Argentine Report Casts Doubt on Iran Role in ‘94 Bomb13 Nov 2006Excerpt: The report by Argentine prosecutors in support of the arrest warrants just issued for seven former Iranian officials for the 1994 terror bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires reveals that Argentina was continuing to provide Iran with low-grade enriched uranium and the two countries were in serious negotiations on broader nuclear cooperation when the bombing occurred.
Kurds Want Early Death for Saddam13 Nov 2006Excerpt: ARBIL —As Saddam Hussein faces his second trial, this one over the killing of an estimated 180,000 Kurds in the late 1980s, people in Kurdistan are taking a particular interest whether the death sentence in the first case will be carried out before there can be a verdict in the second.
The Black Hole of Europe13 Nov 2006Excerpt: In a recent article in Canada’s Globe and Mail, former Canadian Ambassador to Yugoslavia James Bissett invokes the famous words of Otto von Bismarck, who once said, “If there is ever another war in Europe, it will come out of some damned silly thing in the Balkans.”
The Politics of Withdrawal12 Nov 2006Excerpt: The midterm elections have produced a conundrum. Virtually everybody agrees that the Democratic sweep of Congress was largely attributable to anger about the war. Americans may be uncertain as to what should be done in Iraq, but they are unhappy with the current situation and want change. This sets up a nasty dilemma. Roll the tape forward to the presidential election of 2008: If the war is still going as it has been for the last two years, the Republicans will lose. No matter who the Democrats run, the voters will support him or her over amy Republican nominee. Moreover, more seats in both houses will go to the Democrats, giving that party overwhelming strength in Congress.
Apple Pie, Mom, and a Story for a Lost War12 Nov 2006Excerpt: Here we are just days beyond the strange event that passes for an election in our country. Election Day now turns out to be just the almost-last step in a grueling season of serial elections called “opinion polls,” whose fluctuations are meant to tell us ahead of time how we are likely to vote.
Who Lost Iraq?12 Nov 2006Excerpt: In a recent op-ed piece for the Los Angeles Times, Andrew J. Bacevich, West Point graduate and professor of international relations at Boston University, takes up the question that will haunt us for some time to come: Who lost Iraq? As he goes through the likely suspects, his implicit answer is clear enough, but it’s the getting there that is quite interesting and even illuminating.
Monday: 4 GIs, 109 Iraqis Killed; 4 GIs, 47 Iraqis Injured12 Nov 2006Excerpt: After a violently active Sunday, Monday followed suit with at least 109 Iraqis killed and 47 more injured. American officials added the news that four American soldiers were killed and another four injured in separate events. Also, Turkish offcials released the news that a kidnapped Turk had been killed in Iraq.
Sunday: 3 GIs, 4 UK Troops, 217 Iraqis Killed; 3 UK Troops, 146 Iraqis Wounded11 Nov 2006Excerpt: Sundayand#8217;s casualty tally quickly rose to 217 Iraqis either killed or found dead and another 149 Iraqis injured after a suicide bomb attack in Baghdad and the discovery of 75 corpses in Baqouba. Foreign servicemembers were also subject to violence. Today, four British servicemen were killed, three injured, in an attack on their boat in Basra, and the U.S. military also reported that three American soldiers were killed in Anbar Province on Saturday. In other news, an official at the Baghdad morgue reported that approximately 1600 bodies were delivered to the morgue during the holy month of Ramadan. That averages out to over 50 a day.
Reenacting War10 Nov 2006Excerpt: On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, an armistice was signed that ended World War I, the first great bloodletting of the twentieth century, “the war to end all wars” that proved but the prelude to World War II…
Live by the Sword, Die by the Sword10 Nov 2006Excerpt: Since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, US President George W Bush has campaigned in one presidential contest (2004) and two Congressional races (2002 and 2004) as a victorious “War President.”
Antiwar Voters May Get Less Than They Bargained For10 Nov 2006Excerpt: Democratic majorities in both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, and the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld as defense secretary, will not necessarily mean major changes for the war in Iraq, analysts say.
Goodbye, Rummy10 Nov 2006Excerpt: A glance at Donald Rumsfeld’s biography will tell you that he is: (1) ambitious; (2) bright; (3) competent; and (4) incredibly experienced in both the private sector and the public sector.
More Work Ahead10 Nov 2006Excerpt: Well, the election results Tuesday were almost universally interpreted as a referendum on the Iraq war, and Bush and the neocons got their heads handed to them.
War of Aggression Thwarted?10 Nov 2006Excerpt: Several weeks ago, a gaggle of prominent neo-crazies, including Richard Perle, Michael Ledeen, David Frum, Kenneth Adelman and Michael Rubin, railed on the record in Vanity Fair magazine against the incompetent implementation by President Bush and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld of their decades-long plans to effect regime change in Iraq.
Saturday: 2 Coalition soldiers, 61 Iraqis Killed; 50 Kidnapped10 Nov 2006Excerpt: As the Veteranand#8217;s Day holiday is observed in the United States, the War in Iraq continues without a pause. Two Coalition soldiers were killed and another two injured. A translator for U.S forces was kidnapped, and at least 61 Iraqis were killed or found dead and 51 were injured. At least 50 others were kidnapped, including a mass kidnapping near Latifiyah.
Friday: 5 GIs, 62 Iraqis Killed; 2 GIs, 20 Iraqis Wounded9 Nov 2006Excerpt: So far today, 29 Iraqis have been killed or found dead and another 20 wounded throughout the country. Thanks in part to a regular curfew set in place to protect religious observers, violence in Iraq generally tapers off on Fridays, which is the Muslim day of prayer. Also, the U.S. military reported that five American servicemembers were killed and another two injured in separate events: One Marine died Thursday from wounds received in Anbar Province and another Marine died today of causes unrelated to combat. Yesterday, Two American MPs were killed and another soldier injured by a roadside bomb in western Baghdad. In Haditha today, a U.S. soldier was killed and another injured when their truck was blasted by a roadside bomb. This brings the November tally of U.S. dead to 26.
Let’s Now Charge the Accomplices9 Nov 2006Excerpt: In a show trial whose theatrical climax was clearly timed to promote George W. Bush in the American midterm elections, Saddam Hussein was convicted and sentenced to hang. Drivel about “end of an era” and “a new start for Iraq” was promoted by the usual false moral accountants, who uttered not a word about bringing the tyrant’s accomplices to justice. Why are these accomplices not being charged with aiding and abetting crimes against humanity?
The Cheney-Gates Cabal9 Nov 2006Excerpt: As the Iraq war goes from bad to worse, President George W. Bush jettisoned “stay the course” in favor of “necessary adjustments.” Yesterday he showed how quickly he can adjust to the midterm election results when he jettisoned Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, barely a week after telling reporters Rumsfeld was doing a “fantastic job” and that he wanted him to stay on for the next two years.
The Wreck of the War Party9 Nov 2006Excerpt: The wild, drunken neocon joyride is over. After running as the candidate of national restraint and humility, George W. Bush metamorphosed into a modern Alexander the Great, promising to bring civilization and democracy to both the known and unknown worlds. He mobilized popular support for war in Iraq by manipulating dubious intelligence and spinning idyllic fantasies. The Republicans increased their congressional majorities by demonizing their critics, suggesting that opposition equaled defeatism and treason. The results were GOP victories in 2002 and 2004.
Bechtel Departure Shatters More Iraqi Illusions9 Nov 2006Excerpt: BAGHDAD —The decision of the giant engineering company Bechtel to withdraw from Iraq has left many Iraqis feeling betrayed. In its departure they see the end of remaining hopes for the reconstruction of Iraq.
Does Father Know Best?9 Nov 2006Excerpt: Leave it to the Americans to consider their foreign policy in terms of a family drama: the current narrative is that Rummy’s exit signals the arrival of Daddy’s Wise Men to bail out Junior from the mess he’s made in the Iraqi sandbox. Like a frat boy who has maxed out his credit card or totaled his flashy new sports car, poor little Georgie-Porgie has finally turned to Daddykins for advice he once spurned. Just like in an episode of Father Knows Best—or, better yet, Leave It To Beaver…
Friday: 3 GIs, 25 Iraqis Killed; 1 GI, 20 Iraqis Wounded9 Nov 2006Excerpt: So far today, 25 Iraqis have been killed or found dead and another 20 wounded throughout the country. Thanks in part to a regular curfew set in place to protect religious observers, violence in Iraq generally tapers off on Fridays, which is the Muslim day of prayer. Also, the U.S. military reported that three American servicemembers were killed and another one injured yesterday in separate events: A Marine died Thursday from wounds received in Anbar Province, while two American MPs were killed and another soldier injured by a roadside bomb in western Baghdad.
Thursday: 104 Iraqis Killed, 203 Injured8 Nov 2006Excerpt: A second day of increased violence follows the lifting of curfews designed to quell violence resulting from the death sentence imposed on former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Today, 104 Iraqis were killed and another 203 were injured. No foreign casualties were reported, but Dr. Abdul-Razzaq al-Obaid, director of Baghdadand#8217;s main morgue, said that he receives as many as 60 bodies each day.
The Battle for Kosovo8 Nov 2006Excerpt: If one were to be informed strictly by the mainstream media in the English-speaking world, it would be very hard to harbor any doubts about the future status of Kosovo. The occupied Serbian province—though, of course, never referred to as such, but always as a region with a 90 percent Albanian majority—is expected to declare independence within months, if not weeks, with the full support of Washington, London, and Brussels.
Can Jim Baker Save the American Establishment?8 Nov 2006Excerpt: The Queen, a film directed by Stephen Frears with Helen Mirren in an Oscar-winning performance as Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, is meant to be the cinematic account of the composed—well, chilly—response by the queen to the death of Princess Diana in a car crash in a Paris tunnel in 1997, which enraged the hysterical British masses.
Antiwar.com original