Iraq and Afghanistan
Latest News and Commentary Refreshed every 6 hours.
Officials: Coalition jets kill 15 Afghan militants
Tue, 24 Jun 2008 - MSNBC.com: World News
U.S.-led coalition warplanes attacked militants withdrawing from a clash with police in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing 15 of them, officials said.
2 U.S. civilians, 2 GIs killed in Iraq blast
Tue, 24 Jun 2008 - MSNBC.com: World News
Four Americans — two soldiers and two civilians — were killed in a bomb blast Tuesday at a council office in Baghdad's Shiite Sadr City district, U.S. officials said.
Mayor's Iraq cigar case 'taken into custody'
Tue, 24 Jun 2008 - BBC News
London Mayor Boris Johnson says he has had to give police a cigar case belonging to Saddam's deputy Tariq Aziz.
So my uncle sent me another email forward...
Tue, 24 Jun 2008 - TPMCafe - Blogs
So my conservative uncle forwarded another email to me. This one features a supposed resignation speech by George W. Bush. Such a thought is, of course, far too good to be true; I suspect the Secret Service is going to have to drag Bush out of the White House kicking and screaming in January 2009. Still, it's a fun idea, so I read the supposed speech with relish: The speech George W. Bush might give: Normally, I start these things out by saying 'My Fellow Americans.' Not doing it this time. If the polls are any indication, I don't know...
GAO Report Faults Post-'Surge' Planning -- Are you Surprised there's No Post Plan?
Tue, 24 Jun 2008 - TPMCafe - Blogs
The administration lacks an updated and comprehensive Iraq strategy to move beyond the "surge" of combat troops President Bush launched in January 2007 as an 18-month effort to curtail violence and build Iraqi democracy, government investigators said yesterday. While agreeing with the administration that violence has decreased sharply, a report released yesterday by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) concluded that many other goals Bush outlined a year and a half ago in the "New Way Forward" strategy remain unmet… It’s kind of laughable that the GAO even bothers investigating a possible Post-‘Surge’ plan. Who in their right mind thought this...
Is France Becoming More American?
Tue, 24 Jun 2008 - TPMCafe - Blogs
<p><strong> PRO:</strong></p> <ul> <li><strong>Pro-American Rhetoric</strong> <br />Braving the current of French popular opinion, Sarkozy acknowledges that France has little to gain from systematically opposing the United States. A pro-American approach enables France to voice its visions of the international order. The shift was made explicit as early as <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6631125.stm">May 6, 2007</a> on the evening of his electoral victory: “I want to reach out to our American friends to tell them they can count on our friendship […] I want to tell them that France will always be on their side when they need her …” Sarkozy’s visit to the...
169 House Members (77 Dems) Push For WAR NOW with Iran Plus AIPAC's Response
Tue, 24 Jun 2008 - TPMCafe - The Coffee House Feed
This one slipped right by me. Both the House and Senate are considering legislation that would put us in a state of war with Iran. Right now. H. Con. Res 362 and S.Res.580 are identical bills (designed for expeditious passage) which have as their goal "preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability, through all appropriate economic, political, and diplomatic means, is vital to the national security interests of the United States and must be dealt with urgently...." The bills introduction coincided with the AIPAC conference. The bill's "action clause" would put us at war with Iran by immediately imposing...
Impeach Obama!
Tue, 24 Jun 2008 - TPMCafe - The Coffee House Feed
Kidding! I kid the Obama people. Ha-ha. We kid because we love. The quadrennial rite of summer is the turn of the Democratic Party presidential nominee towards "the center." The dispiriting ritual has begun. Inquiring minds may ask, where was our point of departure for this journey? If we were already at the center, how far is there to go, must we go? Obama hired not one but two D.C. lizard-people to run his vice presidential selection process. The more egregious choice -- James Johnson -- has been forced to withdraw. The other, Eric Holder of Marc Rich fame , is...
Opening thoughts and questions
Tue, 24 Jun 2008 - TPMCafe - The Coffee House Feed
A hundred years ago in Boston, the Congo Reform Association published a pamphlet by Mark Twain called "King Leopold's Soliloquy, A Defense of His Congo Rule." The text takes the form of a monologue by the Belgian monarch, as he reads through a stack of protest literature, describing crimes perpetrated by his colonial agents against his Congolese subjects: torture, abduction, enslavement, starvation, mutilation, extermination. "Blister the meddlesome missionaries!" the king fulminates. "They seem to be always around, always spying, always eye-witnessing the happenings; and everything they see they commit to paper." But, even as he rails, Leopold comforts himself with...
Steve Young: Rebooting Me: Personal Democracy Forum - Day #1
Tue, 24 Jun 2008 - Huffington Post - Full Blog
Picture from the genius of Elliot Curson Einstein said that in the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity. Would it be that the e=mc2 guy would have been in the midst of my week's converging opportunities, the only difficulty he'd have would be sifting through all the options converging in one kismetuous explosion of possibility called the Personal Democracy Forum (Pdf 2008: Rebooting The System,) brought to you by the people at personaldemocracy.com. How odd that the day after my three years as a columnist for one major metropolitan newspaper ended from budget cuts due largely to the new media (...
Earl Ofari Hutchinson: Message to Obama and McCain: Don't Waste Time on Paul's Backers
Tue, 24 Jun 2008 - Huffington Post - Full Blog
The message to Republican presidential contender John McCain and his Democratic rival Barack Obama don't waste any time courting no shot former GOP presidential contender Ron Paul's backers especially since Paul has not endorsed either candidate. From his few stray comments on the race, he likely won't. Yet the intense debate, speculation, and media talk continues that McCain at least will make a concerted effort to get Paul's backers on board. If true that won't do much for his campaign and even less for his image. The scary thing about Paul's candidacy was never his fringe views on taxes, social...
'Cherchez' Iran
Tue, 24 Jun 2008 - Al-Ahram Weekly Online
Fearing the increasing Iranian influence in Iraq, Sunni Arab states say they will dispatch ambassadors to Baghdad, writes Saif Nasrawi
Middle East takes a backseat
Tue, 24 Jun 2008 - Al-Ahram Weekly Online
The economy is the real issue in the presidential campaigns, though just maybe the Iraq debacle has a silver lining for Obama, analyses Anayat Durrani
Iraqi military to take control of Anbar province
Tue, 24 Jun 2008 - CNN World
Iraq's Anbar province -- once dominated by Sunni insurgents but now a bastion of tribal opposition against the militants -- will soon be run by the Iraqi military.
U.S. Embassy staff, soldiers killed in blast
Tue, 24 Jun 2008 - CNN World
An explosion rocked a municipal building Tuesday in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood, killing six Iraqis, two U.S. soldiers and two civilian U.S. Embassy employees, an embassy official said.
Suicide Bombing Kills Four Americans in Sadr City
Tue, 24 Jun 2008 - WCBS880.com
A bomb struck a municipal council building Tuesday in Baghdad's Shiite Sadr City district, killing four Americans, including two soldiers and two U.S. government civilian employees, U.S. officials said. At least six Iraqi civilians also died. READ MORE >>
Taleban's '$100m opium takings'
Tue, 24 Jun 2008 - BBC News
Taleban insurgents in Afghanistan took more than $100m from the opium trade in 2007, a top UN official tells the BBC.
Disgruntled Official in Iraq Kills Two U.S. Soldiers
Tue, 24 Jun 2008 - WCBS880.com
A disgruntled local official opened fire Monday on U.S. soldiers attending a municipal council meeting southeast of Baghdad, killing two of them and wounding four others, including an interpreter, U.S. and Iraqi officials said. READ MORE >>
U.S. Looks to Ease Barriers in Baghdad Market
Tue, 24 Jun 2008 - NPR World News
Many parts of Baghdad are enjoying relative calm. But the price of improved security is concrete walls, checkpoints and armed guards. In one formerly violent Baghdad market, the U.S. military is experimenting with ways to open up the walls so that merchants can flourish.
Class warfare spurred by oil
Mon, 23 Jun 2008 - Montgomery Advertiser Opinion
The United States is fighting three wars. The first two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are dragging on. The third war is being waged right here in the good old United States of America and we're losing that war.
Pentagon: Violence down in Iraq since 'surge'
Mon, 23 Jun 2008 - CNN World
All major indicators of violence in Iraq have dropped by between 40 and 80 percent since February 2007, when President Bush committed an additional 30,000 troops to the war there, the Pentagon reported Monday.
CONTRACTS FOR BIG OIL IN IRAQ CONFIRM EARLIER SUSPICIONS (Cynthia Tucker)
Sun, 22 Jun 2008 - Yahoo News Opinion/Editorial
Cynthia Tucker - Didn't you just know this was coming?
Interview with the CNN Editorial Board
Thu, 19 Jun 2008 - Department of State Remarks by the Secretary of State
QUESTION: The Secretary is on a tight schedule and so we'll do all that saving the world and, you know, stuff like that. So we really appreciate you taking the time (inaudible). QUESTION: (Inaudible) the top issue (inaudible) global in nature, energy, oil prices, Iraq, national security, et cetera.
UN: Iraq conflict exacerbates unprecedented refugee flows
Wed, 18 Jun 2008 - Christian Science Monitor World
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees estimates 67 million displaced people worldwide in 2007, a result of war, poverty, and climate change.
Afghanistan: Taliban keeps up pressure with assaults
Wed, 18 Jun 2008 - Christian Science Monitor World
Militants took control of a strategic district outside Kandahar. Afghan and foreign troops flew to the city in response.
The Future of U.S. Troops in Iraq
Tue, 17 Jun 2008 - NPR Opinion
Will U.S. troops have a new legal basis to operate in Iraq after a U.N. mandate expires at the end of the year? Meetings between the presidential candidates and Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari and negotiations between U.S. and Iraqi officials have focused on the issue.
Investigation: In Afghanistan, routine abuse of terror detainees
Tue, 17 Jun 2008 - Christian Science Monitor World
An eight-month review by McClatchy newspapers says the US wrongfully imprisoned many suspected Al Qaeda terrorists.
President Bush meets with General Dan McNeill, Former Commander of the International Security Assistance Force
Tue, 17 Jun 2008 - White House News
President Bush on Tuesday said, "It's been my privilege to serve with two really fine Americans, General Dan McNeill and Maureen McNeill. I've gotten to know the General well. He's a tough, no-nonsense patriot who was our commander in Afghanistan. I want to thank you very much for the briefing you just gave me about the issues that we face, your optimism about success."
Is the Media Making Us Feel Worse?
Mon, 16 Jun 2008 - NPR Opinion
Gregg Easterbrook explains why he feels that, besides the Iraq war, negative media impressions of life in America have conditioned us to believe that the country is much worse than it actually is.
