Memo 'shows Blair Iraq war deal with Bush' BBC The leader of Plaid Cymru's MPs has said he has a memo showing Tony Blair and George Bush struck a secret deal to invade Iraq a year before the 2003 war.
Friday February 5, 2010 6:22 PM EST
Blackwater Guards Tied to Secret Raids by the C.I.A. New York Times WASHINGTON — Private security guards from Blackwater Worldwide participated in some of the C.I.A.’s most sensitive activities — clandestine raids with agency officers against people suspected of being insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan and the transporting of detainees, according to former company employees and intelligence officials.
Lord Goldsmith, then attorney general, issued the warning in an uncompromising letter in July 2002, eight months before the invasion. It was becoming clear in government circles that Blair had had secret meetings with George Bush at which the US president was pressing Britain hard to join him in a war to change the regime in Baghdad.
Sunday November 29, 2009 5:14 PM EST
Obama's Nation Washington Post WHATEVER Tuesday's voting brings, the national conversation sparked by the driveway encounter between Barack Obama and Joe the Plumber seems likely to have a lingering, and potentially destructive, effect. Consider: Eight years ago, George W. Bush was selling himself to the country as a compassionate conservative. Today, it is hard to detect even the faintest note of compassion in John McCain's railing against Mr. Obama as "redistributionist in chief."
Sunday November 2, 2008 10:24 AM EST
The Massive Wealth Redistribution that Doesn't Bother John McCain AlterNet Thank you, John McCain, for shoving the issue of "redistributing wealth" back into political primetime. Just two problems. You're only a quarter-century or so late -- and you have everything backwards.
Saturday November 1, 2008 9:24 AM EST
High Risk, Limited Payoff Slate The Oct. 26 air raid in which U.S. special-operations pilots flew two dozen Black Hawk helicopters across Iraq's border and killed eight people on Syrian territory marks a new phase in the Bush administration's war on terror—a phase rife with limited payoffs and astonishingly high risks.
Friday October 31, 2008 9:26 AM EST
What We Could Have Spent The Iraq War Funding On Huffington Post KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — When the Sunday morning political pundits began talking last year about the tab for the war in Iraq hitting $1 trillion, Rob Simpson sprang from his sofa in indignation.
Tuesday October 28, 2008 10:11 AM EST
U.S. Officials Confirm Commando Raid on Syria New York Times WASHINGTON — A raid into Syria on Sunday was carried out by American Special Operations forces who killed an Iraqi militant responsible for running weapons, money and foreign fighters across the border into Iraq, American officials said Monday.
The helicopter-borne attack into Syria was by far the boldest by American commandos in the five years since the United States invaded Iraq and began to condemn Syria’s role in stoking the Iraqi insurgency. The timing was startling, not least because American officials had praised Syria in recent months for its efforts to halt traffic across the border.
Monday October 27, 2008 11:13 PM EST
What's Behind the US Military Raid on Syria? Time Sunday's surprise raid by helicopter-borne U.S. troops in eastern Syria raises at least three key questions. Given that the U.S. is saying the number of volunteer fighters infiltrating Iraq from Syria has dwindled significantly in the past 18 months, why was this action deemed necessary? Does the raid signal a shift in U.S. tactics in the region? And with just over a week before the U.S. presidential election, why now?
Monday October 27, 2008 7:36 PM EST
Suspected US Strike Kills Up To 20 In Pakistan Huffington Post DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan - A suspected U.S. missile strike on the house of a Taliban commander near the Afghan border killed up to 20 people on Monday, Pakistani intelligence officials said.
Monday October 27, 2008 9:45 AM EST
U.S. launches rare attack on Syrian territory near Iraq border USA Today DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — U.S. military helicopters launched an extremely rare attack Sunday on Syrian territory close to the border with Iraq, killing eight people in a strike the government in Damascus condemned as "serious aggression."
Monday October 27, 2008 9:44 AM EST
Spreading the Wealth: The politics of class warfare Thomas Paine's Corner John McCain said in the last debate, “The whole premise behind Sen. Obama’s plans are class warfare – let’s spread the wealth around.” Unfortunately not only does he share George Bush’s economic philosophy, he even shares Bush’s tortured syntax. What McCain and the whole right wing leadership refuse to acknowledge are the facts pointed out by Warren Buffett, one of the richest men in the world. “There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”
Saturday October 25, 2008 3:35 PM EST
Report: McCain Suppressed Info on Fellow Vietnam POWs Left Behind Democracy Now We speak to Pulitzer-winning journalist Sydney Schanberg about how the “war hero” candidate Sen. John McCain buried information about POWs left behind in Vietnam. Writing for The Nation magazine, Schanberg reveals that McCain “worked very hard to hide from the public stunning information about American prisoners in Vietnam who, unlike him, didn’t return home.”
Thursday October 23, 2008 6:53 PM EST
Could the Recession End the Iraq War? Time John McCain has made a point throughout his campaign of pooh-poohing Barack Obama's promise to withdraw all U.S. combat forces from Iraq within 16 months of assuming office. McCain has steadfastly refused to set a withdrawal date, suggesting that to do so would be defeatist and vowing instead to bring the troops back when they've won.
Friday October 17, 2008 9:48 AM EST
Top GOP Fund-Raiser Tied to Iraq Fuel Contract New York Times The Democratic chairman of a House investigative committee presented documents to the Pentagon on Thursday alleging that a top Republican fund-raiser, Harry Sargeant III, has made tens of millions of dollars in profits over the last four years because his contracting company vastly overcharged for deliveries of fuel to American air bases in Iraq.
Thursday October 16, 2008 10:47 PM EST
War Hero or War Criminal? CounterPunch As character assassination attacks on Sen. Barack Obama have now taken over Sen. John McCain's campaign, and because McCain cites his military experience as of prime importance, now is the time to focus closer attention on a facet of the Arizona Senator's own character. This is related to his 23 combat missions for Operation Rolling Thunder - the Pentagon's name for U.S. bombing of North Vietnam.
Tuesday October 14, 2008 6:52 PM EST
Friendly fire in Iraq — and a coverup Salon PHILADELPHIA — Once a cop, always a cop. Asked if she wanted to see a graphic battle video showing her son Albert bleeding to death, Jean Feggins, retired from the Philadelphia Police Department, said yes.
“Listen, I’ve moved dead bodies of people I don’t even know,” she told me, as she sat on a brown couch in the den of her West Philadelphia row house. “I need to know everything. Because he is not a stranger. That’s my baby. That’s my child.”
Tuesday October 14, 2008 9:39 AM EST
The Things Their Families Carried New York Times Documentaries come into being in lots of ways, but not many have begun with a phone call of condolence made to a graveyard.
Such was the catalyst for “Section 60,” a somber film on HBO Monday night about the impromptu community that has evolved in the part of Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia where the war dead from Iraq and Afghanistan are being buried.
Saturday October 11, 2008 1:08 PM EST
Wars without end Sydney Morning Herald The American military is fighting a rearguard action to preserve gains made in Iraq.
It is all in the language and the timing of the leaks. The White House has been incredibly slow to grasp the reality of the unremitting chaos in Afghanistan. But with its most senior intelligence analysts now warning of a "worsening downward spiral", resource-strapped military chiefs in Washington baulk at the only available remedy for a deepening crisis in Kabul - large troop cuts in Iraq.
Saturday October 11, 2008 12:25 PM EST
Source of Iraq WMD intelligence tells his story CNN BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- His phone number was published in a German phone directory -- Rafid Alwan, whose claims that Saddam Hussein was producing biological agents helped launch the Iraq war.
Saturday October 11, 2008 12:10 AM EST
The Cost of Boots on the Ground in Iraq Anti-War It takes half a million dollars per year to maintain each sergeant in combat in Iraq. Thanks to a Senate committee inquiry, an authoritative government study finally details the costs of keeping boots on the ground.
Thursday October 2, 2008 9:13 AM EST
The Ho Chi Minh trail leads to Baghdad Guardian John McCain is trying to win the war in Vietnam on the streets on Baghdad. When asked in Friday's presidential debate to identify the lessons of Iraq, he reminded voters that he missed the lessons of Vietnam. "I think the lessons of Iraq are very clear that you cannot have a failed strategy that will then cause you to nearly lose a conflict," he said.
Wednesday October 1, 2008 6:57 PM EST
Gates Criticizes Conventional Focus At Start of Iraq War Washington Post Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates yesterday criticized the shock-and-awe strategy of the 2003 Iraq invasion and said the Pentagon's narrow focus on conventional combat operations proved costly when U.S. ground troops had to switch gears to try to stabilize that country.
Tuesday September 30, 2008 9:59 AM EST
The world through the eyes of an old soldier Boston Globe YOU WANT to understand the difference between Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama? Just listen to them explain the lesson of the Iraq war.
To McCain, it is all about how war should be waged: "You cannot have a failed strategy that will then cause you to lose a conflict."
To Obama it is simply about whether war should have been waged, "whether we should have gone in."
Saturday September 27, 2008 9:45 AM EST
Finally, the Story of the Whistleblower Who Tried to Prevent the Iraq War Anti-War Of course Katharine Gun was free to have a conscience, as long as it didn't interfere with her work at a British intelligence agency. To the authorities, practically speaking, a conscience was apt to be less tangible than a pixel on a computer screen. But suddenly – one routine morning, while she was scrolling through e-mail at her desk – conscience struck. It changed Katharine Gun's life, and it changed history.
Friday September 26, 2008 10:07 AM EST
Maddow: Bush extending Iraq war for political reasons Raw Story The 2008 president campaign has been marked by continuing arguments between the parties over the most appropriate timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq, but it has never been clear how the Bush administration had established its own proposed schedule.
Wednesday September 24, 2008 7:26 PM EST
Fat Cats First Washington Post Looking back on the wreckage of the Bush era, there is one undeniable bright spot: It's been a very good time to be a fat cat. A consistent result of virtually every major Bush policy, from tax cuts to war, has been to enrich the already wealthy.
Tuesday September 23, 2008 6:59 PM EST
US generals planning for resource wars Irish Times ANALYSIS: The US military sees the next 30 to 40 years as involving a state of continuous war against ideologically-motivated terrorists and competing with Russia and China for natural resources and markets.
Monday September 22, 2008 11:25 PM EST
Prosecuting High-level Americans for War Crimes Jurist On September 13-14, 2008, over two hundred people from the United States and abroad gathered in Andover, Massachusetts, for the Justice Robert Jackson Conference on the Planning for Prosecution of High Level American War Criminals sponsored by the Massachusetts School of Law. Video of the two day conference and the program are available here. As a participant, I'm providing this note to JURIST as an aide-memoire for those concerned about war crimes perpetrated by US officials that have gone unpunished over the past eight years.
Monday September 22, 2008 7:39 PM EST
McCain and the POW Cover-up The Nation John McCain, who has risen to political prominence on his image as a Vietnam POW war hero, has, inexplicably, worked very hard to hide from the public stunning information about American prisoners in Vietnam who, unlike him, didn't return home.
Thursday September 18, 2008 7:59 PM EST
Vermont candidate plans Bush prosecution Boston Globe BURLINGTON, Vt.—A woman running for Vermont attorney general says she'll prosecute President Bush for murder if elected.
Cheney Linked Hussein to Al-Qaeda, Ex-GOP House Leader Says in Book Washington Post A GOP congressional leader who was wavering on giving President Bush the authority to wage war in late 2002 said Vice President Cheney misled him by saying that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had direct personal ties to al-Qaeda terrorists and was making rapid progress toward a suitcase nuclear weapon, according to a new book by Washington Post investigative reporter Barton Gellman.
Tuesday September 16, 2008 9:54 AM EST
Woodward book reveals extra-judicial killings in Iraq San Francisco Chronicle The silence so far toward Bob Woodward's reporting of secret extra-judicial killings by American forces in Iraq shows a worrisome collapse of public debate about the war.
Monday September 15, 2008 10:28 AM EST
War Hero or War Criminal? Lew Rockwell "The date was Oct. 26, 1967. I was on my 23rd mission, flying right over the heart of Hanoi in a dive at about 4,500 feet, when a Russian missile the size of a telephone pole came up – the sky was full of them – and blew the right wing off my Skyhawk dive bomber." ~ John McCain
Over and over again it has been said or inferred that one of the reasons John McCain deserves to be president is because he is a war hero. Even Barack Obama has called McCain "a genuine American hero."
Make that an American war criminal.
Monday September 15, 2008 9:45 AM EST
Defense Contracts Foretell Military Buildup in Afghanistan Washington Post The Defense Department is seeking private contractors to carry out a variety of tasks -- such as clearing land mines, building detention facilities and providing fuel -- to assist U.S. forces in Afghanistan, which are set to grow following President Bush's announcement last week that he will expand military operations there.
Sunday September 14, 2008 10:52 AM EST
What Is the Bush Doctrine, Anyway? Washington Post Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's evident cluelessness when asked in an interview yesterday if she agreed with the Bush Doctrine is appropriately being seen as emblematic of her ignorance of foreign policy.
But as it happens, I'm not sure anyone is entirely clear on what the Bush Doctrine is at this particular moment.
Friday September 12, 2008 3:18 PM EST
Sarah Palin Defends Experience, Takes Hard Line Approach on National Security ABC News On the anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history, Gov. Sarah Palin took a hard-line approach on national security and said that war with Russia may be necessary if Georgia were to join NATO and be invaded by Russia.
Thursday September 11, 2008 10:42 PM EST
The Wars of John McCain The Atlantic John McCain believes the Vietnam War was winnable. Now he argues that an Obama administration would accept defeat in Iraq, with grave costs to American honor and national security. Is McCain’s quest for victory a reflection of an antiquated pre-Vietnam mind-set? Or of a commitment to principles we abandon at our peril? Is there any war McCain thinks can’t be won?
Wednesday September 10, 2008 8:38 PM EST
Still No Exit New York Times President Bush is nothing if not consistent. In a speech on Tuesday, he made it clear that he has no plan at all for ending the war in Iraq and no serious plan for winning the war in Afghanistan.
Wednesday September 10, 2008 9:19 AM EST
3 U.S. Troops Killed In Afghan Blast CBS News A NATO bomb missed its target by more than 1.5 miles and hit a house Tuesday, killing two Afghan civilians and wounding 10 at a time of rising tension between the Afghan government and international troops over the use of airstrikes.
Tuesday September 9, 2008 8:01 PM EST
Outmaneuvered And Outranked, Military Chiefs Became Outsiders Washington Post At the Joint Chiefs of Staff in late November 2006, Gen. Peter Pace was facing every chairman's nightmare: a potential revolt of the other chiefs. Two months earlier, the JCS had convened a special team of colonels to recommend options for reversing the deteriorating situation in Iraq. Now, it appeared that the chiefs' and colonels' advice was being marginalized, if not ignored, by the White House.
Monday September 8, 2008 9:54 AM EST
US air power triples deaths of Afghan civilians, says report Guardian Civilian deaths in Afghanistan from US and Nato air strikes have nearly tripled over the past year, with the onslaught continuing in 2008 and fuelling a public backlash, a leading human rights group says today.
Women are heard wailing in the background. “Oh God, this is just a child,” shouts one villager. Another cries: “My mother, my mother.”
Monday September 8, 2008 12:22 AM EST
Divergent Accounts of Afghan Strike Raise Tension New York Times AZIZABAD, Afghanistan — To the villagers here, there is no doubt what happened in an American airstrike on Aug. 22: more than 90 civilians, the majority of them women and children, were killed. The Afghan government, human rights and intelligence officials, independent witnesses and a United Nations investigation back up their account, pointing to dozens of freshly dug graves, lists of the dead, and cellphone videos and other footage showing bodies of women and children laid out in the village mosque.
Sunday September 7, 2008 9:51 PM EST
Real wars and the U.S. culture war IHT NEW YORK: The culture-war surge in the U.S. election campaign has come at the expense of meaningful debate about the real wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. That's dangerous because they stand at critical junctures.
Sunday September 7, 2008 12:34 PM EST
Doubt, Distrust, Delay Washington Post During the summer of 2006, from her office adjacent to the White House, deputy national security adviser Meghan O'Sullivan sent President Bush a daily top secret report cataloging the escalating bloodshed and chaos in Iraq. "Violence has acquired a momentum of its own and is now self-sustaining," she wrote July 20, quoting from an intelligence assessment.
Her dire evaluation contradicted the upbeat assurances that President Bush was hearing from Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the U.S. commander in Iraq. Casey and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld were pushing to draw down American forces and speed the transfer of responsibility to the Iraqis. Despite months of skyrocketing violence, Casey insisted that within a year, Iraq would be mostly stable, with the bulk of American combat troops headed home.
Sunday September 7, 2008 12:28 PM EST
A Leader Beyond Denial, as War Plans Flounder New York Times In this fourth volume of his quartet of books on the Bush White House, Bob Woodward reaches a damning conclusion about the presidency of George W. Bush. “A president must be able to get a clear-eyed, unbiased assessment of the war,” he writes. “The president must lead. For years, time and again, President Bush has displayed impatience, bravado and unsettling personal certainty about his decisions. The result has too often been impulsiveness and carelessness and, perhaps most troubling, a delayed reaction to realities and advice that run counter to his gut.”
Saturday September 6, 2008 10:44 PM EST
One Fifth of Iraq Funding Goes to Private Contractors AlterNet As a new report forecasts that the 190,000 private contractors in Iraq and neighboring countries will cost U.S. taxpayers more than 100 billion dollars by the end of 2008, an under-the-radar Florida court case suggests that U.S. President George W. Bush -- a staunch contractor supporter -- is preparing to throw security contractors such as Blackwater under the political bus.
Saturday September 6, 2008 4:00 PM EST
U.S. Warship Anchors Off Georgia Washington Post MOSCOW, Sept. 5 -- The flagship of the U.S. Navy's Mediterranean fleet anchored Friday off a key seaport in Georgia around which Russian troops are posted, and a Georgian official said trucks carrying humanitarian aid from the ship would be passing armed Russian checkpoints en route to the Georgian interior as soon as this weekend.
Saturday September 6, 2008 11:23 AM EST
As Vets Take to the Streets to Protest the War, McCain Snubs IVAW at the RNC AlterNet When retired Army First Sergeant Wes Davey arrived, in uniform, at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul to deliver a letter to fellow veteran John McCain, it didn't take long for him to be turned away. "They wouldn't even meet me," he said later, standing on the steps of the Minnesota State Capitol, on what was to be day one of the Republican National Convention. Instead, the 28-year veteran of the Army Reserve and former St. Paul police officer was escorted off the premises.
Saturday September 6, 2008 10:54 AM EST
Six Iraqi troops die in US fire BBC US troops have killed six members of the Iraqi security forces during a patrol on the river Tigris just north of Baghdad, Iraqi police say.
Wednesday September 3, 2008 10:24 AM EST
U.S. Troops Reportedly Strike In Pakistan CBS News Pakistan's top security officials on Wednesday were searching for clues that a "moderately important terrorist target" may have been hit when U.S. and/or NATO forces attacked three houses in a remote part of the country's border region with Afghanistan.
Wednesday September 3, 2008 9:46 AM EST
Palin: Iraq is a task ‘from God.’» Think Progress Huffington Post reports that on June 8, Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) addressed the graduating class of commission students at the Wasilla Assembly of God church. During that address, Palin portrayed the Iraq was as a quest decreed by God, and said that U.S. soldiers were carrying out “God’s plan”:
Tuesday September 2, 2008 7:41 PM EST
Making a Killing in Iraq CounterPunch It’s no secret that John McCain has been a longtime friend of the telecom industry. Indeed, the Arizona Senator has had important historic ties to big corporations like AT&T, MCI and Qualcomm. In return for their financial contributions, McCain, who partly oversees the telecommunication industry in the Senate, has acted to protect and look out for the political and economic interests of the telecoms on Capitol Hill.
Such connections are well known, yet few have paused to consider how Iraq fits into the wider jigsaw puzzle. Prior to the war in Iraq, McCain was one of the biggest boosters of the invasion. While it’s unclear whether the telecoms actually lobbied McCain on this score, they certainly benefited under the subsequent occupation.
Monday September 1, 2008 5:56 PM EST
Bush's Proposed Terror Legacy: A Legal Basis for Perpetual War Huffington Post Just when you think that there can be no more outrageous proposals from the current Lame Duck government, and that it's down to a straight race between Barack Obama, a man with profound respect for the rule of law, and John McCain, who, I fear, may allow the malign spirits of Dick Cheney and David Addington to maintain a presence in the corridors of power, George W. Bush, the Least Popular President in History, has made a last-ditch attempt to secure his bellicose legacy by slipping an extraordinary passage into proposed legislation dealing with legal appeals filed by Guantánamo prisoners in the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling in Boumediene v. Bush.
Monday September 1, 2008 12:31 AM EST
Holding Murderers Accountable: The Case Against Bush, Cheney, et al One Thousand Reasons Although Americans have access to the greatest selection of information sources in the world, including books, newspapers, magazines, radio, television, cable, and the Internet, the frequency of the news cycle has increased to the point where we have forgotten that our president and vice president have committed horrendous war crimes, or we may have missed the fact as it flashed by.
Sunday August 31, 2008 10:56 PM EST
Collateral Killing Washington Post THE DUELING accounts of a U.S. raid in western Afghanistan on Aug. 21 that may -- or may not -- have killed up to 90 Afghan civilians have a woeful familiarity. Both Afghan and United Nations officials say that their investigators corroborated the deaths and that U.S. special forces were misled into attacking a compound where a wake was taking place.
Sunday August 31, 2008 10:59 AM EST
Battles Over Billboard Space Precede G.O.P. Gathering New York Times The images are seductive in their simplicity: close-up, larger-than-life photographs of the faces of American soldiers between tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. The faces are horizontal in complete repose, the eyes wide and gazing vacantly.
Saturday August 30, 2008 10:42 AM EST
Police Block Veterans’ Access to DNC in Largest Protest to Date Indy Media DENVER, Colo.—A little more than an hour before Sen. Barack Obama made a surprise appearance at Pepsi Center to conclude the evening at the Democratic National Convention, his campaign had an exchange with Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW).
Friday August 29, 2008 8:08 PM EST
Bombing villages feeds Taliban war Toronto Star The Pentagon calls it "a good strike." Last Friday, United States-led coalition and Afghan troops radioed in U.S. warplanes to bomb the village of Nawabad, where the Taliban leader Mullah Siddiq and 25 fighters were hiding. When the dust settled, Siddiq and his crew were dead. The U.S. forces recovered rocket-propelled grenade launchers, AK-47 assault rifles, bomb-making materials and ammo.
But the Taliban weren't the only people killed in the air raid.
Thursday August 28, 2008 10:51 AM EST
Don't Make Afghanistan the Democrats' War The Nation Barack Obama not only had the good judgment to oppose the war in Iraq, he argued for the need "to end the mindset that took us into" that war. So it is troubling that a man of such good judgment is now ramping up his rhetoric about how we need to end the war in Iraq to focus on what he calls the "central front in the war on terror"--Afghanistan.
Thursday August 28, 2008 10:50 AM EST
US Massacres Afghan Kids The Nation So how, exactly, did the United States come to slaughter nearly a hundred Afghans, two-thirds of whom were children aged three months to sixteen years, while they slept? And what does it mean?
Thursday August 28, 2008 10:46 AM EST
Running for War President at Any Cost Huffington Post Just great! Nuclear-armed Pakistan is falling apart, Iran's nuclear program is unchecked and congressional legislation on cooperation with the Russians on controlling nuclear proliferation is now dead in the water. Horrid news except for Sen. John McCain, who thrills to a repeat of the danger lines of the Cold War, and now stands a good chance of being our next president.
Wednesday August 27, 2008 10:11 AM EST
U.S. Soldiers Executed Iraqis, Statements Say New York Times In March or April 2007, three noncommissioned United States Army officers, including a first sergeant, a platoon sergeant and a senior medic, killed four Iraqi prisoners with pistol shots to the head as the men stood handcuffed and blindfolded beside a Baghdad canal, two of the soldiers said in sworn statements.
Wednesday August 27, 2008 10:02 AM EST
60 Children Among Afghan Dead, U.N. Report Finds New York Times KABUL, Afghanistan — A United Nations human rights team has found “convincing evidence” that some 90 civilians — among them 60 children — were killed in air strikes on a village in western Afghanistan on Thursday night, a statement issued by the United Nations mission in Kabul said, making it almost certainly the deadliest case of civilian casualties caused by any United States military operation in Afghanistan since 2001.
Tuesday August 26, 2008 11:56 PM EST
Looking Back at Five Years of Bush's Wreckage in Iraq AlterNet On April 11, 12, 13, and 14, 2003, the United States Army and United States Marine Corps disgraced themselves and the country they represent in Baghdad, Iraq's capital city.
Tuesday August 26, 2008 10:32 AM EST
The Most Dangerous Man in America Anti-War The first crisis over North Korea's nuclear program arose in late 1994. It was obvious there was not much the United States could do to step in unilaterally and disarm the North Korean regime.
Wednesday August 20, 2008 10:28 AM EST
SENDING THE U.S. TO WAR IS NOT THE PRESIDENT'S CALL Christian Science Monitor WASHINGTON; AND DENVER, COLO. - In the United States, the decision to go to war rests with the elected representatives of those who will do the fighting and dying. It's one of the defining – and critical – elements of the republic.
Tuesday August 19, 2008 6:15 PM EST
Response to 9/11 Offers Outline of a McCain Doctrine New York Times WASHINGTON — Senator John McCain arrived late at his Senate office on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, just after the first plane hit the World Trade Center. “This is war,” he murmured to his aides. The sound of scrambling fighter planes rattled the windows, sending a tremor of panic through the room.
Within hours, Mr. McCain, the Vietnam War hero and famed straight talker of the 2000 Republican primary, had taken on a new role: the leading advocate of taking the American retaliation against Al Qaeda far beyond Afghanistan. In a marathon of television and radio appearances, Mr. McCain recited a short list of other countries said to support terrorism, invariably including Iraq, Iran and Syria.
Sunday August 17, 2008 11:20 AM EST
Justice Dept. Moves Toward Charges Against Contractors in Iraq Shooting Washington Post Federal prosecutors have sent target letters to six Blackwater Worldwide security guards involved in a September shooting that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead, indicating a high likelihood the Justice Department will seek to indict at least some of the men, according to three sources close to the case.
Sunday August 17, 2008 11:15 AM EST
This is a tale of US expansion not Russian aggression Thomas Paine's Corner The outcome of six grim days of bloodshed in the Caucasus has triggered an outpouring of the most nauseating hypocrisy from western politicians and their captive media. As talking heads thundered against Russian imperialism and brutal disproportionality, US vice-president Dick Cheney, faithfully echoed by Gordon Brown and David Miliband, declared that “Russian aggression must not go unanswered”. George Bush denounced Russia for having “invaded a sovereign neighbouring state” and threatening “a democratic government”. Such an action, he insisted, “is unacceptable in the 21st century”.
Saturday August 16, 2008 8:23 PM EST
Russia, Georgia and Bush CounterPunch One is rendered almost speechless by the astounding hypocrisy of President George Bush. It has been bad enough for the last seven and a half years to hear his constant lies and to watch his fervent worship of the almighty dollar and those who can best enrich his elite, neocon circle. But by making the statements that he has uttered in the last few days he has shown once again his limitless capacity for hypocrisy.
Saturday August 16, 2008 8:14 PM EST
This Time, the World Is Not Buying It Anti-War The success of the Bush Regime's propaganda, lies, and deception with gullible and inattentive Americans since 9/11 has made it difficult for intelligent, aware people to be optimistic about the future of the United States. For almost 8 years the US media has served as Ministry of Propaganda for a war criminal regime. Americans incapable of thinking for themselves, reading between the lines, or accessing foreign media on the Internet have been brainwashed.
As the Nazi propagandist, Joseph Goebbels, said, it is easy to deceive a people. You just tell them they have been attacked and wave the flag.
It certainly worked with Americans.
Saturday August 16, 2008 11:15 AM EST
Women And War: The Toll Of Deployment On Physical Health Science Daily More than 80 percent of a sample of Air Force women deployed in Iraq and other areas around the world report suffering from persistent fatigue, fever, hair loss and difficulty concentrating, according to a University of Michigan study.
Friday August 15, 2008 11:33 AM EST
INVENTING YOUR OWN HISTORY AS IT HAPPENS Thomas Paine's Corner THE NEW CONFLICT ALONG THE RUSSIAN BORDER suggests direct US support and perhaps even planning. But who knows to what extent. What is significant is the narrative being imposed on this event by western corporate media.
Starting with the always loathsome Dick Cheney “Russian aggression must stop…”No mention is made of the actual facts, and certainly no mention is made anywhere that I can find of the Georgian war crimes that inititated this confrontation.
Thursday August 14, 2008 11:34 PM EST
Bush's Risky Move Washington Post President Bush's announcement yesterday that he is sending humanitarian aid to partially-occupied Georgia sounded innocent enough on one level.
But his decision to do it with military personnel and equipment is being widely interpreted as a provocative move, and one that for the first time since the Cold War risks a potential military confrontation between the U.S. and Russia.
Thursday August 14, 2008 7:12 PM EST
The Coming Surge in Afghanistan CounterPunch Every war has a story line: World War I was “The war to end all wars.” World War II was “The war to defeat fascism.”
Iraq was sold as a war to halt weapons of mass destruction; then to overthrow Saddam Hussein, then to build democracy. In the end it was a fabrication. Built on a falsehood. Anchored in a fraud.
Thursday August 14, 2008 7:12 PM EST
McCain sends pals to war Salon Russia has decided not to withdraw from Georgia after all; its foreign minister says to "forget about any talk about Georgia's territorial integrity," and NATO powers are scrambling to figure out how to end the war.
But don't worry, because John McCain has a plan: Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham are on their way.
Thursday August 14, 2008 1:14 PM EST
U.S. imperialism & Caspian oil Workers World The U.S. media’s war reporting on Georgia’s invasion of South Ossetia has echoed the kind of lies and misinformation that characterized the reporting on the U.S. invasion of Iraq. The war reports are little more than Pentagon propaganda pieces.
Thursday August 14, 2008 10:01 AM EST
U.S. hidden hand pushes Ossetia war Workers World Aug. 13—Long before Aug. 8, when the leaders of Georgia, a country in the Caucasus Mountains south of Russia, attacked a small autonomous region known as South Ossetia, the U.S. military was deeply involved in Georgia. Washington is no innocent bystander in this bloody struggle, which provoked a response by Russia that now dominates the news.
Thursday August 14, 2008 10:01 AM EST
Russia Takes Gori New York Times President Dmitri Medvedev promised European negotiators early Wednesday morning that Russia would halt its attacks on Georgia and begin withdrawing its troops. A few hours later, Russian tanks rolled into the strategic crossroads town of Gori — just 40 miles from Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi.
Thursday August 14, 2008 9:56 AM EST
The Long War: How Many Iraqs and Afghanistans Lie Ahead? AlterNet All you really need to know is that, at Robert Gates's Pentagon, they're still high on the term "the Long War." It's a phrase that first crept into our official vocabulary back in 2002, but was popularized by CENTCOM commander John Abizaid, in 2004 -- already a fairly long(-war-)time ago. Now, Secretary of Defense Gates himself is plugging the term, as he did in April at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, quoting no less an authority than Leon Trotsky:
Thursday August 14, 2008 9:41 AM EST
Putin's war enablers: Bush and Cheney Salon The run-up to the current chaos in the Caucasus should look quite familiar: Russia acted unilaterally rather than going through the U.N. Security Council. It used massive force against a small, weak adversary. It called for regime change in a country that had defied Moscow. It championed a separatist movement as a way of asserting dominance in a region it coveted.
Indeed, despite George W. Bush and Dick Cheney's howls of outrage at Russian aggression in Georgia and the disputed province of South Ossetia, the Bush administration set a deep precedent for Moscow's actions -- with its own systematic assault on international law over the past seven years. Now, the administration's condemnations of Russia ring hollow.
Thursday August 14, 2008 9:34 AM EST
From Green Light to Yellow Washington Post With Russia reportedly violating its hours-old cease-fire agreement with Georgia, President Bush announced today that he's sending in the American military -- sort of.
The mission is a humanitarian one, but by choosing to put U.S. planes and ships into a war zone, Bush is raising the stakes in a conflict that his top aides just last night were congratulating themselves for having resolved. (They thought vague threats about continued World Trade Organization membership had stopped the Russians in their tracks.)
Wednesday August 13, 2008 7:13 PM EST
Who Poked the Bear? Washington Post There doesn't seem to be much President Bush can do about the Russian invasion of Georgia at this point. Except maybe feel guilty about his role in provoking it.
Tuesday August 12, 2008 4:29 PM EST
‘Where Are the Weapons of Mass Destruction?’ Truthdig In the past two decades I have had the opportunity to participate in certain experiences pertaining to my work that fall into the category of “no one will ever believe this.” I usually file these away, calling on them only when events transpire that breathe new life into these extraordinary memories.
Tuesday August 12, 2008 11:07 AM EST
Use of Iraq Contractors Costs Billions, Report Says New York Times WASHINGTON — The United States this year will have spent $100 billion on contractors in Iraq since the invasion in 2003, a milestone that reflects the Bush administration’s unprecedented level of dependence on private firms for help in the war, according to a government report to be released Tuesday.
Tuesday August 12, 2008 11:04 AM EST
Russia’s War of Ambition New York Times No one is blameless in the dangerous game that has erupted into deadly war in the Caucasus.
Georgia’s president, Mikheil Saakashvili, foolishly and tragically baited the Russians — or even more foolishly fell into Moscow’s trap — when he sent his army into the separatist enclave of South Ossetia last week. The Bush administration has alternately egged on Mr. Saakashvili (although apparently not this time) and looked the other way as the Kremlin has bullied and blackmailed its neighbors and its own people.
Tuesday August 12, 2008 10:51 AM EST
Lonely Night in Georgia Slate It is impossible to think about the Russian assault on Georgia without feeling like a heartless bastard or a romantic fool. Should we just let Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev roll their tanks into Tbilisi in recognition of Moscow's sphere of influence—and let a fledgling democracy die? Or should we rally sanctions, send arms, and mobilize troops—none of which is likely to have any effect? Is there some third way, involving a level of diplomatic shrewdness that the Bush administration has rarely mustered and, in this case, might not have the legitimacy to pursue?
Tuesday August 12, 2008 10:49 AM EST
War Puts Focus on McCain’s Hard Line on Russia New York Times HARRISBURG, Pa. — The intensifying warfare in the former Soviet republic of Georgia has put a new focus on the increasingly hard line that Senator John McCain has taken against Russia in recent years, with stances that have often gone well beyond those of the Bush administration and its focus on engagement.
Tuesday August 12, 2008 10:09 AM EST
Spine-Chilling Video Daily Kos You know McCain must be a warmonger if even Pat Buchanan worries that McCain "will make Cheney look like Gandhi."
1. The Georgians started it. 2. They lost. 3. What a beautiful little war!
For me, the most important is #3, the sheer beauty of the video clips that have already come out of this war. I’m in heaven right now.
Monday August 11, 2008 5:53 PM EST
The Neo-Cons' Dream Forgery CounterPunch I don’t really want to remember those several months after 9-11. The memories upset my stomach. Those months of soaring Bush ratings, the ubiquitous intimidating sight of U.S. flags, the official exhortations to be afraid and suspicious, the endless indulgence in national self-righteousness and self-pity, the frighteningly successful effort to impose a highly simplistic worldview on a clueless population. The PATRIOT Act, passed overwhelmingly by a Congress that never read it, which savaged the Constitution. The anthrax scare, widely blamed on Iraq as the administration began its relentless campaign to target that country following the overthrow of the Taliban in Afghanistan. The reports about a new Information Awareness Office that seemed to take a page out of the Stasi handbook.
On Slog to Safety, Seething at West New York Times GORI, Georgia — In retreat, the Georgian soldiers were so tired they could not keep from stumbling. Their arms were loaded with rucksacks and ammunition boxes; they had dark circles under their eyes. Officers ran up and down the line, barking for them to go faster.
Monday August 11, 2008 9:25 AM EST
Cheney: "Russian agression must not go unanswered" AlterNet BEIJING, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney called Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili to express U.S. solidarity in the conflict with Russia and told him "Russian aggression must not go unanswered," the vice president's office said on Monday.
Monday August 11, 2008 12:58 AM EST
Make Diplomacy, Not War New York Times Iraq and Afghanistan are the messes getting attention today, but they are only symptoms of a much broader cancer in American foreign policy.
A few glimpses of this larger affliction:
¶The United States has more musicians in its military bands than it has diplomats.
Sunday August 10, 2008 11:44 PM EST
Did the U.S. Prep Georgia for War with Russia? Wired Georgia and Russia are careening towards war. And the U.S. isn't exactly a detached observer in the fight. The American military has been training and equipping Georgian troops for years.
Sunday August 10, 2008 10:41 PM EST
Whispers of a Watergate for Bush Financial Times The response in the US to startling new allegations that the White House directed the forgery of evidence to support its case for the war in Iraq has been surprisingly muted so far. The charges may be false, of course, but if they are seriously examined and turn out to be true, this is – or ought to be – a Watergate-sized scandal.
Sunday August 10, 2008 10:05 PM EST
What a Convenient little War for The Republicans Huffington Post In classic "Wag The Dog" scenario there is a neat little war brewing between American and Russian proxies, and real Russian troops, in the Caucacus Mountains on the Russian border.
It couldn't come at a better time for the Republicans.
McCain gets to act and talk tough against the Russians, while Obama is on vacation in Hawaii, issuing "can't we all get along statements."
Sunday August 10, 2008 10:00 PM EST
We helped in Iraq - now help us, beg Georgians Times (UK) As a Russian jet bombed fields around his village, Djimali Avago, a Georgian farmer, asked me: “Why won’t America and Nato help us? If they won’t help us now, why did we help them in Iraq?”
Sunday August 10, 2008 9:59 PM EST
Toll soars in S Ossetia conflict Al Jazeera The death toll is rising as fighting continues in the breakaway Georgian province of South Ossetia, with the latest reports saying that more than 1,500 lives have been lost and at least two Russian fighter jets shot down.
Saturday August 9, 2008 10:56 AM EST
How Tenet Betrayed the CIA on WMD in Iraq Anti-War Journalist Ron Suskind's revelation that Saddam Hussein's intelligence chief was a prewar intelligence source reporting to the British that Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction (WMD) adds yet another dimension to the systematic effort by then Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director George Tenet to quash any evidence – no matter how credible – that conflicted with the George W. Bush
Saturday August 9, 2008 10:45 AM EST
Suskind posts transcript of interview implicating White House in forged letter Think Progress One of the sources for Ron Suskind’s explosive revelation that the White House forged a letter on Iraq-9/11 ties, former CIA official Rob Richer, recently retracted his statements. Suskind has posted the transcript of his interview with Richer, where Richer states that the CIA was asked by the White House via George Tenet to write the letter:
Friday August 8, 2008 6:43 PM EST
New evidence suggests Ron Suskind is right Salon If Ron Suskind's sensational charge that the White House and CIA colluded in forging evidence to justify the Iraq invasion isn't proved conclusively in his new book, "The Way of the World," then the sorry record of the Bush administration offers no basis to dismiss his allegation. Setting aside the relative credibility of the author and the government, the relevant question is whether the available facts demand a full investigation by a congressional committee, with testimony under oath.
Friday August 8, 2008 9:35 AM EST
500: Deadly U.S. Milestone in Afghan War New York Times Not long after Staff Sgt. Matthew D. Blaskowski was killed by a sniper’s bullet last Sept. 23 in eastern Afghanistan, his mother received an e-mail message with a link to a video on the Internet. A television reporter happened to have been filming a story at Sergeant Blaskowski’s small mountain outpost when it came under fire and the sergeant was shot.
Since then, Sergeant Blaskowski’s parents, Cheryl and Terry Blaskowski of Cheboygan, Mich., have watched their 27-year-old son die over and over.
Thursday August 7, 2008 9:46 AM EST
The White House's Weak Denials Washington Post The allegation in Ron Suskind's new book that the White House ordered the CIA to forge evidence of a link between Iraq and al Qaeda is so incredibly grave that it demands a serious response from the government. If what Suskind writes is true -- or even partially true -- someone at the highest levels of the White House engaged in a criminal conspiracy to deceive the American public. (See yesterday's column for all the details.)
But so far, we've gotten mostly hyperbole, innuendo and narrowly constructed denials.
Wednesday August 6, 2008 7:10 PM EST
Was Abu Nidal Forgery Aimed at Refuting Joe Wilson? Informed Comment The LA Times summarizes the case made by journalist Ron Suskind that the Bush administration orchestrated the forging of a document by Iraqi defector and former intelligence chief Tahir Jalil Habbush. Habbush was allegedly paid $5 million and settled in Jordan because of his cooperation.
Wednesday August 6, 2008 10:11 AM EST
The Forged Iraqi Letter: What Just Happened? Huffington Post What just happened? Evidence. A secret that has been judiciously kept for five years just spilled out. All of what follows is new, never reported in any way:
A White House Forgery Scandal? Washington Post Investigative reporter Ron Suskind's new book charges that the White House, seeking to justify its invasion of Iraq, ordered the CIA in late 2003 to forge evidence of a link between Iraq and al Qaeda.
Suskind, a Pulitzer-winning reporter and relentless chronicler of this administration's secrets, depicts a White House with a simpleminded bully in the Oval Office taking direction from a paranoid vice president -- and caps off his latest expose with what he acknowledges sounds a lot like an impeachable offense.
Tuesday August 5, 2008 6:00 PM EST
Bush Pressured FBI to Blame al-Qaeda for Anthrax Informed Comment One thing I haven't seen mentioned with regard to the attempt to implicate Iraq in the anthrax scare in fall of 2001 is the reason Iraq was hard to rule out as a source. It was that it clearly originated in labs in Ames, Iowa. The Reagan administration had permitted the provision to Iraq of anthrax precursors . . . from Ames, Iowa. That is, the Republican Party was proliferating weapons of mass destruction to Saddam Hussein in the 1980s, even though his regime was known to have deployed poison gas against Iran and against Iraqi Kurds. And, because Iraqi anthrax would have shown the Ames ancestry if analyzed, a foreign provenance-- however unlikely-- could not be ruled out by investigators.
Tuesday August 5, 2008 9:59 AM EST
Book says White House ordered forgery Politico A new book by the author Ron Suskind claims that the White House ordered the CIA to forge a back-dated, handwritten letter from the head of Iraqi intelligence to Saddam Hussein.
Suskind writes in “The Way of the World,” to be published Tuesday, that the alleged forgery – adamantly denied by the White House – was designed to portray a false link between Hussein’s regime and al Qaeda as a justification for the Iraq war.
Tuesday August 5, 2008 9:48 AM EST
The Surge is Working — for Bush and Cheney Thomas Paine's Corner In December 2000, Jim Baker, Republican Controller Extraordinaire, lead the engineering of the prevention of any recounts in the Florida “election” so GW Bush could take over (not “win”) the Office of the Presidency by the width of one vote on the Supreme Court.
Sunday August 3, 2008 8:44 PM EST
Scolding Donald Rumsfeld Washington Post How does an Army chief of staff chew out his boss, the defense secretary?
Gen. Eric K. Shinseki shows how it's done in this letter written to Donald H. Rumsfeld just before Shinseki stepped down in June 2003. During the run-up to the war, the general told Congress that more troops would be needed to secure Iraq, which earned him a famously public rebuke by then-Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz. Shinseki was said to still be angry about the dust-up when he retired.
Saturday August 2, 2008 10:03 AM EST
OBAMA AND MCCAIN AS NEO-NEOCONS Christian Science Monitor On one issue – who'd be tougher on Al Qaeda – John McCain and Barack Obama are one-upping each other in rhetoric. It's a risky dynamic and may be giving a green light to the current president. Just before President Bush met Pakistan's new prime minister Monday, the US conducted an attack on Al Qaeda – inside Pakistan.
Friday August 1, 2008 10:53 AM EST
Afghanistan: The Other Illegal War AlterNet So far, President Bush's plan to maintain a permanent U.S. military presence in Iraq has been stymied by resistance from the Iraqi government. Barack Obama's timetable for withdrawal of American troops evidently has the backing of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Bush has mentioned a "time horizon," and John McCain has waffled. Yet Obama favors leaving between 35,000 and 80,000 U.S. occupation troops there indefinitely to train Iraqi security forces and carry out "counterinsurgency operations." That would not end the occupation. We must call for bringing home -- not redeploying -- all U.S. troops and mercenaries, closing all U.S. military bases and relinquishing all efforts to control Iraqi oil.
When war goes corporate Salon Most Americans have a rough idea what the term "military-industrial complex" means when they come across it in a newspaper or hear a politician mention it. President Dwight D. Eisenhower introduced the idea to the public in his farewell address of January 17, 1961. "Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime," he said, "or indeed by the fighting men of World War II and Korea … We have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions … We must not fail to comprehend its grave implications … We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex."
Thursday July 31, 2008 10:21 AM EST
Bush in the dock? Don't count on it Los Angeles Times Even war criminals have fan clubs. On Tuesday, 15,000 people in Belgrade, Serbia, protested the transfer of indicted war criminal Radovan Karadzic to the International Criminal Tribunal at The Hague. Karadzic is implicated in torture, rape, murder and genocide, but to some self-styled Serbian patriots, these are mere details. "Long Live Radovan!" chanted the protesters.
Thursday July 31, 2008 10:16 AM EST
Afghanistan surpasses Iraq as deadliest spot for U.S. troops McClatchy Newspapers BAGHDAD — Nearly twice as many U.S. troops have been killed in Afghanistan than in Iraq so far this month, marking the lowest death toll of any month since the U.S. invaded Iraq and putting July on course to be the first month in which the American military suffered more casualties in Afghanistan than in Iraq.
Wednesday July 30, 2008 9:14 AM EST
War Architect Richard Perle Looking To Enter Oil Business In Iraq Think Progress In March 2003, weeks after the invasion of Iraq, war architect Richard Perle resigned from his position on the Defense Policy Board in an attempt to “defuse a controversy over charges he stood to profit from the war in Iraq.”
Tuesday July 29, 2008 1:48 PM EST
A poisonous mix in today's wars Boston Globe BACK IN the days when the Indochina wars were on everyone's mind, a droll newspaperman, Martin F. Nolan, observed that "when the American people have to know when a country's rainy season is, we are already in too deep."
I remembered that recently when I read about Saddam Hussein's tattoo.
Tuesday July 29, 2008 9:54 AM EST
How Important Was the Surge? American Prospect The past few weeks have been momentous for the national conversation about Iraq. Nouri al-Maliki's explicitly stated insistence on a timetable for American withdrawal was transformative. For the first time, the Iraqi people, the American people, and the Iraqi government have all clearly expressed a desire for America to end its occupation of Iraq. For some in America, this has sounded like an endorsement of a well-defined withdrawal plan. For others, it has been validation of the surge strategy, and testament to the need to stay the course.
Monday July 28, 2008 7:29 PM EST
Did the Surge Work? Independent Institute The media, egged on by John McCain and his campaign, are going to twist the arm of Barack Obama until he cries “uncle” and admits the U.S. troop “surge” has worked in Iraq. So far, Obama has not cracked under the pressure and, for reasons of political expediency, admitted this dubious proposition.
It's because the military has been so overwhelmingly effective in muting the war, and the war photographer, that -- practically without notice -- many of our best shooters have found themselves turning, in a disproportionate way, to the technique of irony.
Monday July 28, 2008 10:27 AM EST
Private Contractors' Role in Afghanistan To Grow With Awarding of Latest Contracts Washington Post With billions of dollars newly available in fiscal 2008 supplemental war funding, the Congressional Research Service last month estimated that the Defense Department is now spending $2.3 billion a month in Afghanistan. Add $500 million monthly from the State Department and more from other agencies, and the total U.S. outlay in Afghanistan this fiscal year will be about $34 billion.
Monday July 28, 2008 10:24 AM EST
Incident on Baghdad's Airport Road Time Known affectionately to his friends and family as Abu Ziad (father of Ziad), Hafedh Aboud Mehdi, 58, woke up on the morning of June 25, packed a lunch for himself and his son as he often does, and left his home in Baghdad's central Karrada district at 7:30 a.m. He was driving his 1996 maroon Opel Vita on route to Baghdad International Airport, where he has worked at the airport bank for the past 13 years.
He argues that since Bush took the country to war against Iraq on false pretenses and that therefore he is guilty of tens of thousands of counts of murder.
Sunday July 27, 2008 10:25 AM EST
Gravel: Take Bush to The Hague Press TV Former Democratic candidate Mike Gravel says President George W. Bush should be taken to The Hague for war crimes rather than being impeached.
Sunday July 27, 2008 1:50 AM EST
4,000 U.S. Combat Deaths, and Just a Handful of Images New York Times BAGHDAD — The case of a freelance photographer in Iraq who was barred from covering the Marines after he posted photos on the Internet of several of them dead has underscored what some journalists say is a growing effort by the American military to control graphic images from the war.
So insistently do the media's mainstream and conservative commentators repeat the Iraq success meme -- echoing the mantra of George W. Bush and John McCain -- that to probe its premises and assumptions is not permitted.
Friday July 25, 2008 11:00 PM EST
Civilian Airstrike Deaths Probed Washington Post KABUL -- U.S. and NATO military officials in Afghanistan have launched investigations into three separate U.S.-led airstrikes that Afghan officials say killed at least 78 civilians this month.
Friday July 25, 2008 10:29 AM EST
Back to the future in Iraq and Afghanistan Guardian Consensus is not a word usually associated with Iraq, but as security improves in the wake of the US troop surge, interested parties – the Bush administration, Iraq's Shia-led government, the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates, the Arab Gulf states and Iran – all agree, to varying degrees and for different reasons, that the time has come to start planning the withdrawal of US combat troops.
Thursday July 24, 2008 11:10 AM EST
ICC, indict Bush, not Sudan Workers World Presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney caught the right spirit when she called for impeaching President George Bush. The real war criminals are at home. And if the International Criminal Court were really independent of the imperialists, it would put Bush on trial—and first.
Thursday July 24, 2008 10:39 AM EST
Surge focus is a losing strategy for McCain Baltimore Sun "Senator Obama didn't support the surge, wanted to pull out, said that it would fail. I supported it when it was the toughest thing to do. I believe that my record on national security and keeping this country safe is there. And the American people will examine our records, and I will win."
That's John McCain explaining why he'll win.
He's wrong.
Thursday July 24, 2008 10:30 AM EST
Richest Americans See Their Income Share Grow Michael Moore In a new sign of increasing inequality in the U.S., the richest 1% of Americans in 2006 garnered the highest share of the nation's adjusted gross income for two decades, and possibly the highest since 1929, according to Internal Revenue Service data.
Wednesday July 23, 2008 10:54 PM EST
A Wake-Up Call From Afghanistan Washington Post ST. CHARLES, Mo., July 22 -- For Kurt Zwilling, the nine days since his soldier son was killed in an assault on a U.S. outpost in Afghanistan have been like living in a faded photograph. He stood near his son's coffin Tuesday and told mourners, "You know, right now the world looks a little bit off. The colors are not as bright."
Wednesday July 23, 2008 9:59 AM EST
Memorial Service Drives Home Rising Violence in Afghanistan Washington Post ST. CHARLES, Mo. July 22 -- For Kurt Zwilling, the nine days since his son was killed in an assault on a U.S. military outpost in Afghanistan have been like living in a faded photograph. He stood near his son's coffin Tuesday and told mourners, "You know, right now the world looks a little bit off. The colors are not as bright."
Wednesday July 23, 2008 12:35 AM EST
Another American Tragedy Pottersville In a monstrous twist of irony, Joseph Dwyer, once a recruiting poster and Iraq war icon of American compassion, died of an inhalant overdose on June 29th, practically abandoned by a dispassionate military whom he’d served so well.
Sunday July 20, 2008 6:40 PM EST
Memo to Obama, McCain: No One Wins in a War AlterNet Barack Obama and John McCain continue to argue about war. McCain says to keep the troops in Iraq until we "win" and supports sending more troops to Afghanistan. Obama says to withdraw some (not all) troops from Iraq and send them to fight and "win" in Afghanistan.
Friday July 18, 2008 11:55 PM EST
Nine Reasons to Investigate War Crimes Now The Nation Retired General Antonio Taguba, the officer who led the Army's investigation into Abu Ghraib, recently wrote in the preface to the new report, Broken laws, Broken Lives:
"There is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account."
Friday July 18, 2008 8:08 PM EST
American inequality highlighted by 30-year gap in life expectancy Independent The United States of America is becoming less united by the day. A 30-year gap now exists in the average life expectancy between Mississippi, in the Deep South, and Connecticut, in prosperous New England. Huge disparities have also opened up in income, health and education depending on where people live in the US, according to a report published yesterday.
Thursday July 17, 2008 10:47 AM EST
Stop deportation of war deserters Toronto Star Canada has long opened its doors to refugees from violence and oppression in far-off lands. But what about deserters from the armed forces of our neighbour, the United States? Surely, it is said, we should draw the line there, no matter how much we might disagree with the American war effort in Iraq.
Thursday July 17, 2008 9:58 AM EST
U.S.-led forces confirm killing Afghan civilians Reuters KABUL (Reuters) - U.S.-led coalition troops have killed eight Afghan civilians in an air strike in the western province of Farah during a raid against suspected militants, the U.S. military said.
Thursday July 17, 2008 9:50 AM EST
Who Spread False Tales of Heroism? New York Times Widespread — and, we suspect, self-induced — amnesia among high officials of the Bush administration and its Defense Department has made it impossible for House investigators to determine whether top officials helped spread two bogus stories of heroism used to bolster support for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Wednesday July 16, 2008 9:22 AM EST
A War of Convenience? Washington Post President Bush and Vice President Cheney could have reacted to the 9/11 terrorist attacks in lots of ways. What they chose to do was launch a global war on terror -- potentially a war without end.
This decision now seems like a big mistake. In the name of the war on terror, we have invaded and occupied a country that had nothing to do with the attacks of 9/11, we have emboldened our enemies, we have lost and taken many lives, we have spent trillions of dollars, we have sacrificed civil liberties, and we have jettisoned our commitment to human dignity.
Tuesday July 15, 2008 5:48 PM EST
The Wedding Crashers: U.S. Jets Have Bombed Five Ceremonies in Afghanistan AlterNet It was a tribal affair. Against a picture-perfect sunset, before a beige-colored cross and an altar made of the very Texas limestone that was also used to build her family's "ranch," veil-less in an Oscar de la Renta gown, the 26 year-old bride said her vows.
Tuesday July 15, 2008 11:04 AM EST
Unanswered Questions in Tillman Report Washington Post Congressional investigators could not determine when senior Pentagon and White House officials learned the details of the "friendly fire" death of Pat Tillman, the Army Ranger and former NFL player, and what role they may have played in the misleading release of information about the 2004 Afghanistan firefight that killed him, according to a preliminary report released yesterday.
Tuesday July 15, 2008 10:46 AM EST
Losing Private Dwyer New York Times The photo above captures everything that Americans wanted to believe about the Iraq war in the earliest days of the invasion in 2003. Pfc. Joseph Dwyer, an Army medic whose unit was fighting its way up the Euphrates to Baghdad, cradles a wounded boy. The child is half-naked and helpless, but trusting. Private Dwyer’s face is strained but calm.
Tuesday July 15, 2008 10:31 AM EST
Witnessing the War Dead, From Afar New York Times There’s a propaganda edge to waging every war, and a sad hallmark of the Bush administration’s approach has been to deny the nation the candid sight of flag-draped coffins of sacrificed soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. A nation at war should confront the reality of war.
Monday July 14, 2008 9:39 AM EST
Suspect soldiers: Did crimes in U.S. foretell violence in Iraq? McClatchy Newspapers Before Army Sgt. 1st Class Randal Ruby was accused in Iraq of beating prisoners and of conspiring to plant rifles on dead civilians, he amassed a 10-year criminal record in Colordao and Washington state for assaulting his wife and in Maine for a drunken high-speed police chase, for which he remains wanted.
Sunday July 13, 2008 10:21 AM EST
Unequal America Harvard Magazine When Majid Ezzati thinks about declining life expectancy, he says, “I think of an epidemic like HIV, or I think of the collapse of a social system, like in the former Soviet Union.” But such a decline is happening right now in some parts of the United States. Between 1983 and 1999, men’s life expectancy decreased in more than 50 U.S. counties. . .
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has tried to sweep out the symbols of his predecessor's capricious reign, firing acolytes of Donald Rumsfeld and bringing glasnost to the Pentagon.
But in one area, Rummy's Rules still pertain: the attempt to hide from public view the returning war dead.
Thursday July 10, 2008 12:12 PM EST
Inside the Bush White House's Nonstop Propaganda War AlterNet Scott McClellan is having a "Matrix" moment -- the moment when you wake up, with a jolt, from the reassuring fictions of the media dreamworld to the face-slapping reality of unspun fact.
Thursday July 10, 2008 9:56 AM EST
Fixing How We Go to War Washington Post Just shy of eight years after they squared off in the Florida recount battle, James A. Baker III and Warren Christopher have joined forces to clean up one of the ugly legacies of Vietnam -- the misguided piece of legislation called the War Powers Act.
Thursday July 10, 2008 9:41 AM EST
U.S. Troops in Iraq Face A Powerful New Weapon Washington Post BAGHDAD, July 9 -- Suspected Shiite militiamen have begun using powerful rocket-propelled bombs to attack U.S. military outposts in recent months, broadening the array of weapons used against American troops.
Thursday July 10, 2008 9:09 AM EST
Panel calls for overhaul of War Powers Act USA Today WASHINGTON — James Baker and Warren Christopher, who struggled with the War Powers Act when they were secretaries of State, Tuesday proposed an overhaul designed to increase consultations between the White House and Congress when U.S. troops go into battle.
Wednesday July 9, 2008 10:08 AM EST
Should Bush be tried for war crimes? Guardian I had a good laugh when my friend Seth Gitell reported in the New York Sun on a campaign by the dean of the obscure Massachusetts School of Law to put George Bush and other top White House officials on trial for war crimes.
Tuesday July 8, 2008 5:36 PM EST
US cluster bomb plans outrageous, say campaigners Guardian US plans to respond to international pressure over the use of cluster bombs by phasing out the amount of unexploded bomblets they contain, were today branded as "outrageous" by campaigners.
Tuesday July 8, 2008 11:08 AM EST
Put War Powers Back Where They Belong New York Times THE most agonizing decision we make as a nation is whether to go to war. Our Constitution ambiguously divides war powers between the president (who is the commander in chief) and Congress (which has the power of the purse and the power to declare war). The founders hoped that the executive and legislative branches would work together, but in practice the two branches don’t always consult. And even when they do, they often dispute their respective powers.
Tuesday July 8, 2008 10:36 AM EST
Soldier whose photo touched many dies in N.C. USA Today During the first week of the war in Iraq in 2003, a Military Times photographer captured the image of Army Pfc. Joseph Patrick Dwyer as he raced through a battle zone clutching a tiny Iraqi boy named Ali.
Tuesday July 8, 2008 10:33 AM EST
After the Battle, Fighting the Bottle at Home New York Times Most nights when Anthony Klecker, a former marine, finally slept, he found himself back on the battlefields of Iraq. He would awake in a panic, and struggle futilely to return to sleep.
U.S. intelligence has concluded that Iran is not working on nuclear weapons. But the Bush administration and Israel, recently joined by France, are issuing increasingly loud threats of military action to frighten Iran into halting its nuclear enrichment program.
Monday July 7, 2008 9:17 AM EST
Where Do We Go From Here? New York Times The alarming resurgence of Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan makes it even more imperative for the United States to begin planning for a swift and orderly withdrawal from Iraq.
For far too long President Bush’s disastrous war of choice in Iraq has leached resources and top-level attention from the war of necessity in Afghanistan.
Monday July 7, 2008 9:11 AM EST
A national cleansing IHT When a distinguished American military commander accuses the United States of committing war crimes in its handling of detainees, you know that the country needs a new way forward.
Sunday July 6, 2008 12:34 PM EST
Avoiding military option in Iran San Francisco Chronicle When it comes to confronting Iran, which President Bush will it be - the new international hand-holder who blessed a first step in curbing North Korea's nuclear stockpile, or the old unilateralist who went it alone in Iraq?
Sunday July 6, 2008 9:29 AM EST
The Iraq War Was About Oil, All Along AlterNet Oh, no, they told us, Iraq isn't a war about oil. That's cynical and simplistic, they said. It's about terror and al-Qaeda and toppling a dictator and spreading democracy and protecting ourselves from weapons of mass destruction. But one by one, these concocted rationales went up in smoke, fire and ashes. And now the bottom line turns out to be ... the bottom line. It is about oil.
Saturday July 5, 2008 10:13 PM EST
Rice 'proud' of Iraq invasion News (AU) US SECRETARY of State Condoleezza Rice says she is "proud" of the US decision to invade Iraq.
Dr Rice also said the Middle East has improved since President George Bush took office.
Saturday July 5, 2008 10:00 AM EST
The Story Behind George Bush's Lies CounterPunch Long accused of signature dishonesty, the Bush Administration now stands twice indicted, by Scott McClellan’s book and by two damning reports from Jay Rockefeller’s Senate Select Committee on Intelligence—the “Phase II” documents. These sources confirm beyond any doubt the Bush Administration, with propaganda and outright lies, deliberately misled the U.S. Congress into authorizing war.
That is the truth, but not the whole truth, and the backstory is no less appalling.
Tuesday July 1, 2008 7:00 PM EST
Wounded Iraqi Forces Say They’ve Been Abandoned New York Times BAGHDAD — Dawoud Ameen, a former Iraqi soldier, lay in bed, his shattered legs splayed before him, worrying about the rent for his family of five.
Mr. Ameen’s legs were shredded by shrapnel from a roadside bomb in September 2006 and now, like many wounded members of the Iraqi security forces, he is deeply in debt and struggling to survive.
Tuesday July 1, 2008 10:42 AM EST
War Costs For Iraq And Afghanistan Hit $850 Billion Huffington Post WASHINGTON — President Bush on Monday signed legislation to pay for the war operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for the rest of his presidency and beyond, hailing the $162 billion plan as a rare product of bipartisan cooperation.
Tuesday July 1, 2008 10:41 AM EST
A blind eye on soldiers' suicides Boston Globe 'SUPPORT THE troops" is an American lie. This nation is grievously and knowingly failing the young men and women who wear the uniform of its military services, and nothing demonstrates that more powerfully than the suicides of soldiers.
Monday June 30, 2008 10:05 AM EST
Pentagon: Taliban resurgent while we're tied down in Iraq Daily Kos On Friday the Defense Department released two reports to Congress about Afghanistan (as required by law). One is the first biennial report on security in the country, the other a plan for sustaining the Afghan National Security Forces (both PDFs). The news is grim. But just as with the Iraq quarterly reports, the DoD tries to put a positive spin on things. This time the best evidence of that is on display in purple font (literally).
Sunday June 29, 2008 10:55 AM EST
30,000 Troops Headed For Iraq In 2009 CBS News The Pentagon is preparing to order roughly 30,000 troops to Iraq early next year in a move that would allow the U.S. to maintain 15 combat brigades in the country through 2009, The Associated Press has learned.
The network is seeking to prevent the government from reviewing the unbroadcast parts of an interview with an officer who is being prosecuted over the incident.
Friday June 27, 2008 2:00 AM EST
Thursday: 3 Marines, 48 Iraqis Killed; 114 Iraqis Wounded Anti-War A pair of significant bombings shook Iraq today and underscored how tenuous the security gains made in the last few months actually are. Three U.S. Marines were among the dead in the attack in Karma. At least 48 Iraqis were killed and 114 more were wounded across the country as well.
Thursday June 26, 2008 10:49 PM EST
US wars have helped al-Qa'eda, says report Telegraph The Senlis Council, which has an extensive network of researchers in Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia, said frustration with war and unemployment was underpinning the insurgency against western forces.
Thursday June 26, 2008 5:48 PM EST
Time to make candidates answer on Iraq Los Angeles Times If you go to the Republican National Committee's website, you can watch the clock labeled "Days Since Barack Obama Visited Iraq." Tick, tick, tick. Nearly 900 days and counting.
Over at moveon.org, a young mother in a 30-second ad looks into the camera and tells John McCain -- who must be plotting to send her adorable baby boy to fight in his 100 Years War -- "You can't have him."
' I don't like words that hide the truth. I don't like words that conceal reality. I don't like euphemisms, or euphemistic language. And American English is loaded with euphemisms.
Thursday June 26, 2008 10:09 AM EST
Blast Kills 3 U.S. Troops In Northern Iraq CBS News (CBS/AP) The U.S. military said Wednesday that three American soldiers and an interpreter had been killed in a bombing in northern Iraq.
Wednesday June 25, 2008 9:26 AM EST
Big Oil and the war in Iraq Boston Globe IT TOOK five years, the deaths of 4,100 US soldiers, and the wounding of 30,000 more to make Iraq safe for Exxon. It is the inescapable open question since the reasons given by President Bush for the invasion and occupation did not exist, neither the weapons of mass destruction nor Saddam Hussein's ties to Al Qaeda and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Tuesday June 24, 2008 9:38 AM EST
Retired General: "The Current Administration Has Committed War Crimes" AlterNet Last Tuesday, the Senate Armed Services Committee held an eight-hour hearing that exposed the role of top Bush administration officials in authorizing the use of harsh interrogation techniques. Meanwhile, Retired Major General Antonio Taguba, the Army general who first investigated the abuse at Abu Ghraib, has accused the Bush administration of committing war crimes. "The commander in chief and those under him authorized a systematic regime of torture," Taguba said.
Monday June 23, 2008 7:05 PM EST
The New Republic Syndrome Salon The number one problem facing the Democratic Party is that, as events of the last week demonstrate, it continues to be plagued by The New Republic Syndrome, one of the most fatal political afflictions that exist. In 2002 and 2003, The New Republic was one of the leading crusaders for an attack on Iraq, railing against what it called "the intellectual incoherence of the liberal war critics." In a February 2003 Editorial, they decreed that "the United States must disarm Iraq by force" and declared war opponents guilty of "abject pacifism."
Monday June 23, 2008 2:46 PM EST
WHAT’S THE BIG IDEA? The New Yorker On October 7, 2002, in Cincinnati, Ohio, George W. Bush delivered the defining speech of his Presidency. In the face of “clear evidence of peril” from a regime harboring terrorists and weapons of mass destruction, he declared, “we cannot wait for the final proof—the smoking gun—that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.”
Five days earlier, a forty-one-year-old Illinois state legislator had given a momentous speech of his own, although few recognized it as such at the time.
Monday June 23, 2008 10:30 AM EST
Why the American People Were So Easily Informed Comment I do not wish to engage in a debate about the Iraq War. But the thought of planting a largely Christian army in the middle of the Muslim Middle East over the opposition of most countries in the region, when put as I have just put it, sounds daft. Why did it not ring bells of alarm to Americans in 2003 and after, especially as it became clear that our troops would be staying a long time and that no quick victory was possible? It did not because the administration saw to it that the issue was framed differently. We weren’t planting an army. We were spreading God’s miraculous gift of freedom to a benighted people very much in need of America’s missionary help. It was the triumph of myth over logic.
Monday June 23, 2008 10:13 AM EST
Democrats Write a Blank Check for Bush's War The Nation George Bush, who has never chosen to take responsibility for addressing the mess he created in Iraq, has now been given permission by the U.S. House to finish his presidency without doing so.
Sunday June 22, 2008 7:26 PM EST
Haditha victims' kin outraged as Marines go free McClatchy Newspapers HADITHA, Iraq — Khadija Hassan still shrouds her body in black, nearly three years after the deaths of her four sons. They were killed on Nov. 19, 2005, along with 20 other people in the deadliest documented case of U.S. troops killing civilians since the Vietnam War.
Sunday June 22, 2008 10:31 AM EST
Now That We’ve ‘Won,’ Let’s Come Home New York Times THE Iraq war’s defenders like to bash the press for pushing the bad news and ignoring the good. Maybe they’ll be happy to hear that the bad news doesn’t rate anymore. When a bomb killed at least 51 Iraqis at a Baghdad market on Tuesday, ending an extended run of relative calm, only one of the three network newscasts (NBC’s) even bothered to mention it.
Sunday June 22, 2008 10:02 AM EST
The Scott McClellan sideshow Salon At long last, the most significant issues in the case of one-time CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson are emerging under congressional scrutiny. With former White House press secretary Scott McClellan as a willing foil, the Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee seem determined to examine the actual roles of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney in the Plame affair -- from the leaking of her CIA identity through the subsequent attempt to cover up that unpatriotic and possibly illegal act of political vengeance.
But McClellan's appearance before the committee Friday was in certain respects a sideshow -- even though he recounted under oath several of the most damaging allegations and arguments in "What Happened," his recent bestselling memoir.
Saturday June 21, 2008 10:29 AM EST
Neocons Busy Rewriting History On Iraq Huffington Post Ever since the Rumsfeld era at the Pentagon ended abruptly in the aftermath of the Democratic victory in the 2006 mid-term elections, the civilian hawks who ruled the Defense Dept. during the early years of the Iraq war have remained largely silent. They have not engaged publicly even as their culpability for the Iraq war's myriad failures has congealed into accepted wisdom.
Thursday June 19, 2008 8:59 PM EST
IRAQ: Home to Too Many Widows IPS BAQUBA, Jun 18 (IPS) - Just about everyone in Iraq is a loser as a result of the occupation, but none more than women. One of the more obvious signs of that is the very large number of widows.
The Asharq al-Awsat Arab media channel estimated in late 2007 there were 2.3 million widows in Iraq. These include widows from the 1980-1988 war with Iran in which half a million men were killed, the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq, and from 'natural' causes. The news outlet cited the Iraqiyat (Iraqi women) group as a source for their figure.
Wednesday June 18, 2008 9:58 AM EST
A Comparative Tax Story: Obama, McCain, and Ike AlterNet If you had $1 million riding on the result of the 2008 presidential election, would you be paying some extra close attention to the race between Senators John McCain and Barack Obama? America's super-rich -- those swells who make up the nation's top 0.1 percent of income-earners -- now find themselves in that exact position.
In fact, this November's election may matter more to America's super-rich, in pure dollars and cents, than any other election in U.S. history.
Wednesday June 18, 2008 9:45 AM EST
Iraq War: We all sacrifice? Seattle PI It's good to know that while our troops continue to perish in cities that don't know their names and Iraqis still struggle to survive day-to-day, such sacrifices aren't made in vain: This miserable war is making certain contractors will continue to get rich. Very rich.
Wednesday June 18, 2008 1:08 AM EST
Type And Severity Of Combat Wounds In Iraq War Have Changed Over Time Science Daily The transition in Iraq from maneuver warfare to insurgency warfare is associated with changes in the type and severity of injuries treated by surgical units of the U.S. Marine Corps, according to a new report. In the second, insurgent phase of the war, injuries have been more severe, transport times longer, more injuries have occurred per individual and more soldiers have been killed in action or died of their wounds.
"For what I've done, I should be treated like a king," he said outside a cramped, low-rent apartment he shares with his family.
Instead, the Iraqi informant code-named Curveball has flipped burgers at McDonald's and Burger King, washed dishes in a Chinese restaurant and baked pretzels in an all-night bakery. He also has faced withering international scorn for peddling discredited intelligence that helped spur an invasion of his native country.
Tuesday June 17, 2008 8:53 PM EST
Bush regrets rhetoric, not Iraq war Chicago Tribune While facing repeated questions about the war in Iraq during a weeklong tour of Europe, President George W. Bush has made it clear: He regrets only some of the words he used, not the actions his administration took.