Kelley Vlahos on revering CEOs and reviling activists

President Barack Obama’s refusal in a White House briefing earlier this month to announce a "red line" in regard to the Iran nuclear program represented another in a series of rebuffs of pressure from Defense Secretary Robert Gates for statement that the United States will not accept its existing stocks of low enriched uranium. The [...]

Violence tapered off a day after a massive series of attacks against Iraqi security personnel. At least 20 Iraqis were killed and 25 more were wounded in the latest incident, several of which again targeted security and other government personnel. Separately, Kuwait and Iraq are finalizing a deal that will allow the two countries to share in profits from the border oilfields that triggered an Iraqi invasion in August of 1990 and subsequent Gulf War.

PARANTHAN, Sri Lanka – It is an odd location to open a new restaurant, right in front of a row of buildings whose roofs have been blown off by artillery fire and whose walls are pockmarked by gunfire. But the new Rusi Restaurant in Paranthan town in Kilinochchi district here in the north of Sri [...]

Is war with Iran inevitable? by Philip Giraldi

Especially because it won't work, says Keith Boyea

Sherri Muzher on the one-state solution

Updated at 4:52 p.m. EDT, Aug. 25, 2010 A two-hour long multiple attack against Iraq's fragile security forces took place in major cities throughout Iraq, leaving no region untouched. At least 92 Iraqis were killed and 379 more were wounded in the apparently coordinated attacks. Although security personnel were the focus of the violence, many civilians were caught up in the mayhem as well. The bloodiest attacks took place in relatively quiet Kut and in the capital. Meanwhile, a member of the Iraqiya list, which won the most seats in parliament, called for an emergency session to discuss today's development. A similar day of violence in Baghdad last August was dubbed "Bloody Wednesday." Today's attacks may have left less casualties in their wake, but the reach of the attacks — from Basra to Ninewa to Diyala and Anbar, with Baghdad in the middle — was astouding by any measure.

Charging that U.S. private security contractors are “mafia-like groups” being financed by U.S. taxpayers to carry out “terrorist activities” with the support of the U.S. government, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has ordered a four-month phaseout of all private security companies in his embattled country. Asserting his oft-challenged authority as the country’s chief executive, Karzai’s move, [...]

For Star Trek fans, the news is grim. Some set of maniacs on planet Earth is ready to take all the pleasure out of that low-budget TV show and its ensuing set of big-budget movies. They are actually planning someday to manufacture phasers, ones large enough to vaporize incoming missiles and others small enough to [...]

In these, the dog days of summer, normal people everywhere are on vacation. They go to a resort: swimming, boating, family photos on the beach – these are the woof and warp of American life. Standing outside – and, in their estimation, above – that life, with its prosaic concerns, the War Party never takes [...]

In the week since the much publicized withdrawal of “combat” troops from Iraq it has become more evident that the Iraq War continues under a new name: “Operation New Dawn.” The first off-message comments came from the Department of Defense. Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said shortly after the “end” of the war, “I don’t [...]

The U.S. Justice Department is apparently considering prosecuting Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, which is a Web site that publishes classified documents from governments, under the rarely used Espionage Act of 1917. Such a prosecution would have adverse effects on the American people’s right to know what their government is doing in a republic [...]

RAMALLAH – Cancer patient Ahmed Abu Fuad needs chemotherapy to survive. Muhammad Subeh needs an eye transplant, while paramedic Alaa Sarhan desperately needs surgery to remove shrapnel from his body. But these Gazans are unable to leave the area to seek the required medical treatment elsewhere, and it is not because of the Israeli siege. [...]

At least 21 Iraqis were killed and 52 more were wounded in various attacks across the country. The U.S. military said the number of U.S. troops in Iraq now numbers around 49,700 and will stay that way until next year's actual withdrawal. This completes the removal of "combat troops" from the country.

How many fingers is commander in chief Obama holding up? He has flushed every one of his promises to wind down our wars all the way to the mess tent, yet he insists that we nod in eager agreement when he tells us he’s keeping them. Like many citizens, I voted for Obama twice. When [...]

When the Barack Obama administration unveiled its plan last week for an improvised State Department-controlled army of contractors to replace all U.S. combat troops in Iraq by the end of 2011, critics associated with the U.S. command attacked the transition plan, insisting that the United States must continue to assume that U.S. combat forces should [...]

The war in Iraq is over. Or so the government and most media outlets will claim on Sept. 1, by which time thousands of U.S. troops will have departed the land of two rivers for other assignments. With this phase of the drawdown, says President Barack Obama, “America’s combat mission will end.” The Pentagon is [...]

At least 13 Iraqis were killed and 28 more were wounded in attacks across the country. One of the casualties came from an Iranian artillery attack launched into Iraqi Kurdistan. Meanwhile, the political deadlock over the next prime minister continued, but U.S. Vice President Joe Biden called for a resolution soon.

Is the controversy over building a mosque near Ground Zero a grand distraction or a grand opportunity? Or is it, once again, grandiose demagoguery? It has been said, “Nero fiddled while Rome burned.” Are we not overly preoccupied with this controversy, now being used in various ways by grandstanding politicians? It looks to me like [...]