Today it made national news that an Oregon Army captain has pleaded guilty to stealing $700,000 from the government during his tour in Iraq. Part of the funds were designated for humanitarian relief. Also, this month a former Iraq soldier was sentenced to the [...] By Dave Anderson:
Voice of America reports on a large series of attacks in Baghdad:
Iraqi police say a series of car bombings across the capital, Baghdad, has killed at least 112 people and wounded nearly 200 others....
Tuesday's attacks were the worst in the Iraqi capital since late October when twin car bomb [...]
By Steve Hynd
Not Denmark, nor Switzerland in the Hindu Kush - more like Kosovo, Mosul or Columbia.
Afghanistan could look like Iraq, the Balkans or Central America if NATO succeeds in its mission there, the alliance's top commander said on Monday.
"It will be a world in which there is a central'" [...]
By John Ballard
Lest we get warm and fuzzy about America's success in Iraq, a look at Iraq Today is a head-snapping corrective. Mounting casualties and security incidents in the Afghanistan Adventure are also being tracked here. I keep a link to the site but find it depressing so I [...]
By Dave Anderson:
Budgets are moral documents as they are the practical implementation and prioritization of plans and values.
Ezra Klein notes where the priorities of the American elite lie:
As Annie Lowrey points out, Obey isn't trying to make the Iraq and Afghanistan wars deficit-neutral. He's not even trying to [...]
By Steve Hynd
Glenn Greenwald has a post on Obama and his supporters' use of exactly the same rhetoric on his Afghanistan escalation as Bush and his pro-war cheerleaders used to justify Iraq. It's impossible to excerpt so just go read it. Everything old and Dubya is new again and' [...]
The U.S. media always stops short of saying it. But England's media is now proclaiming Britain's entry and participation in the war in Iraq as "illegal". Reporting on the findings of the on going Chilcot inquiry, an official government commissioned investigation into [...]
By Steve Hynd
With any Iranian nuclear fuel swap deal seemingly DOA, the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency has swiftly passed a vote condemning Iran for not being forthcoming enough in answering charges derived from the dodgy Laptop of Death and has called upon Iraq to [...]
Unbelievable
President Obama should immediately pardon these guys.
Navy SEALs have secretly captured one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq — the alleged mastermind of the murder and mutilation...
[...] 
CNBC reports the real un-employment rate in the US stands at 17.5%.By Gregg Carlstrom
Iraq's January 21 election appears headed for an almost certain delay -- which means Pentagon officials will likely step up their calls for a delayed withdrawal from Iraq.
The backstory: Iraq's parliament passed an election law, to great fanfare (and congratulations from President Obama), earlier this month. [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
I have said for years that the best way to end foreign misadventures like Iraq and Afghanistan was to make the millionaire pundits and neocons pay for them. Let's see how enthusiastic Bill Kristol and Fred Barnes are when their wars are being paid for by them. [...]
Iraq according to a redneck? From an email to K-Lo at The Corner:By Steve Hynd
It's become fairly conventional wisdom that the regional winner of the Iraq war was Iran, which now has its pensioners in control of the Iraqi central government and - theoretically - all that oil. Kurds and Sunnis may have something to say about that, however, especially [...]
By Dave Anderson:
What happens when the money that that Iraqi government has been spreading around runs out? The New York Times Op-ed page raises this question:
As much as 51 percent of the Iraqi labor force is either unemployed or underemployed; the number is even higher for young workers...
Iraq’s private [...]
By Steve Hynd
Peter Galbraith, who was recently in the news in a good way for slamming UN complicity in Afghan election corruption, is back in the news in a bad way. Galbraith, who was a signator of the PNAC letter calling for the invasion of Iraq and a major influence [...]
By Dave Anderson:
What was the Dean campaign critique of the Democratic pro-Iraq invasion position --- If you offer people Republican and Republican lite, they'll take the Republicans as they know they believe their crazy instead of mealy mouthing it.
Ian Welsh notes the Democratic Party elite has not' [...]
At the O, Jeff Mapes reports that Governor Ted Kulongoski arrived in Iraq yesterday to visit with Oregon troops. Despite being in a combat zone, Kulongoski told reporters that the troops are concerned with how things will go when they arrive home:
Kulongoski said in a conference call with reporters [...]An interesting article about one of the other unintended consequences of the U.S. invasion of Iraq; the coming out of Turkey from behind America’s shadow and its rise as major player in the Middle East and beyond.
Turkey is extending its influence by diplomacy rather than force. It [...]
Faith and Family Film Review: The Men Who Stare at Goats
By Catholic Office of Film and Broadcasting
The Men Who Stare at Goats—Fact-based satire, set during the early stages of the Iraq War, in which an eccentric military veteran (George Clooney) regales a reporter [...]
