Iraq

At a meeting in mid-April in Geneva, held by António Guterres, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, the numbers presented confirmed what had long been suspected: the collapse of Iraq had created a refugee crisis, and that crisis was threatening to precipitate the collapse of the region. The numbers dwarfed anything that the Middle East had seen since the dislocations brought on by the establishment of Israel in 1948. In Syria, there were estimated to… more

President George W. Bush will almost certainly veto on Tuesday a $124bn war-spending bill that the White House says would impose an “artificial deadline” on the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. The Democratic majority on Capitol Hill choreographed Tuesday’s expected veto to coincide with the fourth anniversary of the president’s “mission accomplished” speech in which he declared that “major combat operations in Iraq have ended”. But Mr Bush, who has only exercised his presidential veto… more

As Arab presidents, emirs, and kings lined up alongside the United Nations secretary general and the Pakistani, Malaysian, and Turkish heads of state in last month’s Arab League summit in Riyadh, one key player was missing at the highest level: Iran. Its nominal head of state, Mahmoud Ahmadinezhad, was not invited to the summit. Instead the relatively weak foreign minister, Manoucher Mottaki, attended on behalf of the Islamic Republic.

On the surface, this fits the caricature narrative that has emerged in… more

Turkey and the United States are approaching a critical strategic crossroad that will determine both the shape and the content of their relationship for the foreseeable future. The pressures forcing change on this long-standing alliance -- which has endured since the Truman Doctrine in 1947 -- are powerful. Neither Turkish nor American policymakers seem to grasp the emerging reality that this important friendship is fast eroding; alternatively, they have concluded that the alliance has run its course and are prepared… more

So who is an American? What’s the key to American identity? The answer can be hard, even brutal. But it’s ours -- we earned it with our own blood.

Whenever America travels around the world in a military adventure -- or misadventure -- the question needs to be answered anew. And whenever globalists and open-borderers want to bring the world here, without respect for American culture and tradition, that question needs to be answered yet again, even more emphatically.

The classic exposition… more

Over two million Iraqi refugees have fled their country’s borders since the American-led invasion that overthrew the regime of Saddam Hussein. Although the largest concentrations are in Syria and Jordan, up to 150,000 Iraqis have settled in Egypt. Wary of the massive influx experienced in Syria and Jordan, the Egyptian authorities have reportedly closed their door to new Iraqis and have not granted those Iraqis who have made it to Egypt any official status or access to social services. While… more

Iraq’s internally displaced are in desperate need of assistance as the Public Distribution System (PDS) that they and other Iraqis depend on for food and fuel is broken. Poor management is to blame for its shortcomings, as well as terrible security and a general lack of political will on the part of the Government of Iraq to acknowledge the scope of the crisis. With the central government unable or at times unwilling to protect and assist Iraqi civilians, donor governments… more

[JOHN] ROBERTS [CNN ANCHOR, THIS WEEK AT WAR]: Thursday Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said that there was a great reluctance to indulge in happy talk about the security situation in Iraq and that it could be months before any real progress is seen there. In military terms in political terms, can the administration wait that long?.. With me here in Washington in the studio, [is] Flynt Leverett. He's the former Middle East analyst on the national security council, now… more

"If we were not fighting and destroying this enemy in Iraq, they would not be idle. They would be plotting and killing Americans across the world and within our own borders. By fighting these terrorists in Iraq, Americans in uniform are defeating a direct threat to the American people." So said President Bush on November 30, 2005, refining his earlier call to "bring them on." Jihadist terrorists, the administration’s argument went, would be drawn to Iraq like moths to a… more

Edward Luttwak, an internationally recognized authority in the area of military strategy, recently contended in testimony before the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Foreign Relations that, "only with the United States’ disengagement can Iraqis find their own equilibrium." He underscores the futility of trying to micromanage an Iraqi reality which lacks sustainability and merely prolongs failure. Dr. Luttwak sees disengagement, not withdrawal, as the only reasonable plan that still safeguards Iraq’s borders and doesn’t needlessly abandon Iraq to chaos.

Simultaneously Luttwak… more