NewsTrust - Iraq - Most Recent Stories: Opinion

Who Created Major Hasan?

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Robert Wright - Nov. 21 (Opinion) - seeing the fort hood shooting as an act of islamist terrorism is the first step toward seeing how misguided a hawkish approach to fighting terrorism has been.

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Iraq on the Edge

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The New York Review of Books - By Joost R. Hiltermann - Oct. 29 (Opinion) - For the occasional visitor such as myself, various methods exist to measure America's standing in Iraq, Iraqi suspicions and aspirations, and progress in the transfer of power, but none prove as illuminating as the checkpoints into and throughout Baghdad's Green Zone, that diminishing symbol of the Bush administration's ambitions.

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Obama's foreign policy report card

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Salon - By Juan Cole - Oct. 27 (Opinion) - Why can't the administration of President Barack Obama get the word out about its policy successes? President Obama campaigned on an ambitious platform of withdrawing from Iraq, engaging Iran on its nuclear program and persuading the Pakistani government to take on the Taliban and al-Qaida. Despite the charge by critics from both the right and the left in the wake of his winning the Nobel Peace Prize that he has accomplished little so far, in fact he has already set in motion significant change on several of these fronts -- despite the enormous domestic tasks that have inevitably preoccupied his administration. Yet you'd never hear about these successes from the mainstream media.

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Obama’s Dick Cheney Moment

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Benjamin Wittes - Sep. 28 (Opinion) - His decision not to consult Congress on detentions represents a virtually wholesale adoption of Bush’s failed policies.

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Why They’re Mad

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Howard Kurtz - Sep. 22 (Opinion) - Maybe journalists have been asking the wrong question. In probing why a chunk of the country seems so ticked off at Barack Obama, we've explored possible motivations ranging from racism to programmatic concern about the public option. We have examined whether Obama is trying to do too much and whether he's on TV too much. But perhaps the sense of anger and unease is more deep-rooted than that, and not limited to Glenn Beck conservatives.

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Fear was no excuse to condone torture

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Miami Herald - By Charles C. Krulak, Joseph P. Hoar - Sep. 15 (Opinion) - In the fear that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Americans were told that defeating Al Qaeda would require us to ``take off the gloves.'' As a former commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps and a retired commander-in-chief of U.S. Central Command, we knew that was a recipe for disaster. But we never imagined that we would feel duty-bound to publicly denounce a vice president of the United States, a man who has served our country for many years. In light of the irresponsible statements recently made by former Vice President Dick Cheney, however, we feel we must repudiate his dangerous ideas -- and his scare tactics.

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Disappearing Iraq

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Columbia Journalism Review - By Jane Arraf - Sep. 15 (Opinion) - Ah, the happy world of Iraq, as seen through U.S. military press releases. Iraq could be exploding—in fact, parts of it still regularly are—but the press-release view would still be that of policemen graduating, officials cutting ribbons, and grateful citizens leading security forces and their U.S. advisers to weapons caches. The few press releases that do bear any relation to the reality we reporters see on the ground (“Iraqi Special Operations Forces Continue Operations Despite Budget Challenges”) are almost instantly recalled. The regular background briefings and press conferences that once helped put the ongoing violence into context are so last year. In a country with 130,000 U.S. troops fighting a war that still costs tens of billions of dollars a month, the military might as well be invisible. And for the most part, it seems to want it that way.

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Jamal Dajani: 9/11: Good War, Bad War, No War

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Jamal Dajani - Sep. 11 (Opinion) - Eight years have passed since the horrific events of September 11, 2001, and the U.S. government is still waiting to pay the $25 million reward it has offered to anyone who provides information leading to bin Laden's capture. Meanwhile, almost eight

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Why We Believe Lies, Even When We Learn the Truth

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Newsweek - By Sharon Begley - Aug. 26 (Opinion) - The same skewed thinking that supports a Saddam-9/11 link explains the power of health-care myths.

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Objectives and weaknesses differ in Afghanistan and Iraq

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Worldfocus - By Martin Savidge, Nora Bensahel - Aug. 19 (Interview) - The United States is stepping up efforts to improve security in Afghanistan, with 62,000 American troops stationed there. More than 160 Americans have died there so far this year -- three more were killed on Wednesday. Which has many people wondering: What will be the measure of their success? As Nick Spicer of Worldfocus partner Al Jazeera [...]

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Afghanistan, Iraq and the Clintons

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Worldfocus - By Martin Savidge, Gideon Rose, Carla Robbins - Aug. 14 (Interview) - Week in review: Gideon Rose of Foreign Affairs magazine and Carla Robbins of The New York Times discuss the week’s top stories: A major U.S. offensive as national elections approach in Afghanistan, a surge in suicide bombings in Iraq and Hillary Clinton's trip to Africa.

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Will we really be out of Iraq by the end of 2011?

Sat, 01 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Slate - By Fred Kaplan - Aug. 01 (Opinion) - Even as the official focus shifts to the war in Afghanistan, a debate has erupted over the endgame in Iraq. It is universally seen as an endgame; we are getting out. The issue is how quickly, how completely, and, if some troops are left behind, what they should and should not do.

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The Other End of the Abu Ghraib Camera

Sat, 25 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By William Quinn - Jul. 25 (Opinion) - DESPITE demands by human rights advocates that photos documenting abuse of military detainees be made public, the Senate last month passed legislation to block their release. The legislation is now before the House. President Obama supports these efforts. This is all good news. Classifying the photos would help protect those detainees’ basic rights to dignity and privacy.

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John Pilger on Honduras, Iran, Gaza, the Corporate Media, Obama's Wars and Resisting the American Empire

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By John Pilger, Amy Goodman - Jul. 06 (Interview) - Award-winning investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker, John Pilger, joins us for a wide-ranging conversation on on Honduras, Iran, Gaza, the media, health care, and Obama’s wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Pilger has has written close to a dozen books and made over 50 documentaries on a range of subjects including struggles around the world for a more just and peaceful society and against Western military and economic intervention.

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Iraq Still Facing the Abyss

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Consortium News - By Ivan Eland - Jul. 06 (Opinion) - what about poor Iraq? As baseball great Yogi Berra once said, “It ain’t over, till it’s over.” And the underlying indicators seem to indicate that the worst is yet to come.

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What will happen when U.S. combat troops withdraw from Iraq?

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Slate - By Fred Kaplan - Jun. 27 (Opinion) - So, is all hell about to break loose in Iraq? By June 30, all U.S. combat troops are scheduled—in fact, they're required—to be withdrawn from all of Iraq's cities, towns, and villages.

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Neocon Group Calls for Military Strikes on Media

Thu, 21 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Jeremy Scahill - May. 21 (Opinion) - In the case of the Iraq invasion and occupation, the journalists who have placed themselves in danger most often are local Iraqi journalists. Some 116 Iraqi journalists and media workers have been killed in the line of duty since March 2003. In all, 189 journalists have been killed in Iraq. At least 16 of these journalists were killed by the U.S. military, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. The network that has most often found itself under U.S. attack is al-Jazeera.

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Ghost of Haditha Haunts American Shooting Spree in Iraq

Thu, 14 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New America Media - By Aaron Glantz - May. 14 (Opinion) - Now we know how the Iraqi people feel. For six years, nearly 150,000 exhausted, traumatized American soldiers have occupied the country governed by loose rules of engagement.

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What Fresh Hell Awaits?

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New Republic - Apr. 30 (Editorial) - The presidency isn't supposed to be easy--but the sheer tonnage of catastrophe that has been heaped on Barack Obama in his first 100 days is astounding. As Michael Crowley put it, "Two wars, economic collapse, and now a possible global pandemic. When do the locusts arrive?" Never, hopefully. But that doesn't mean that Obama's second 100 days will be any easier. Below, five TNR staffers--some cheekily, some not--speculate on what fresh hell awaits Obama as spring stretches into summer.

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Iraqi Oil: Black Gold or Black Hole?

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Oil Drum - Apr. 27 (Opinion) - However, six years after the fall of Baghdad, the country is nowhere close to producing 6 million barrels a day. As a matter of fact, the country is still not producing at the same level it did before the war (2.2m bpd vs 2.5m bpd before the war). It is worth noting that the pre-war level was achieved despite years of war and crippling economic sanctions. Yet despite current access to capital and technology, the country could not yield better results than oil production under the Saddam regime in the midst of war and sanctions.

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"... The Horrible Truth"

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Dahr Jamail - Apr. 26 (Opinion) - The Sahwa have been abandoning their security posts in protest at having not been paid by the Iraqi government for their work, as well as in protest of the ongoing targeting of their leaders by the government. Prime Minister Maliki perceives the Sahwa as a political threat to the existence of his government, so has taken it upon himself to undermine their existence at every turn, as he has from the beginning.

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How Bush's Torture Helped al-Qaeda

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Consortium News - By Robert Parry - Apr. 22 (Opinion) - Though al-Libi’s motivation appeared to be simply his desperation to avoid more pain, there is also the risk that al-Qaeda operatives intentionally “surrendered” intelligence that was designed to divert U.S. attentions away from the crucial terrorist base camps and safe houses along the Afghan-Pakistani border and toward Iraq.

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Peace Activists Arrested After Protesting US Drones in Nevada

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Father Louis Vitale, Jeff Paterson, Amy Goodman - Apr. 14 (Interview) - US drone bombings have reportedly killed 687 Pakistani civilians since 2006. During that time, US Predator drones carried out sixty strikes inside Pakistan, but hit just ten of their actual targets.

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Obama's Unmacho Diplomacy

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Kathleen Parker - Apr. 07 (Opinion) - ...evaluating Barack Obama's first European tour as president, analysts have focused on whether he was quite manly enough. On their leadership blog, former Washington Post Executive Editor Ben Bradlee and columnist Steve Pearlstein asked whether Obama should have "grabbed an opportunity ... to demonstrate his toughness, showing his saber as well as his smile." Verily, spoken like men. What they're really asking is: Did Obama do justice to the fire hydrant?

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Sunni Arab Refugees from Iraq Not Returning

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Informed Comment - By Juan Cole - Mar. 26 (Opinion) - Many are traumatized, having seen horrific violence against neighbors, friends or family members. One fourth of the families applying for refugee aid reported having had a child kidnapped. Many have been personally threatened by militias who still control their old neighborhood. Sometimes the militias track them down in East Amman and threaten them again. Iraqi Sunnis do not feel safe returning to districts that are now largely Shiite. Mixed families feel that they no longer have a place to live safely. Most refugees have had their property confiscated. Many former Sunni neighborhoods in Baghdad are now ghost towns.

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