News & Comment
Blogs and Opinion
The GOP’s Absurd Attack on Susan Rice Over Benghazi by Michael Tomasky, thedailybeast.com | November 20, 2012
There would seem to be little connection between Nate Silver and Susan Rice, but hear me out. The New York Times electoral savant was said to be “controversial.” No one adduced a lick of factual evidence for why he should have been thought to be so, but people on the right just didn’t like his electoral predictions, so they tried to make him controversial. With respect to Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, much the same is true. In reality land, she’s done nothing that ought to be considered all that controversial. But again, conservatives don’t like the outcome—Democrats having the upper hand on foreign policy and national security—so they’re trying to make her controversial. read more »What Benghazi Is about: Scandal Envy by Paul Waldman, prospect.org | November 16, 2012
If you're looking at the Republican harumphing over Benghazi and asking yourself, "Why are we supposed to be so mad about this again?" you're not alone. So what's going on here? I can sum it up in two words: scandal envy. Republicans are indescribably frustrated by the fact that Barack Obama, whom they regard as both illegitimate and corrupt, went through an entire term without a major scandal. They tried with "Fast and Furious," but that turned out to be small potatoes. They tried with Solyndra, but that didn't produce the criminality they hoped for either. Nixon had Watergate, Reagan had Iran-Contra, Clinton had Lewinsky, and Barack Obama has gotten off scott-free. This is making them absolutely livid, and they're going to keep trying to gin up a scandal, even if there's no there there. Benghazi may not be an actual scandal, but it's all they have handy. read more »America Begins Nation-Building at Home (Provided Your Home is the Middle East) by Nick Turse, tomdispatch.com | November 16, 2012
A billion dollars from the federal government: that kind of money could go a long way toward revitalizing a country’s aging infrastructure. It could provide housing or better water and sewer systems. It could enhance a transportation network or develop an urban waterfront. It could provide local jobs. It could do any or all of these things. And, in fact, it did. It just happened to be in the Middle East, not the United States. read more »The Neocons’ Waterloo by Robert Parry, consortiumnews.com | November 15, 2012
The decisive defeat of Mitt Romney in the presidential race and the forced resignation of ex-Gen. David Petraeus as CIA director have marginalized America’s neoconservatives more than at any time in the past several decades, confining them mostly to Washington think tanks and media opinion circles. The neocons bet heavily on a Romney victory as they envisioned a return to power, like what they enjoyed under President George W. Bush when they paved the way for the U.S. invasion of Iraq and dreamed of forcing “regime change” in Iran and Syria. During the campaign, Romney largely delegated his foreign policy to a cast of neocon retreads from the Bush era. Yet, amid the wreckage of the past week the neocons now find themselves without a strong ally anywhere inside the Executive Branch. read more »Top Ten Coming Disasters: Romney’s America 2016 by Juan Cole, juancole.com | November 5, 2012
What will the United States look like in 2016 if Mitt Romney wins? While predicting the future is of course impossible, actually my experience is that if you play out known possible scenarios in your mind, you can often get a fair idea of the likely course of events. read more »The Dogs of War Are Barking by Jeremiah Goulka, tomdispatch.com | November 5, 2012
It’s the consensus among the pundits: foreign policy doesn’t matter in this presidential election. They point to the ways Republican candidate Mitt Romney has more or less parroted President Barack Obama on just about everything other than military spending and tough talk about another “American century.” The consensus is wrong. There is an issue that matters: Iran. Don’t be fooled. The Republican nominee has surrounded himself with advisors who are committed to military action and regime change against Iran, the same people who brought us the Global War on Terror and the Iraq War. Along with their colleagues in hawkish think tanks, they have spent years priming the public to believe that Iran has an ongoing nuclear weapons program, making ludicrous claims about “crazy” mullahs nuking Israel and the United States, pooh-poohing diplomacy — and getting ever shriller each time credible officials and analysts disagree. read more »Romney's Extremist Foreign Policy by Amitabh Pal, The Progressive | November 2, 2012
Which Mitt Romney will we see on foreign policy, if he’s elected? The slightly right of center cautious international consensus builder? Or the reckless neocon sock puppet? It’s much more likely that a Romney Administration will be marked by a belligerent attitude toward the rest of the world—a “my way or the highway” approach that blighted the tenure of the previous Republican to occupy the Oval Office. Romney did a really good job of posturing as a reasonable guy in the foreign policy debate in order to assure the undecideds that he wasn’t a far-right wacko. But there is substantial evidence that he’s going to tack sharply to the right if he gets elected. Exhibit number one is his scary coterie of foreign policy gurus. John Bolton, Bush’s U.N. ambassador, Dan Senor, Iraq war spokesperson, and Bill Kristol, the neocon superintellectual, form the core. read more »Shame the haters: Why I back Obama by Van Jones, jackandjillpolitics.com | November 2, 2012
Have you ever worked at a job where somebody was actively trying to sabotage you? Do you remember what that feels like? Well, that has been President Obama’s experience from Day One. As African Americans, we have a special sensitivity to situations where folks are unfairly set up to fail. We shouldn’t allow such tactics to determine the outcome of a national election. This is especially true in the president’s case. Obama’s performance has been extraordinary in both foreign and domestic policy, but he has gotten almost zero credit for truly historic achievements. read more »Iran War on the Ballot by Robert Parry, consortiumnews.com | October 28, 2012
A deal to resolve the Iranian nuclear dispute, based on face-to-face negotiations between Iranian and U.S. officials, could follow quickly upon President Barack Obama’s reelection on Nov. 6, but those bilateral relations would likely veer toward confrontation if Mitt Romney wins and his neocon advisers retake control of U.S. foreign policy. Sources familiar with the status of the talks say the potential settlement is much closer than is publicly understood, with a reelected President Obama prepared to relax the harsh economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for tight constraints on any Iranian nuclear program, assuring that it is for peaceful purposes only. read more »A Failed Formula for Worldwide War by Nick Turse, tomdispatch.com | October 25, 2012
In one way or another, the U.S. military is now involved with most of the nations on Earth. Its soldiers, commandos, trainers, base builders, drone jockeys, spies, and arms dealers, as well as associated hired guns and corporate contractors, can now be found just about everywhere on the planet. Since 2001, the U.S. military has thrown everything in its arsenal, short of nuclear weapons, including untold billions of dollars in weaponry, technology, bribes, you name it, at a remarkably weak set of enemies -- relatively small groups of poorly-armed fighters in impoverished nations like Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, and Yemen -- while decisively defeating none of them. It should, by all rights, dominate the world just as the neoconservative dreamers of the early Bush years assumed it would. Yet after more than a decade of war, it has failed to eliminate a rag-tag Afghan insurgency with limited popular support. 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 »
