The war, now in its fifth year, will cost the United States one TRILLION dollars. Not only that, but a lot of it is borrowed money. Noted economist Joseph Stiglitz crunched the numbers, and according to the Guardian, the numbers ain’t good.
The move of moderate but marginalized Iraqi Sunnis to the U.S. military and away from Al Queda’s unique brand of crazy-ass seems to have put AQ in a bit of a tizzy. The loss of Anbar province, which the United States military seems to have quelled for the moment, was a particular thorn in the side of Iraqi Al Queda leaders. On the other hand, I can’t totally hate any leader who refers to defectors from his organization as “scoundrels.”
Not exactly “a year in Provence,” is it? Documentarian Julian Sher spent a year making films for the CBC, and in the process got to experience war both in Iraq and Afghanistan. What he saw in both places left him less than optimistic for further progress.
One of Donald Rumsfeld’s big goals for the American military was “transformation,” a process by which the armed forces modernized and adopted a more “network-centric” approach to combat. It worked spectacularly during the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, with Special Forces troops laser-targeting opposing forces and ground commanders getting a God’s-eye view of their operations theatre. But network-centric warfare has turned out to be a bust for winning the peace, as Wired Magazine details.
There’s a village in Morocco called Tetouan that’s the home town of a disproportionate number of young jihadis, including some of the men responsible for the Madrid train bombings in 2004. The New York Times Magazine investigates (at length) what turns normal young men from Tetouan into suicide bombers.
Amnesty International made a film featuring a performance artist going through six hours of the allegedly non-tortuous treatment that prisoners of American forces endure when being interrogated. The artist isn’t acting; every single whimper out of the guy is the real thing. Kind of puts the whole “war on terror” thing in perspective.
I’m a firm believer that the fanciful tales of drones and controlled demolitions spun by 9/11 “Truthers” (worst….name….ever!) are utter nonsense. It’s nice to see Noam Chomsy, a voice of reason from the Left, express his disdain for such theories and point out how utterly illogical they are. Check out parts one and two of his thoughts below.
According to Newsweek, very few State department officials feel a strong urge to volunteer to work at the American Embassy in Iraq. But soon they won’t have any choice, as 200 to 300 diplomats will be identified as “prime candidates” and shipped over to Baghdad whether they like it or not. Fun!
Nope, it doesn’t involve duct tape or keeping an eye on your neighbours for possible un-American activities. Wired magazine profiles a suburban Montana woman who spends her days at an office, but her nights monitoring jihadi activity online.
With the violence marring the return of exiled Pakistani leader Benazir Bhutto, it’s increasingly obvious that Pakistan is sinking into the thrall of militants. Newsweek has a very interesting piece on how we should be more scared of civil unrest in Pakistan, which already has nuclear weapons, than in Iraq, which doesn’t.