NewsTrust - Iraq - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Mainstream)

A better understanding of Iran might save us from catastrophe

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Peter Beaumont - Mar. 11 (Opinion) - As Israel plays up the country's nuclear threat, the west should be seeking active dialogue with Tehran "Actions," said Samuel Johnson in his life of the English poet Abraham Cowley, "are visible." What are secret, Johnson added pointedly, are "motives". In the case of Iran's nuclear programme what we know of Tehran's actions and motives are the following. With some degree of "overall credibility" – according to the 2011 board of governors' report from the International Atomic Energy Agency – we know that Tehran, in all likelihood, made active studies of technologies associated with nuclear weapon design and payload design. By and large, the report believes, that activity ceased in 2003, coincident with the US-led invasion of Iraq. We know, too, because it has been even more visible, that Iran has come close to mastering the nuclear fuel cycle as well, including enrichment of uranium up to 20%. The problem with the present dangerous debate, as it has been framed ever-more closely ...

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At War Blog: What Iraqis Think of the American Withdrawal: Mosul and Basra

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Stephen Farrell, Baghdad Bureau - Dec. 15 (Opinion) - At opposite ends of the country, Basra and Mosul are Iraq's second- and third-largest cities, but with two very distinct populations.

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Iran nuclear report: IAEA claims Tehran working on advanced warhead - The Guardian

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - Nov. 08 - Iran nuclear report: IAEA claims Tehran working on advanced warhead The Guardian The UN's nuclear watchdog will publish new details on Wednesday on alleged Iranian work on an advanced design for a nuclear warhead developed with the help of a former Soviet scientist, according to nuclear experts. The report by the International ... Iran ready and able to build a nuclear bomb, UN watchdog warns the world Telegraph.co.uk Iran is on the threshold of gaining nuclear capability Economic Times Ahmadinejad warns against attack on Iran in lead up to nuclear report National Post eTaiwan News ABC News all 2,533 news ...

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US Is Planning Buildup in Gulf After Iraq Exit - New York Times

Sat, 29 Oct 2011 17:54:19 -0700

New York Times - Oct. 29 - New York TimesUS Is Planning Buildup in Gulf After Iraq ExitNew York TimesThe Obama administration plans to bolster the American military presence in the Persian Gulf after it withdraws the remaining troops from Iraq this year, according to officials and diplomats. That repositioning could include new combat forces in Kuwait ...and more »

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In Iraq, a new breed of returning exile

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Annie Gowen - Sep. 05 - KIRKUK — On a blistering day in the middle of the Iraqi summer, Najmaldin Karim, the provincial governor of Kirkuk, climbed in his armored car and went down to Republic Street, a small strip of fruit stands and shops in the heart of this dusty oil town north of Baghdad. Give Kirkuk time, Karim says, and Republic Street will return to the way he remembers it as a boy: an oasis of tearooms and movie theaters where the melting pot of local ethnic groups mixed with ease. A little over a year ago, Karim, 62, was a neurosurgeon with a thriving practice in suburban Washington, living with his wife in an expansive brick house in Silver Spring. ...

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Panetta: U.S. to stay in Iraq into 2012 (Politico)

Sat, 20 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Politico - Aug. 20 - Iraq quickly rejects the claim the defense secretary made to military paper Stars & Stripes.

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United Nations: Weak leaders wanted

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - Aug. 15 (Editorial) - To save his legacy Ban Ki-moon must refresh his top team with people who understand the UN's founding principles

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A league of despots

Wed, 20 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New York Post - By Amir Taheri - Apr. 20 (Opinion) - Believe it or not, by the start of 2011, the only Arab country that appeared safe and stable enough to host the summit was Iraq. Yes, the same Iraq of "quagmire" and "new Vietnam" repute. But Iraqis weren't keen on hosting the summit, either. Iraq's post-Saddam politicians prefer to emphasize "Iraqiness" (Uruqa) as opposed to "Arabness" (Uruba) -- not surprising in a country where non-Arabs are 30 percent of the population. Nevertheless, the Iraqis, tickled by being acknowledged as the only stable place in the "Arab World," agreed to host the summit. The man put in charge was Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari -- an ethnic Kurd who speaks literary Arabic with a Kurdish accent.

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Hugs From Libyans

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Nicholas D. Kristof - Mar. 24 (Opinion) - This may be a first for the Arab world: An American airman who bailed out over Libya was rescued from his hiding place in a sheep pen by villagers who hugged him, served him juice and thanked him effusively for bombing their country.

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Dictators and violence: Grim decision-making

Sat, 05 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Economist - Mar. 05 (Opinion) - Violence only works if it is overwhelming. Up to a critical point, civilian losses embolden protesters who will rally against the injustices they see in the loss of their comrades. If the losses are massive, and pass that point, protesters are likely to realise that the state means business and is here to stay. This was the case in 1991; as soon as Saddam Hussein was allowed to use helicopter gunships, he did. The magnitude of destruction was stratospheric and anybody seen as being remotely sympathetic to the uprising was punished. Even palm trees were destroyed (10m in Basra alone), and the Marshes were drained, ostensibly to stop rebel fighters from seeking refuge there, but undoubtedly also to punish the people seen by the state as being complicit in the uprising by destroying their livelihoods. The need for a patronised inner coterie: Iraq taught us that magnitude of destruction has to be immense. Muammar Qaddafi's rhetoric suggests he understands this and is willing to follow through. This will depend on the willingness of the army to follow his directives. Saddam did not have the army, but he did have a series of concentric circles of supporters loyal to him because of the patronage he extended them (special-forces units and tribes). He had tied their interests to his survival so successfully that they could not risk defecting. In the same way that Mr Qaddafi has turned to foreigh mercenaries, Saddam Hussein could also rely on his own foreign legion, the Mojahid-e-Khalq organisation whose divisions were used to fight both against the Kurds and the Shia down south (Mariam Rajavi, one of the group's leaders, famously said "take the Kurds under your tanks and save your bullets for the Islamic Guard").

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Rumsfeld on ‘contingency plans’ for Iraq

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

MSNBC - By Andrea Mitchell - Feb. 23 (Interview) - During an interview with NBC’s Andrea Mitchell, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld defends the Iraq War invasion and also shares his thoughts on the current situation in Libya.

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Is Mexico at war? Conflict prompts linguistic debate

Fri, 04 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

McClatchy - Feb. 04 - MEXICO CITY — Over a 48-hour period this week, gangsters tossed grenades, torched buses, set up roadblocks and strafed police units in Mexico's second and third largest cities.

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Bert Sacks fighting against Iraq sanctions

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Seattle Times - By Bert Sacks - Jan. 06 (Opinion) - The article says, “Sacks refused to pay [the fine]. In 2004, he sued the government, arguing that the blockade of Iraq violated international treaties on human rights. The courts ruled the treaties were not binding.” One of those treaties is the Convention on Genocide. Federal District Judge Robart had to accept that 500,000 preventable Iraqi children’s’ deaths were genocide — given the stage in our legal proceedings where we were at. Yet, he still dismissed our case against the government for this crime.

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At War: With the P.K.K. in Iraq's Qandil Mountains - New York Times (blog)

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 18:24:01 -0800

New York Times - Jan. 05 (Opinion) - New York Times (blog)At War: With the P.K.K. in Iraq's Qandil MountainsNew York Times (blog)QANDIL, Iraq — It is not easy to visit the mountainous borderlands of northern Iraq where the Kurdistan Workers' Party operates, but it is not impossible ...and more »

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Resurgent Turkey Flexes Its Muscles Around Iraq - NY Times: Middle East

Tue, 04 Jan 2011 20:44:27 -0800

New York Times - By By ANTHONY SHADID - Jan. 04 - Turkey’s ascent in Iraq may prove its greatest success so far in an effort to project its growing heft across an Arab world long suspicious of it.

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Iraq’s Troubles Drive Out Many Refugees Who Came Back

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 20:19:37 -0800

New York Times - Nov. 26 -

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Eric Cantor's Pledge of Allegiance

Sat, 13 Nov 2010 13:29:42 -0800

Associated Press - By Glenn Greenwald - Nov. 13 (Opinion) - Regarding the midterms, Cantor may have given Netanyahu some reason to stand firm against the American administration. "Eric stressed that the new Republican majority will serve as a check on the Administration and what has been, up until this point,

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At War: War and Conscience: Expanding the Definition of Conscientious Objection

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By James Dao - Nov. 10 (Opinion) - A coalition of around 60 mostly left-leaning religious, veterans and anti-war groups are calling on Congress to expand the definition of conscientious objection to allow opposition to a particular war.

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How did this wastrel ever find his way to the White House?

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

The Independent - By Matthew Norman - Nov. 10 (Review) - May the Lord the former president so ostentatiously worships have mercy on my soul, and those in Iraq without water, electricity and medicine forgive me, but I just cannot suppress a twinge of sympathy for George W Bush.

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C.K. Chivers' The Gun explains how the AK-47 changed the world.

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 11:09:00 -0700

Slate - By Nicholas Schmidle - Nov. 01 - In late 1945, Sergeant Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov entered an office contest more pressing than even the most rabid of Fantasy Footballers could fathom. Joseph Stalin wanted a new gun, and the Soviet leader tasked his army with selecting the best

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Iraqi Jewish documents remain in limbo

Sun, 31 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - Oct. 31 - Damaged during the U.S. invasion and shipped from Baghdad to Washington for preservation, a collection of antique Torahs and other material faces an uncertain future. Back to Iraq? Or to Israel?A propaganda pamphlet written by Saddam Hussein's uncle and published in 1981 summed up the dictator's attitude toward Jews: It's titled "Three Whom God Should Not Have Created: Persians, Jews and Flies."

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Iraq war logs: military privatisation run amok

Sat, 23 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Pratap Chatterjee - Oct. 23 (Opinion) - The Wikileaks logs provide ample evidence of private security contractors entirely unaccountable for lethal rogue actions Shortly after 10am on 14 May 2004, a convoy of private security guards from Blackwater riding down "Route Irish" – the Baghdad airport road – shot up a civilian Iraqi vehicle. While they were at it, the Blackwater men fired shots over the heads of a group of soldiers from the 69th Regiment of the US Army before they sped away heading west in their white armoured truck. When the dust cleared, the Iraqi driver was dead and his wife and daughter were injured. A terse, 57-word dispatch in the Iraq war logs published by Wikileaks is the first public evidence of the shooting, as recorded by the US military. The incident is one of several dozen "escalation of force" incidents involving private security companies in Iraq – which is military parlance for an unwarranted attack, almost all of which have never been previously reported. Blackwater, the company from Moyock, North ...

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The invisible casualties of Afghanistan | Clancy Sigal

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 13:09:30 -0700

The Guardian - Sep. 15 (Opinion) - The IRA tried to murder me on three separate occasions.Nothing personal, just that I was in the wrong place at the wrong time when the Provos' deadly "mainland campaign" against Brits took the form of planting IEDs, improvised homemade bombs, in central

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The Obama Speech

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Time - By Joe Klein - Aug. 31 (Opinion) - "...this speech was a necessary ceremony of the presidency, if a thankless one. The commentators will say the President didn't transcend. His critics will say that he refused to acknowledge the "success" of the surge. But he also refused to indulge in relitigating the stupidity that launched the war."

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Portraits of Iraqis and Their Dreams

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

NewsHour - Aug. 24 (Interview) - Iraqis' feelings about their country's future is best reflected in what they say about their own personal dreams. The younger ones appear less scarred -- their parents' and grandparents' generations seem far more so. Here's a sampling of people we've met in our travels and their hopes:Haneen ImadAge:19Hometown: BaghdadOccupation Baghdad University student; oud player (listen)Dream: To create a group of female oud musicians from all over the Middle East.Ghazi EssaAge: 52Hometown: BaghdadOccupation: Engineer, director of Doura Power Station, BaghdadDream: To be able to give the Iraqi people all the electricity they need. Dr. Samina Abdul GhaniAge: 45Hometown: FallujahOccupation: PediatricianDream: To come to the hospital one day and find what I need, so I can care for my patients like a doctor in any normal country in the world.Naiem Mahdi Al-ShatriAge: 71Hometown: BaghdadOccupation: BooksellerDream: For Iraq to be a country of education and reading again.Kamar Hashem Mohammed Al NomaneAge: 6Hometown: South BaghdadOccupation: Photographer, honorary member of Iraqi Photographers AssociationDream: To grow up to be a professional photographer.View a slide show of Kamar.Photos by Larisa Epatko

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