Aswat al-Iraq reports on reactions to the withdrawal of US combat brigades from Iraq in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. The head of the Basra Provincial governing council, Jabbar Amin, said that the American combat forces had withdrawn at dawn on Thursday, which would charge the Iraqi forces with their true mission, in strengthening […]
Last US Combat Units withdraw from Iraq
The last US combat convoy left Iraq on Thursday, rather some time after George W. Bush declared an end to combat operations in Iraq in May, 2003. Of course, this flat statement is not entirely accurate. The remaining 50,000 troops are viewed as trainers and logistics support to the Iraqi government. But they include special […]
Bolton was Contradicted by Bush on Iran’s Bushehr Reactor
Former US ambassador and perennial angry old crank John Bolton is so upset about the possibility that Iran’s Bushehr nuclear reactor will soon go live that he says Israel has a window of only 8 days to attack it and destroy it. (After a reactor is already working, bombing it would turn it into a […]
59 Dead, 120 Wounded in Iraqi Suicide Bombing;
Iraqi Parties reject US Power Sharing Proposal
The Telegraph reports that 59 persons are dead and 120 wounded in a suicide bombing attack on potential army recruits in Baghdad. There may have been two perpetrators, presumably with bomb belts. Those volunteering for the Iraqi army were gathered in a large crowd outside a government building and being allowed in in groups of […]
Top Ways Dan Senor Could have avoided offending Iraqi Muslims
Former Bush administration spokesman in Iraq Dan Senor is against the building of a Sufi Muslim community center in lower Manhattan. He says he is concerned that interfaith understanding may be damaged. Since Senor is so worried about religion and hurt feelings, he no doubt feels badly about what he and his team did to […]
Dear Climate Change Deniers
Dear Climate Change Deniers: This summer, Russia, a former icebox, is so hot that it is actually on fire. A third of Pakistan is affected by massive flooding caused by especially hot tropical waters. Parts of the Greenland ice shelf are plopping into the ocean. That is all.
Book of the Day: Midnight on the Mavi Marmara
Book of the Day: Midnight on the Mavi Marmara: The Attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla and How It Changed the Course of the Israel/Palestine Conflict, Moustafa Bayoumi, Editor. Click on the hyperlink above to go to go to the OR Books web site, where you can order this volume of short trenchant essays on […]
An Israeli Attack on Iran would reduce Barack Obama to a One-Term President
What should a poor warmongering Neoconservative do? This political grouping includes WASPS such as former CIA director James Woolsey and former UN ambassor John Bolton, but at its core is politically active and extremely wealthy Jewish former Democrats who broke with their party in the 1980s to become war hawks in Republican administrations, and most […]
500,000 evacuated from Jacobabad as Floodwaters head toward Sindh
As Pakistan’s massive flooding continues, Some 500,000 people have been forced to evacuate the Sindhi city of Jacobabad, suddenly finding themselves homeless. Ordinarily this sort of catastrophe would be news in itself, but with 4 million or so Pakistanis displaced, it is just one more piece of bad news. In one area of Sindh, 25,000 […]