Iraq War

By Andrew J. Bacevich | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | – – Apart from being a police officer, firefighter, or soldier engaged in one of this nation’s endless wars, writing a column for a major American newspaper has got to be one of the toughest and most unforgiving jobs there is. The pay may be decent […]

Afghanistan

The Misuse of American Military Power and Mideast Chaos

contributors

By Danny Sjursen | (Tomdispatch.com) | – – The United States has already lost — its war for the Middle East, that is. Having taken my own crack at combat soldiering in both Iraq and Afghanistan, that couldn’t be clearer to me. Unfortunately, it’s evidently still not clear in Washington. Bush’s neo-imperial triumphalism failed. Obama’s […]

Iraq War

A Gwen Ifill Interview with Juan Cole on Iraq & US Withdrawal: In Memoriam

Juan Cole

Gwen Ifill/ Juan Cole | (PBS NewsHour) | – – Gwen Ifill, long-time co-anchor of the PBS Newshour, is dead at 61, after a battle with cancer. She was an expert interviewer, and she discussed Iraq with me many times on the NewsHour. I was so lucky to have been on with her. Ifill was […]

Colonialism

60 Years later, Suez Crisis looks a lot like Iraq War

contributors

By Nigel Ashton | (The Conversation) | – – Does history repeat itself? Never perfectly or precisely, but some of the parallels between Anthony Eden’s handling of the 1956 Suez Crisis and Tony Blair’s role in the 2003 invasion of Iraq are worth pondering. In both cases prime ministerial decision-making dictated the course of British […]

Bush

Iraq: Bush DoD paid PR Firm millions to Plant fake I.S. Videos, False Stories

contributors

By Crofton Black and Abigail Fielding-Smith | ( The Bureau of Investigative Journalism ) | – – The Pentagon gave a controversial UK PR firm over half a billion dollars to run a top secret propaganda programme in Iraq, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism can reveal. Bell Pottinger’s output included short TV segments made in […]

Afghanistan

What did we buy with the $5 Trillion that the Iraq & Afghanistan Wars have cost us?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – A Boston U. political scientist estimates that as of 2016, The Iraq and Afghanistan Wars have cost the American taxpayers $5 trillion. That number isn’t important when we consider the human cost– Some 7,000 US troops dead, 52,000 wounded in action; hundreds of thousands of Iraqis […]

Iraq War

Why you can’t explain the Iraq War without mentioning oil

contributors

By Bulent Gökay | (The Conversation) | – – Well before the US and UK led the invasion of Iraq, the two countries were under suspicion about their intentions for Iraq’s oil. When asked on February 6 2003 in a BBC Newsnight programme whether the war in Iraq was about oil, Tony Blair responded: Let […]

Bush

The other Casualty of Iraq War: The Country’s Whole Health System

contributors

Ahmed Aber | (The Conversation) | – – Thirteen years ago, American and British troops launched Operation Iraqi Freedom. The Iraqis were promised freedom from tyranny, but the subsequent destruction of the Iraqi state apparatus as well as the cycle of violence that continues to this day destroyed the health system that cared for the […]

Iraq War

Surprise! It was a War Crime

contributors

By Rebecca Gordon | (Informed Comment) | – – So now it’s official. The British Chilcot Report confirms what the world has known for 13 years: the invasion of Iraq was a legal, strategic, and moral disaster. The report runs to 12 volumes – 2.5 million words – but its primary author, Sir John Chilcott, […]