Iraq
American Strategy In the News | April 10-11
US News & World Report (04/11) asks Sherle Schwenninger about economic policy and the U.S. government.
The National Interest (04/10) quotes Steve Clemons on the subtlety of realist politics.
Bloomberg (03/24) quotes William Hartung on the benefits to contractors in Iraq.
Bush's War
Tonight, Frontline airs Part II of Bush's War on PBS. With interviews from our own Steve Coll and Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, the show promises the most in-depth look at the decisions that brought us to the five year anniversary of the invasion. Click on the image below to view Part I, available online now.
The Next President and the Middle East
The greater Middle East contains only six percent of the world's population but can keep the United States distracted from the bigger strategic issues: making globalization, the rise of Asia, and the American economy stable and sustainable, for instance. Writing in the American Prospect, Daniel Levy lays out a regional to-do list for the next president of the United States.
The American Prospect | April 2008
Listen carefully when a new president is inaugurated next January for the sigh of relief coming from most of those Middle Easterners whom President Bush embraced as allies. Conversely, Bush’s rivals in the region are likely to tune in to the occasion in a disgruntled mood. For them the Bush years have been good for business. The menu of grievances on which they’ve fed has become a veritable feast. Opposition to American designs in the region -- deployed with different emphases and with different goals by al-Qaeda, Iran, Hamas, Syria, and Hezbollah, to name but a few -- has been an easy sell and has won countless new adherents.
Five Years On: Cole and Clemons Discuss Iraq and the Middle East
On the five year anniversary of the latest war in Iraq, Juan Cole and Steve Clemons debate and discuss the status quo and future of this strategic region. Check it out below. From Bloggingheads.tv:
A Week in our Expensive Wars
The United States loses 10 Bradley fighting vehicles a week in Iraq and Afghanistan. In addition to the tragic loss of our fighting men and women this figure represents, this loss rate translates to a cost of $30.7 million dollars. Add it all up and we're spending about $3.5 billion per week, but only $350 million on pay for our troops. Writing in TomDispatch, New America's Bill Hartung helps us all get a handle on this large, large number.
The Myth of the Surge
General David Petraeus took command of the Iraq stabilization mess just over a year ago. After six months of troop build-up, a.k.a, the surge in forces, Petraeus's original counter-insurgency plan, a.k.a., the surge in operations, was never implemented. Rather, he directed his forces to take advantage of what we now call the "Sunni Awakening," in which Sunni tribal leaders began to fight back against al-Qaeda. Writing in the current issue of Rolling Stone, New America's Nir Rosen offers an eight-month assessment of that strategy. Here's a clip:
Bush's State of the Union: A New America Perspective
President Bush's final State of the Union address was his least interesting -- largely because it also his least partisan one.
So says Steven Clemons, Director of the American Strategy Program, in this morning-after assessment of Bush's performance, positioning and policy proposals:
