Middle East

Sadrists Reject Abandoning De-Baathification; US Walls off Adhamiya One of the four benchmarks that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates pressed on Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on his recent trip to Baghdad was the end of “de-Baathification” or the exclusion of former Baathists from government jobs and high positions. Most of those disadvantaged by this process […]

5 Coalition Troops Killed, 20 Iraqis Executed Gates Warns Clock Ticking Guerrillas killed 5 Coalition troops in Iraq– 3 Americans and 2 British, and wounded others. US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates warned the Iraqi leadership in a visit to Baghdad on Thursday that the US commitment to that country is not open-ended. Gates indicated […]

Bloody Wednesday: Guerrillas, Violence kill Nearly 300 Iraqis Well I guess those Baghdad markets aren’t as safe as Senator John McCain thought. And, they look remarkably unlike small town Indiana this morning, contrary to what Congressman Mike Pence alleged a couple of weeks ago. The thing about reality and politics is that sooner or later, […]

85 Killed or Found Dead in Baghdad, Ramadi, etc. Return of Death Squads to Baghdad? A Majority of Americans Say War is Lost In the past 6 months, US troops have been killed in Iraq at the highest rate since the war began. For the first time in polling on the Iraq War, a majority […]

7 US Troops Killed; Iraq Has Two Virginia Techs Every Day; Thousands Protest in Basra, Demand Governor’s Resignation I keep hearing from US politicians and the US mass media that the “situation is improving” in Iraq. The profound sorrow and alarm produced in the American public by the horrific shootings at Virginia Tech should give […]

Dick Cheney and the Two 21st Centuries; On Nukes, Vice President Confuses Television with Reality I caught a clip of Dick Cheney on Sunday saying that “in the 21st century,” the US could stay in Iraq and ensure that a stable government was established that could defend itself. I was struck by his invocation of […]

Sadrists to Pull out of Cabinet 50 Killed in Spate of Bombings The six cabinet members belonging to the Sadr Movement in Nuri al-Maliki’s government are set to resign. The movement’s 32 parliamentarians will continue to attend sessions of the legislature, but presumably would vote against the prime minister in a vote of no confidence. […]

289 Iraqis Killed or Wounded in Day of Rage Four Killed in Karbala Demonstration McClatchy estimates that 289 Iraqis were killed or wounded in political violence on Saturday. This passage is extremely important to understanding the sentiments of the Shiites of the South, among the main victims of the violence: ‘ Aqeel al Khazaali, the […]

100 Dead in Bombings, Violence; Iraq, Kurdistan, traded Barbs After the bombings of a major bridge in Baghdad and the cafeteria of the parliament, guerrillas on Saturday detonated a car bomb at a bus station in the Shiite holy city of Karbala near the shrine of Imam Husayn. Dozens are thought to have been killed […]