Uncategorized

By Sandy Dechert Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC’s Hardball, met more than his match last Thursday when he took on lively freshman Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Looked as if Matthews got a bit more than he expected, in the form of a very well-reasoned and remarkably civil tongue-lashing from the Massachusetts people’s choice. A […]

Barack Obama

“Ready, Fire, Aim!” Are We Stumbling into another War?

contributors

By William R. Polk Analysis of foreign affairs problems often ends in a mental block. As we have seen in each of our recent crises — Somalia, Mali, Libya, Syria, Iraq, the Ukraine and Iran — “practical” men of affairs want quick answers: they say in effect, ‘don’t bother us with talk about how we […]

Militarization

Flashback: All the Ways the Neocons were Wrong about Iraq

contributors

via Bernie Sanders US Senator Dick Cheney “Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us.” (Source) “I think things have gotten so bad inside Iraq, from the standpoint of […]

Iran

Is Iraq Actually Falling Apart? What Social Science Surveys Show

contributors

By Mansoor Moaddel Several nationally representative surveys carried out in Iraq between 2004 and 2013 provide important facts about Iraqi orientations toward secular politics, basis of identity, Americans, and Iranians. These facts have serious implications for the territorial integrity of Iraq, support for an Islamic government, and the U.S. policy toward the country. These surveys […]

Afghanistan

Pakistan Needs Regional and Global Alliances to Fight the Extremists

contributors

By Muqtedar Khan Pakistan on Sunday launched another military operation — Zarb-e-Azb — against the extremists in Waziristan. The name of the operation means sharp and cutting or surgical. This is not the first such operation and perhaps will not be the last of its kind. But if this one is executed well, it may […]

journalism

It’s come to this: Fox News brings on NFL’s Terry Bradshaw for Benghazi analysis

contributors

Fox News on Wednesday continued its multi-year obsession with the terrorist attack in Benghazi by inviting NFL football analyst and former quarterback Terry Bradshaw to weigh in. Out Numbered host Andrea Tantaros began the segment by highlighting a…

Iraq

Iraq is more like N. Ireland than Lebanon, Reconciliation is Possible

contributors

By Jocelyne Cesari The attack of The Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham (ISIS) on Mossul and its march on Baghdad has taken the international community by surprise and raised the possibility of another US intervention in Iraq, with the hope it could prevent the downfall of the country into a sectarian war. Such […]

Featured

As US Pressures Maliki to Resign, will Iraqi Gov’t Collapse?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole A consensus is forming in Washington that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki must resign, as part of accountability for his failures with his Sunni Arab citizens. Because Washington is so good about demanding accountability. While this analysis is correct, and I have said myself that Iraq would be better off with a different […]

Featured

Cons of Going to War against Iraq (Cole, Jan. 2003)

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole From a talk I gave at the University of Michigan in late 2002, publised at the beginning of 2003. It is often alleged by hawks that no one saw these things coming. Some of us did. Costs of War The regional costs of a US war on Iraq are potentially great: The […]