I'm already de facto on hiatus from blogging, so I might as well come out and say it: I'm not going to be writing much, if anything, on the Duck for a bit longer.Our regular readers may have noticed my lack of posting lately, and that I haven't contributed anything of...
This week new information emerged in the ongoing mystery as to what Israel bombed in Syria several months ago—much anticipated satellite imagery of the suspect site. These pictures below, originally...
If the US is going to win hearts and minds in Iraq, then it needs to avoid killing innocent civilians. So why are air bombings up fourfold in Iraq this year? Max Bergmann of Democracy Arsenal...
Twelve former US Army Captains published the "The Real Iraq We Knew" in the October 16 Washington Post: Today marks five years since the authorization of military force in Iraq, setting Operation...
I've warned before that one danger of war is that it can escalate. The Iraq war could escalate to include Turkey, which claims that it will attack Kurdistan Iraq. From Monday's Times of London (it is already October 22 there): Turkey will launch military action against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq despite frantic appeals for restraint from America and Nato, its Prime Minister has told The Times.Speaking hours before the PKK, the Kurdish Workers’ Party, killed at least 17 more Turkish soldiers yesterday, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey had urged the US and Iraqi governments...
Did President Bush, at his October 17, 2007, press conference, threaten the world with war? You decide: Q But you definitively believe Iran wants to build a nuclear weapon?THE PRESIDENT: I think so long -- until they suspend and/or make it clear that they -- that their statements aren't real, yeah, I believe they want to have the capacity, the knowledge, in order to make a nuclear weapon. And I know it's in the world's interest to prevent them from doing so. I believe that the Iranian -- if Iran had a nuclear weapon, it would be a dangerous threat to world peace.But this -- we got a leader...
On October 11, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) issued its 11th report (warning: pdf) on the human rights situation in Iraq. The report is filled with bad news -- and not much good news.For example, the "dire" situation in Iraq poses "devastating consequences for the civilian population....Daily life for the average Iraqi civilian remains extremely precarious. The violence remains in large part indiscriminate.... UNAMI’s findings, based on its monitoring and research activities, suggest that the human rights situation in Iraq remains grave." New insurgent-related...
This past week, I've read Sarah Sewall's name three times in different magazines and blogs. Perhaps you are asking, who is Sarah Sewall?Well, Sewall is director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. I first heard her name more than 20 years ago when I worked briefly at Center for the Defense Information in DC -- a left of center think tank that studies the military. Sewall also interned at Institute of Policy Studies. She must have worked at IPS when Michael Klare ran the Program on Militarism and Disarmament.So, what's up with Sarah Sewall...
If you're the type that roots for the cats.And just keep reading through the first dozen or so comments. Takes me back to usenet days of old.
The University of Pittsburgh's Ridgway Center is hosting "Securing Our Survival," a conference starting tomorrow that focuses on nuclear proliferation -- and global climate change. You can watch the events on-line and ask questions of the speakers. The program begins Friday morning at 9 am ET and continues through the day and into Saturday.Joseph Cirincione talks at 9:30 am, Bill Hartung at 10:30, and Jon Wolfsthal at 1 pm.If you wonder why the hosts are combining global warming and proliferation, consider that nuclear power is presented as an alternative to fossil fuels -- but comes with...
...if anything happened at all (?)The mystery raid by Israeli planes against some sort of target in Syria last month continues to confuse and mystify. The just as it starts to get quiet and recede into the background, a new series of facts emerge to renew interest in the event. Just as a semi-coherent account starts to emerge, something else comes out that throws a spanner into the whole works.Today is no different.To recap: Some Israeli planes crossed into Syrian airspace and did something. Neither Israel nor Syria really want to discuss it all that much, except for the fact that neither...
There's nothing like a combat situation to sharpen ethical dilemmas to their most extreme point. For instance: the US military's use of anthropologists in the course of their operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. As the New York Times reports, an experimental Pentagon program is embedding "anthropologists and other social scientists" with combat units in the field, and utilizing their professional expertise to alter both strategic and tactical courses of action. The goal here, at least on the part of the Pentagon, is of course to increase the effectiveness of their efforts to control the...