Why Congress Caved to Bush

The antiwar Democrats are crying betrayal – and justifiably so. For a Democratic Congress is now voting to fully fund the war in Iraq, as demanded by President Bush, and without any timetable for a U.S. troop withdrawal. Bush got his $100 billion, then...

read more

The Cabal Strikes Back

You would think that a political tendency such as the neoconservatives, one that has presided over a disastrous war which is increasingly unpopular, and which has unleashed a wave of resentment and even hatred against them, would just crawl back under the rock from...

read more

US Public, Republicans Disown Iraq War

Even as Congress moved to approve President George W. Bush's request for continued funding of the Iraq war through the end of this fiscal 2007, a major new poll released Thursday found that public disillusionment with the war has reached record highs. The New York...

read more

Winning the War, Losing the Peace

Ali A. Allawi, The Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War, Losing the Peace (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007), 518 pp., $28.00. Much has been and will continue to be written about the Bush administration's disastrous adventure in Iraq. Irresponsible, ignorant,...

read more

Backtalk, May 24, 2007

The Ron Paul Effect In the dozen-plus years I have been active in matters relating to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, I have watched them go from a small Islamist organization to a worldwide insurgent movement, while bin Laden has established himself as the primary...

read more

On Patriotism

For some, patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. For others, it means dissent against a government's abuse of the people's rights. I have never met a politician in Washington or any American, for that matter, who chose to be called unpatriotic. Nor have I met...

read more

Sunni Resistance Receptive to Sadr Alliance

Nationalist Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's bid to unite Sunnis and Shi'ites on the basis of a common demand for withdrawal of U.S. occupation forces, reported last weekend by the Washington Post's Sudarsan Raghavan, seems likely to get a positive response from Sunni...

read more

Curfew Begins to Choke Samarra

SAMARRA - At least 10 residents have died as the result of a curfew imposed by the U.S.-backed Iraqi government, local doctors say. Residents in this city of 300,000 located 125 km north of Baghdad have been struggling to find food, water, and medical supplies....

read more