Middle East

Sunni Arab guerrillas have killed 9 US soldiers in the past two days. They killed 6 and wounded 4 with a bomb in a booby-trapped safe house on Wednesday. The deaths come in the course of an American sweep in Diyala Province aimed at weakening the Salafi radicals. A new World Health Organization study estimates […]

In the US, here is an irony. John McCain, “Mr. Surge,” who dreams of a century-long US occupation of Iraq, was the anti-war candidate for Republicans in Iowa. Yes: ‘ Exit polls found 64 percent of Tuesday’s Republican voters still support the conflict — and Romney, whose criticism of President Bush’s management of the war […]

In a further sign of a determined new year’s counter-attack by the radical Salafis and/or neo-Baathists, a wave of bombings and kidnappings swept Iraq on Monday, leaving 24 dead, dozens wounded. In the eastern Sunni enclave of Adhamiya in Baghdad, now more and more surrounded by purely Shiite districts, Sunni guerrillas attacked the offices of […]

George McGovern is calling for Bush and Cheney to be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, including ordering hundreds of warrantless wiretaps on US citizens. Good for him. Even if a plan is impractical, if it is just it should be broached. Guerrillas detonated four deadly bombs in Baghdad on Sunday. One guerrilla struck soldiers […]

Radio Sawa reports in Arabic that Iraqi members of parliament dismiss the pledge of US presidential candidate Barack Obama to end the Iraq War and withdraw US troops from the country. They say it is just campaign talk and that if Obama were elected he would swiftly become more realistic. (It is my firm impression […]

Iraqi parliamentarians are attempting to strip Adnan Dulaimi of his parliamentary immunity. They charge that he is complicit with terrorists. Dulaimi leads the 44-member [Sunni Arab] Iraqi Accord Front in parliament. US forces found weapons and bombs in a house next to his. These developments came as a blow to hopes for reconciliation between Sunnis […]

The conventional wisdom among the inside the beltway pundits is that Iraq is no longer a leading issue for American voters. This conventional wisdom is demonstrably untrue. First, some December polls (scroll down) show that it was the most important issue for 25% of likely voters, with other issues trailing substantially. In part it derives […]

Update: Zogby et al. is showing a last minute boost among voters for Obama and Huckabee in Iowa. But obviously many Iowans are undecided and the race is extremely volatile. Activists campaigning down to the wire in Iowa are invoking stances on the Iraq War. Joshua Holland argues that among the three leading Democratic candidates […]

A seasoned observer writes: ‘ The complexity, interrelationships, results and consequences (intended and unintended) of US Iraq policy – one of the seven foreign interventions by the Bush Administration – were on confused display this week. While the sequence was to have been Iran sanctions followed by the Iraq matter, because of manipulations by the […]