Aljazeera International explains how high oil prices are hurting ordinary Saudis, driving up the cost of their food and imports. The petroleum is owned by the government and profits go to it. It is hard for the government to inject the money into the economy without risking high inflation (too much money chasing too few […]
Clark: McCain’s Threats of Force Disrespect Presidency
Gen. Wesley Clark on John McCain’s lack of policy-making and foreign policy leadership experience. Clark says McCain has always been for the use of force, and more force, when a president should view force as a last resort. He complains that when McCain talks about throwing Russia out of the G8 or makes up ditties […]
Shenkman: Why the American People Were So Easily Bamboozled by the Bush Administration
Rick Shenkman, is the author of the just-published Just How Stupid Are We? Facing the Truth About the American Voter (Basic Books, 2008). He blogs at Howstupidblog and is editor of George Mason University’s History News Network Shenkman writes: I do not wish to engage in a debate about the Iraq War. But the thought […]
16 Killed, 40 Wounded in Baquba Bombing; Women MPs Protest Speaker; Awakening Councils fear Stab in Back
Readers who don’t read blogs on weekends should nevertheless look at my Sunday column on ‘The Real State of Iraq’. Al-Hayat reports in Arabic that the Awakening Councils are afraid they will be discarded by their American sponsors. Abi Abd, formerly a guerilla in the “Islamic Army,” formed the “Knights of Amiriya” in the Sunni […]
The Real State of Iraq
American television loves natural disasters. The Burmese cyclones that may have carried off as many as 200,000 people offered the cameras high drama. The floods in Wisconsin, Iowa and Missouri along the Mississippi River, which have wiped out thousands of homes, have been carefully detailed hour by hour. But American television is little interested in […]
Baradei: Attack on Iran Would Create Fireball in ME;
The American interpretation of a recent Israeli air force exercise as a warning to Iran that it could be bombed caused oil futures prices to rise and the US stock market to drop. In other words, if you’re an American with a pension fund, this stuff cost you money yesterday. International Atomic Energy Agency head […]
Sadrist Condemns ‘Eternal Slavery’ to US; 1 US Troop Killed, 5 Wounded; Bombings in Mosul
An American soldier was killed and five were wounded by roadside bombs on Friday in Diyala Province northeast of Baghdad. Congress passed a $161 bn. budget for the Iraq War, with a bit for Afghanistan in it, but failed to get language about a timetable for troop withdrawal included. If Americans dislike this outcome, they […]
Ahmadinejad: ‘I was Almost Kidnapped by Bush’
The USG Open Source Center translates an article in Tabnak saying that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is alleging that the US had planned to abduct him when he visited Baghdad in March, but that the plan was foiled. Ahmadinejad is also said to have alleged that Bush sought to attack Iran twice recently, but was […]
They’re Baaack; It is Politically Inconvenient to Acknowledge . . .
The consortium of American and European oil companies that had dominated Iraqi petroleum in the twentieth century is returning to Iraq to carry out service agreements aimed at expanding production in four southern oil fields. Jonathan Steele reports, ‘ But the deals, known as service contracts, are unusual, said Greg Mutitt, co-director of Platform, an […]
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