Foreign “interference” in Iraq? Good luck finding it: A new airport, funded in important part by Iran has opened at the Shiite holy city of Najaf. It will likely bring millions of pilgrims from Iran, Pakistan, India and elsewhere to the shrine of Imam Ali, the son-in-law and cousin of the Prophet Muhammad. American authorities…
Showing all posts tagged Iraq
The friends who help
Jeremy Scahill, The Guardian, July 23: It seems that executives from Blackwater Worldwide, the Bush administration’s favourite hired guns in Iraq and Afghanistan, are threatening to pack up their M4 assault rifles, CS gas and Little Bird helicopters and go back to the great dismal swamp of North Carolina whence they came. Or at least…
Getting Saddam’s riches
I received this hilarious spam email this morning: Hello My name is Sagt Jeff Frawley, I am an American soldier in peace keeping force in Iraq, I am serving in the military of the 1st Armored Division in Iraq, as you know insurgents everyday and car bombs are attacking us. We managed to move funds…
Why do they hate us, Tommy?
New York Times foreign affairs “expert” Thomas Friedman really can’t understand why his beloved US of A is so disliked around the world these days. Let’s see, maybe this comment has something to do with it: We should have done better in Iraq. Yep, that Iraq war has been rather disastrous. Oh well, Friedman must…
After the bombing
The brutal face of Iraq through the eyes of an embedded, American photojournalist. (Such honesty is often not welcomed by the Bush administration.)
Looks like the Zionists are a little late
Tony Karon, The National, July 12: Despite all the posturing, Israel, for reasons both political and technical, can’t attack Iran without US permission; the US, meanwhile, remains unlikely to give that permission, or do the job itself. Among the reasons: ”¢Iran’s facilities are too dispersed and hardened to be sure that air strikes – which…
Don’t even hug them
Those poor neo-conservatives hate being blamed for the failure of the Iraq war. They want sympathy and a fair hearing. We shouldn’t give it to them.
An all-too-real Iraq
Juan Cole, Informed Comment, June 22: 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…
The next chapter of Salam Pax
Years after Salam Pax, aka The Baghdad Blogger, became world famous for writing about life under Saddam and the American invasion, he’s now living in London, studying journalism and helping to launch new online initiative, Mind the Globe. Here’s his post from late May: You want to know why Muqtada is so popular? Look at…