Category: Iraqi War
-
Screams will not be heard
Madeleine Bunting believes Fallujah will be a bloodbath, but seems to make some strange suggestions: The recent comment of one Falluja resident is strikingly poignant: “Why,” she asked wearily, “don’t they go and fight in a desert away from houses and people?” Why indeed? Twentieth-century warfare ensured a remarkable historical inversion. Once the city had…
-
The offensive has begun…
Fallujah offensive begins, Iraqi troops seize main hospital. Iraqi troops took control of the main hospital in the besieged city of Falluja, a U.S. pool reporter outside the city said Sunday. The operation marks the start of the planned offensive to retake the city, Pentagon officials said, but it remains unclear when the main assault…
-
Iraq declares state of emergency
Was there not already a state of emergency in Iraq? Anyway, it’s been declared again, thanks to a high number of attacks. It is also due to the impending onslaught in Fallujah. The speech by Lt. Gen. John F. Sattler, the commanding general of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, is worth noting – with thanks…
-
Paul Krugman: A culture of cover-ups
Krugman’s pre-election thoughts on the lost munitions at al-Qaqaa, and provides yet more food for thought: The story of the looted explosives has overshadowed another report that Bush officials tried to suppress – this one about how the Bush administration let Abu Musab al-Zarqawi get away. An article in Monday’s Wall Street Journal confirmed and…
-
Rumsfeld weakens a pillar of war
Don Rumsfeld with something surprising today: The actual words Mr Rumsfeld used in his comments on Monday to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York were: “To my knowledge, I have not seen any strong, hard evidence that links the two.” He also said he had seen the intelligence “migrate in amazing ways”, without…
-
Sanctions worked: George Lopez, David Cortright
George A. Lopez, Director of Policy Studies at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame and David Cortright, President of the Fourth Freedom Forum and Research Fellow at the Kroc Institute, argue in favour of the sanctions regime in Iraq during the 1990âs. Writing in Foreign Affairs,…
-
Bush's Lost Year
James Fallows in the Atlantic. Read it.
-
William Pfaff: When the Marines make policy, Iraq burns
Will Pfaff believes the Marines are largely to blame for current problems in Iraq, not sure I agree with him on that one, interesting point of view nonetheless.
-
HOW BIG IS WADI-US-SALAAM CEMETERY?….
Kevin Drum wonders how big the cemetery is, I have wondered myself, it seem to figure quite prominently in reporting of fighting in Najaf. Does it really hold 5 million people?
-
Assessing blame for post-war Iraq
Phil Carter, former operational planner in the 4th Infantry Division, isn’t very impressed with Tommy Franks.[Via Kevin Drum] Carter believes that General Franks was not as concerned as he should have been about Phase IV. He also should have been more forceful in his views with the Whitehouse and Pentagon. Carter notes: Wow… the “group…