year. Despite obvious rethinking, there is no decision on withdrawal of occupation forces.
The Disrespect for Truth has Brought a New Dark Age28 Dec 2006Excerpt: At the beginning of the scientific era, men had the hope that the ability to discover truth would free mankind from superstition, dogma, and the service of power. The belief in truth was powerful. Truth would deliver justice and bring an end to status-based privileges and the falsehoods propagated by privilege. The faith in truth was short-lived. Today propaganda is everywhere in the ascendency.
Readings in the Age of Empire28 Dec 2006Excerpt: Why are some countries democracies? Why are others dictatorships? The answers obviously are complex. History, culture, tradition, and accident all play a role. So does economics.
Somalia: US Foreign Policy and Gangsterism28 Dec 2006Excerpt: In our Orwellian age, no one is surprised when American foreign policy takes a U-turn, and, suddenly, we are at war with Eastasia—because, you see, we have always been at war with Eastasia. Yet even the most jaded observers are bound to raise an eyebrow over our embrace of the Somalian warlords, whose disarmament and capture was our announced goal the last time we intervened. That failed effort, you’ll recall, was dubbed “Operation Restore Hope.”
Friday: Saddam Hussein Executed; 66 Iraqis, 6 GIs, UK Soldier Killed28 Dec 2006Excerpt: Updated at 12:25 a.m. EST, Dec. 30, 2006 Arab media is reporting that Saddam Hussein has been executed. At least five American servicemembers were killed, and the death of a sixth soldier was reported. In Baghdad, a soldier was killed and another two were wounded when a roadside bomb blasted their vehicle in the capital on Friday. Military authorities also reported that three Marines lost their lives in Anbar province Thursday. Early Saturday morning Iraq-time, another soldier died in Anbar province. Also, the family of a soldier who was injured in November announced that the soldier succumbed to his wounds on Wednesday. At 108 deaths, December is the third bloodiest month for U.S. servicemembers since the war began and the deadliest of 2006.
Thursday: 80 Iraqis, 4 GIs Killed; 110 Iraqis, 1 GI Wounded27 Dec 2006Excerpt: As millions of Muslims began the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, 80 Iraqis were killed and another 110 wounded in violent attacks throughout Iraq today. Also, two American servicemembers were killed and another two were reported dead, bringing the December total of U.S. dead in Iraq to 102 servicemembers.
Blair’s Folly27 Dec 2006Excerpt: In 1996, Sir Robert Cooper published a pamphlet entitled “The Postmodern State and the World Order” [.pdf]. In it, he suggested, “The postmodern world has to start to get used to double standards. Among ourselves, we operate on the basis of laws and open cooperative security. But when dealing with old-fashioned states outside the postmodern continent of Europe we need to revert to the rougher methods of an earlier era—force, preemptive attack, deception, whatever is necessary…”
When Iraqis Gave Up on Government27 Dec 2006Excerpt: BAGHDAD —The Iraqi government headed by Prime Minister Noori al-Maliki, like earlier governments assigned by U.S. occupation authorities in Iraq, appears to have killed Iraqi dreams of a brighter future.
The Year Everything Changed27 Dec 2006Excerpt: To say that the year behind us has been interesting would be an understatement. On one hand, there were no wars in the Balkans; no insurgencies, pogroms, or massacres. On the other hand, Imperial influence in the region has decreased dramatically, most likely as a direct result of the long defeat it is undergoing worldwide.
Wednesday: 134 Iraqis, 7 GIs, 2 Coalition Soldiers Killed26 Dec 2006Excerpt: The U.S. military reported the deaths of seven GIs today. Also, two Latvian soldiers were killed and three were injured in a roadside bomb attack, and seven Britons were injured in a separate bombing. Meanwhile, 134 Iraqis were killed and 38 were wounded in violent attacks.
Study War for Peace26 Dec 2006Excerpt: The war will still be around—and quite possibly expanding—next week. It’s Christmas again, and the phenomenon I whine about every year—that this country lacks an adequate peace culture—remains a problem. To be sure, there’s a more pronounced antiwar sentiment this year than last year. But the positive aspects of peace—which include mutual exchange, an opportunity to build wealth and to use it for purposes wise and foolish alike, an opportunity to travel safely to exotic and fascinating locales, to tend to your own garden, to get to know your family and friends better, to share heartbreak and joy, to give and receive love—are still underappreciated.
Did the Russian Mafia Kill Alexander Litvinenko?26 Dec 2006Excerpt: They’re making a movie about the Litvinenko affair, but if Hollywood hews to the narrative dished out by the British tabloids, then I wouldn’t count on it being a box office hit. After all, the idea that the Kremlin would assassinate such an insignificant “dissident” by poisoning him with $10 million worth of rare polonium—and leaving a radioactive trail a mile wide back to the Kremlin’s doorstep—is so implausible that no one could possibly believe it. Unless, of course, it is presented as “news,” rather than entertainment—two categories that are often indistinguishable from each other, at least in the U.S.
The Embarrassment of the Wretched25 Dec 2006Excerpt: A recent call for a cultural boycott against Israel by John Berger and others has elicited one of its more wretched responses in the Guardian (Dec. 22), signed by Anthony Julius and Simon Schama. I confess I haven’t heard of Anthony Julius before—I am told he is a lawyer, and lawyers sometimes bend truth for their clients. But Simon Schama is a prominent academic, professor of history at Columbia, a man of science. He should know better.
2007 Promises More of the Same25 Dec 2006Excerpt: This Christmas, we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace. In Iraq, however, war rages on with no end in sight.
Antiwar.com original