Iraq War

A new household survey of Iraqis has projected the civilian death toll from the Bush administration’s invasion and occupation of Iraq at roughly 450,000. Passive information-gathering techniques like logging deaths in the Western press have produced estimates closer to 150,000, but such techniques have been proven to miss a lot of people. (To my knowledge […]

Afghanistan

Dear President Obama: Some American Exceptionalism is nothing to be Proud Of (Engelhardt)

Juan Cole

Tom Engelhardt writes at Tomdispatch.com “But when, with modest effort and risk, we can stop children from being gassed to death, and thereby make our own children safer over the long run, I believe we should act. That’s what makes America different. That’s what makes us exceptional. With humility, but with resolve, let us never […]

Iraq War

Alleged Torturers sue Abu Ghraib Torture Victims (Lazare)

Juan Cole

Sarah Lazare writes at Commondreams ‘Defense’ contractor CACI International has taken the shocking step of suing four former Abu Ghraib detainees who are seeking redress in U.S. courts for the company’s role in [allegedly] torturing, humiliating and dehumanizing them, with the U.S. corporation recently requesting that the judge order the plaintiffs—- all of whom are […]

Afghanistan

How we lost our Constitution somewhere in Iraq and came back without it to Try Manning (van Buren)

Juan Cole

Peter Van Buren writes at Tomdispatch.com On July 30, 1778, the Continental Congress created the first whistleblower protection law, stating “that it is the duty of all persons in the service of the United States to give the earliest information to Congress or other proper authority of any misconduct, frauds, or misdemeanors committed by any […]

Christianity

Can Christianity Survive in the New Iraq? (Teule)

Juan Cole

Larry McGill writes at ISLAMiCommentary Herman Teule There are sizeable Christian minorities in several Middle Eastern countries with Muslim majorities, but the numbers of Christians may be diminishing. This Spring, Duke’s Department of Religion in conjunction with the Duke Islamic Studies Center invited Herman Teule, Professor of Eastern Christianity at Radboud University in the Netherlands, […]

Domestic Surveillance

Why Cheney is the Traitor, and Why we Can’t Believe Obama on Safeguards (The Ultimate Clip of Gov’t Lies)

Juan Cole

Dick Cheney on Monday called NSA leaker Edward Snowden a traitor, and Snowden shot back that given Cheney’s own lies about Iraq, it is an honor for any American to be accused of treason by the former vice president. On Monday evening, Barack Obama came on Charlie Rose and insisted that the NSA would never […]

Afghanistan

The Government Endangered us with Foreign Quagmires; it’s the Bradley Mannings that might keep us safe (Madar)

Juan Cole

Chase Madar writes at Tomdispatch.com The prosecution of Bradley Manning, WikiLeaks’ source inside the U.S. Army, will be pulling out all the stops when it calls to the stand a member of Navy SEAL Team 6, the unit that assassinated Osama bin Laden. The SEAL (in partial disguise, as his identity is secret) is expected to tell […]

Afghanistan

America’s Murder Inc. Abroad: Engelhardt on Scahill’s Latest

Juan Cole

Tom Engelhardt writes at Tomdispatch.com: Chalmers Johnson’s book Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire was published in March 2000 — and just about no one noticed. Until then, blowback had been an obscure term of CIA tradecraft, which Johnson defined as “the unintended consequences of policies that were kept secret from the American people.” In […]

Iraq

Iraq: A country whose Future was Stolen (Jamail)

Juan Cole

Dahr Jamail writes at Tomdispatch.com Back then, everybody was writing about Iraq, but it’s surprising how few Americans, including reporters, paid much attention to the suffering of Iraqis. Today, Iraq is in the news again. The words, the memorials, the retrospectives are pouring out, and again the suffering of Iraqis isn’t what’s on anyone’s mind. […]