Archive for June, 2007

Gaza, Hamas, West Bank, and Fatah

June 22, 2007

It may just be that the West Bank is in a better position to work toward agreement than it could ever be when combined with Hamas and Gaza. However, the quick approval by the United States, Europe, and Israel of the West Bank alternative government can not help the image of the group with many [...]

Torture as American Policy

June 22, 2007

Seymour Hersh has long been the conscience of America’s foreign and military policy. It has not earned him much credit with our military. Nor is his reporting always above reproach. But he has played a necessary, perhaps ever more necessary role.

In the June 25 New Yorker, Hersh zeroes in on the efforts of General Taguba [...]

Counterinsurgency and Airplanes

June 22, 2007

We hear once again of a “mistake” in Afghanistan. In the midst of a battle against the Taliban in an Afghan village, planes were called in. They destroyed the target. Unfortunately, there were children in the target. This has happened again and again in Afghanistan. It happens frequently in Iraq. The American or NATO troops [...]

Arming Militias

June 12, 2007

The last two days bring us reports of the American military in Iraq starting to arm groups of Sunnis to fight other Sunni groups, particularly al-Qaeda in Iraq. Such programs actually started some months ago in Anbar Province. Their success in Anbar has led to them being introduced in other highly contested provinces.

The American military [...]

Iraq: Where Are We?

June 12, 2007

Despair continues to be the most popular response to the Iraq War. The latest accounting (June 10) for where we are by a reliable Brookings Institute team that has been offering a summary regularly in the New York Times finds a few bright spots, especially in Baghdad and Anbar province. Yet it points out that [...]

Blood in the Sand

June 5, 2007

The more we learn about Iraq, the less we seem to know. Americans try to get between the killers and their prey while many Iraqis want to kill Americans so that they can go back to killing one another. Of course, all Iraqis are not like this. But many of those who are not are [...]

CSIS Report (Continued)

June 4, 2007

What has inspired me to devote so much of this blog to the CSIS Report is its ability to both understand the foolishness and error in the whole enterprise, and at the same time come to a conclusion that we should stay and help rebuild Iraq no matter what. As the bodies pile up in [...]