(Via The Huffington Post.)
The war in Iraq has become “a major debacle” and the outcome “is in doubt” despite improvements in security from the buildup in U.S. forces, according to a highly critical study published Thursday by the Pentagon’s premier military educational institute.
The report released by the National Defense University raises fresh doubts about President […]
Written on April 18, 2008 | Posted in
Foreign Policy,
National Security
(Via Reuters.)
The anti-U.S. movement of Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr is now Iraq’s main humanitarian organization helping needy Iraqis, a relief group said in a report that is certain to cause concern in Washington.
In the report published on Tuesday, Refugees International said Sadr’s Mehdi Army militia as well as other Shi’ite and Sunni Arab militias were […]
Written on April 15, 2008 | Posted in
Featured
(Via Salon News.)
On the outskirts of Tripoli in northern Lebanon, the jagged ruins of Nahr el-Bared rise over the Mediterranean Sea. Once one of Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camps and an urban center of more than 30,000 people, Nahr el-Bared today recalls images of Berlin or Dresden from 1945 — its buildings blasted to rubble […]
Written on April 14, 2008 | Posted in
Featured
(Via Yahoo! News.)
Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr raised the stakes Tuesday in his showdown with government, threatening to end formally a seven-month cease-fire unless authorities stop attacks on his followers in Baghdad.
Formally ending the cease-fire could trigger renewed fighting throughout southern Iraq, nine days after a deal brokered in Iran calmed the region.
But there was no […]
Written on April 10, 2008 | Posted in
Foreign Policy
(Via RealClearPolitics.)
At this stage, the United States has no good option in Iraq. But the drawbacks and dangers of the current bottom-up approach demand a change of course. The only alternative is a return to a top-down strategy. To be more effective this time around, Washington must return to the kind of diplomacy that the […]
Written on April 9, 2008 | Posted in
Foreign Policy
(Via Daily Kos.)
The dismal reality just keeps rolling through my mind at this late hour robbing me of rest. Our troops have to stay. Like water spiraling down the drain and into a sewer, that’s where every Republican canard and conservative dodge leads. Over 4000 American KIA, thousands more maimed for life, half a trillion […]
Written on April 9, 2008 | Posted in
Opinion
(Via msnbc.com.)
The top U.S. commander in Iraq told Congress Tuesday that hard-won gains in the war zone are too fragile to promise any troop pullouts beyond this summer, holding his ground against impatient Democrats and refusing to commit to more withdrawals before President Bush leaves office in January.
In testimony that featured questioning by the major […]
Written on April 9, 2008 | Posted in
Foreign Policy,
Senate
(Via CNN.com.)
The sharp differences between the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates over the war in Iraq shared the spotlight Tuesday during Senate hearings.
Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, said that success in Iraq was “within reach” at the beginning of the high-profile hearing on Iraq involving Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. general […]
Written on April 9, 2008 | Posted in
Campaign 2008,
Democrats,
Foreign Policy
(Via Reuters.)
Republican presidential candidate John McCain will accuse his Democratic rivals of making promises they cannot keep with regard to Iraq on Monday in a speech that kicks off a week in which the war returns to center stage of the presidential campaign.
McCain, a senator from Arizona who has wrapped up his party’s White House […]
Written on April 7, 2008 | Posted in
News
(Via washingtonpost.com.)
When Army Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker travel to Capitol Hill tomorrow, they might be the ones before the microphones, but the cameras will be trained on three of their inquisitors: Sens. John McCain, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.
The hearings before the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees […]
Written on April 7, 2008 | Posted in
News
