News & Comment
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The Jabberwock In Afghanistan by Daniel M. Smith, | July 28, 2006
Afghanis warn that their country is at a crossroads, and they fear abandonment by the U.S. read more »Stopping John Bolton by Bill Scher and Isaiah J. Poole, OurFuture.org | July 27, 2006
It was easy, listening to Thursday’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on John Bolton’s ambassadorship to the United Nations, to get lost in the minutiae of U.N. programs and resolutions, and fear that the big picture of the damage Bolton is doing to America’s standing in the world would be lost. If that happens, it could lead to the disaster of Bolton’s successful nomination as U.N. ambassador. read more »Maliki: Dead Man Walking by Robert Dreyfuss, | July 26, 2006
More funereal than triumphant, the Iraqi prime minister's Hill visit underscores Bush's policy failure. read more »The Rome Fiasco by Chris Toensing, | July 26, 2006
Rice's wrongheaded approach toward a "sustainable" Mideast ceasefire has no takers. read more »Bush Gut Check by Paul Waldman, | July 26, 2006
When the president trusts his guts, we should know by now what's about to hit the fan. read more »The Hill's Blame Game by Stephen Zunes, fpif.org | July 25, 2006
Dissecting Congress' blessing of the Mideast conflict. read more »Letting Lebanon Burn by Alexandra Walker, OurFuture.org | July 21, 2006
A chilling article on the front page of today's Washington Post reports that the White House is "<!--StartFragment -->content to see the Israelis inflict the maximum damage possible on Hezbollah," as if that will accrue some benefit for the United States in its nebulous "war on read more »Iraq's Bloody July by Robert Dreyfuss, | July 21, 2006
As hell is unleashed in a civil war, Bush refuses to see the situation for what it is. read more »Israel's Stupid-Smart Moves by Michael Shtender-Auerbach, | July 19, 2006
Israel could negotiate a cease-fire with willing Arab neighbors, but does it want to? read more »No Law-Free Zones by Michael Posner, boston.com | July 18, 2006
Three ways to tell if the U.S. is following the rule of law. read more »
The Latest
Report Criticizes Homeland Security, USA Today | November 20, 2008
The Homeland Security Department has done a poor job overseeing the purchase of billions of dollars of equipment and technology since the agency was created five years ago, according to a federal report scheduled for release today. read more »
Canceled Iraq Contracts Cost $600 Billion, | November 18, 2008
The Pentagon spent about $600 million on more than 1,200 Iraq reconstruction contracts that were eventually canceled, nearly half of them for mismanagement or shoddy construction, government investigators say. The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction found that 42% of canceled contracts were terminated because the contractor either failed to deliver or performed poorly. read more »
State Department "Under-Resourced", The Washington Post | November 17, 2008
The next secretary of state not only will face the challenge of repairing the nation's tattered image and grappling with an array of global crises and hot spots, but also must solve a problem closer to home: reforming an under-resourced State Department to handle its growing duties, such as rebuilding war-torn societies, coping with worldwide pandemics and working with other countries to curb glob read more »
U.S. Troops Out of Iraq by 2011, The Guardian | November 17, 2008
The U.S. and Iraq will formally commit to a pact that withdraws all American forces from the country within three years, and pulls all combat troops out of most provinces by mid-2009, the Iraqi cabinet announced. The deal for the first time prescribes a timeline for an American departure from Iraq, which the U.S. read more »
Blackwater May Be Fined Millions, mcclatchydc.com | November 13, 2008
The State Department is preparing to slap a multi-million dollar fine on private military contractor Blackwater USA for shipping hundreds of automatic weapons to Iraq without the necessary permits. Some of the weapons are believed to have ended up on the country's black market. read more »
Iraq, China Sign Oil Deal, The New York Times | November 11, 2008
North Oil, an Iraqi-owned company, has signed a contract with a Chinese state-owned oil corporation, CNPC, that was first negotiated during Saddam Hussein’s government, an official in Iraq’s Oil Ministry said. The deal is worth $3.5 billion, said the official, Ahmed al-Shamaa, the deputy oil minister. read more »
Auditors Go Easy on Military Contractors, iht.com | November 9, 2008
Instead of seeing red, Pentagon audit managers saw business as usual after being told that a major military contractor failed to open all its books for review. read more »
Iraqis Demand Withdrawal Date, The Washington Post | November 7, 2008
Two days after the election of Barack Obama, Iraq's chief spokesman said with unusual forcefulness that his government will continue to insist on a firm withdrawal date for U.S. troops, despite American demands that any pullout be subject to prevailing security conditions. read more »
Iraq Combat Troop Numbers Reduced, The Washington Post | November 6, 2008
Gen. David H. Petraeus has decided to reduce the number of U.S. combat brigades in Iraq from 15 to 14 about six weeks earlier than planned, as a result of dramatically lower violence there, Pentagon officials said. "The hope is they can come home before Christmas," Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said of the decision. read more »
Karzai to Obama: End Civilian Deaths, USA Today | November 5, 2008
It did not take long for President-elect Barack Obama to get his first demand from a world leader. In a statement congratulating him for his election victory, Afghan President Hamid Karzai issued a demand that he "put an end to civilian casualties." The statement follows the U.S. bombing Monday afternoon of the remote village of Wech Baghtu in the southern province of Kandahar. read more »
