Iraq Archives - Page 18 of 91 - Foreign Policy In Focus

Martyrdom’s Strategy: Suicide Bombers Target Obama’s Withdrawal Plan

by Erik Leaver, Steve Niva | May 5, 2009

Suicide bombings are back in Iraq, signaling that the Iraq War is far from over. After a significant downturn, with only six suicide attacks between December 2008 and March 2009, there have been 25 suicide bombings in Iraq in the last two months, contributing to the worst spate of violence in Iraq in nearly a year. The bombers have revealed a new audacity and sophistication, striking in all parts of the country and against many seemingly highly secured targets.

Obama’s First 100 Days: Foreign Policy

by John Feffer, Erik Leaver | Apr 24, 2009

Editor’s note: This article appears in Thirsting for Change: Obama’s First 100 Days, a report published by the Institute for Policy Studies. The Bush administration transformed the way the United States dealt with the world. It invaded two countries, began a war on terror that had no geographic or time limits, boosted military spending, acted unilaterally, and ignored international law. Although his second term was more pragmatic than his first — with an important reversal on North Korea policy and rapprochement with Libya — George W. Bush generally emphasized military force over diplomatic negotiations, acting more like a cowboy than a statesman.

Iraq in Fragments

by Dahr Jamail, Erik Leaver | Apr 10, 2009

“[W]hat lengths men will go in order to carry out, to their extreme limit, the rites of a collective self-worship which fills them with a sense of righteousness and complacent satisfaction in the midst of the most shocking injustices and crimes.” -Love and Living, by Thomas Merton

The VP Debate: Dishonest Foreign Policies

by Emily Schwartz Greco, Stephen Zunes | Oct 3, 2008

The October 3 debate between Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and Delaware Senator Joe Biden was disturbing for those of us hoping for a more enlightened and honest foreign policy during the next four years. In its aftermath, pundits mainly focused on Palin’s failure to self-destruct and Biden’s relatively cogent arguments. Here’s an annotation of the foreign policy issues raised during the vice-presidential debate, which was packed with demonstrably false and misleading statements.

Biden, Iraq, and Obama’s Betrayal

by John Feffer, Stephen Zunes | Aug 24, 2008

Incipient Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama’s selection of Joseph Biden as his running mate constitutes a stunning betrayal of the anti-war constituency who made possible his hard-fought victory in the Democratic primaries and caucuses.

Turkey’s Troubles

by Alex Jakubow, Emily Schwartz Greco | Jul 25, 2008

The United States’ rather muted, lackadaisical response to the constitutional conflagration set to engulf the future of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) should be of grave concern to those committed to the achievement of greater stabilization and liberal democratization within the Middle East. The pending decision of the Turkish Constitutional Court over whether or not to ban the democratically elected AKP, as well as the international response towards such proceedings, are setting important, potentially dangerous, precedents for both Iraq and Afghanistan’s already fledgling, nascent democracies.

Trouble at the Pentagon

by Frida Berrigan, John Feffer | Jun 11, 2008

The Pentagon is in crisis: The war in Iraq is entering its fifth hot summer. And while U.S. troop casualties are down, the light at the end of the occupation tunnel is no closer and no brighter.

McClellan Right: Press Too Deferential

by John Feffer, Shoon Murray | Jun 6, 2008

When Bush’s former press secretary admits that the administration used a “political propaganda campaign” to sell its case for war and calls the mainstream media “deferential, complicit enablers” – as Scott McClellan does in What Happened – it’s time to examine just how badly the press failed.

A Cluster of Fallacies

by Daniel Allen, John Feffer | Jun 3, 2008

Well over half the world’s governments agreed last week to “consign cluster munitions to the trash bin of history,” in the words of the Cluster Munition Coalition, the civil society collective that delivered the treaty. Meeting in Dublin, Ireland, representatives of 110 governments completed negotiations on a new international treaty that bans the production, use, and export of all existing cluster munitions and commits them to destroy their stockpiles within eight years.

A Moral Burden on U.S. Soldiers

by Erik Leaver, Adil E. Shamoo | May 30, 2008

A fighter pilot would never cut the throat of an innocent woman or child. However, the same pilot drops bombs into enemy territory to kill enemy personnel, knowing he may also kill innocent civilians. The luxury of a large distance between the bullet or a bomb used to kill suspected enemies in Iraq is a luxury many of our soldiers do not have.