The Lessons of Basra
Robert Dreyfuss. The Nation. March 31, 2008 At the start of the military offensive launched last week into Basra by US-trained Iraqi army forces, President Bush called the action by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki “a bold decision.” He added: “I would say this is a defining moment in the history of a free Iraq.” That’s […]
The Bad News at the Pump: The $100-plus Barrel of Oil and What It Means
Michael T. Klare. Tomdispatch. March 11, 2008 On Monday March 3, the price of crude oil reached $103.95 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, surpassing the record set nearly 30 years ago during another moment of chaos in the Middle East. Will that new mark prove distinctive in the annals of world history […]
War is Hell, But What the Hell Does it Cost?
William D. Hartung. TomDispatch. March 04, 2008 War is hell — deadly, dangerous, and expensive. But just how expensive is it? In a recent interview, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz asserted that the costs of the Iraq war — budgetary, economic, and societal — could reach $5 trillion. That’s a hard number to comprehend. Figuring […]
Going Bankrupt: Why the Debt Crisis Is Now the Greatest Threat to the American Republic
Chalmers Johnson, TomDispatch, January 22, 2008 The military adventurers of the Bush administration have much in common with the corporate leaders of the defunct energy company Enron. Both groups of men thought that they were the “smartest guys in the room,” the title of Alex Gibney’s prize-winning film on what went wrong at Enron. The […]
How the Bush Administration’s Iraqi Oil Grab Went Awry. Greenspan’s Oil Claim in Context
Dilip Hiro. TomDispatch, September 25, 2007 Here is the sentence in The Age of Turbulence, the 531-page memoir of former Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan, that caused so much turbulence in Washington last week: "I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil." Honest […]
Iraq imposes ‘Saddam style’ ban on oil union
Heather Stewart, economics editor, Sunday August 5, 2007, The Observer Iraq's energy ministry is using a Saddam-era decree to crack down on trade unions and stifle dissent against foreign exploitation of the country's vast oil reserves, the Basra-based oil workers' union claims. Hassan Juma'a, the union's leader, has been at the forefront of a public […]
The Pentagon v. Peak Oil
By Michael T. Klare, TomDispatch, June 14, 2007 Sixteen gallons of oil. That's how much the average American soldier in Iraq and Afghanistan consumes on a daily basis — either directly, through the use of Humvees, tanks, trucks, and helicopters, or indirectly, by calling in air strikes. Multiply this figure by 162,000 soldiers in Iraq, […]
Baghdad Surges into Hell: First Results from the President’s Offensive
By Michael Schwartz. Tomdispatch. February 12, 2007 In his Iraq policy address on January 10, President Bush promised three new initiatives: a "surge" of American troops accompanied by a new "clear, hold, and build" strategy in Sunni insurgent strongholds; an offensive against Shia militias, particularly the Sadrist Mahdi Army which "U.S. military officials now identify […]
Thelma and Louise Imperialism: Over the Cliff with George and Dick?
By Tom Engelhardt. TomDispatch. February 9, 2007 Let me make an argument about Bush administration Iran policy – about the possibility that a regime-change-style, shock-and-awe air assault might someday be launched on Iranian nuclear facilities and associated targets – based on no insider knowledge, just the logic of George and Dick's Thelma-and-Louise-style imperialism. Of course, […]
Empire v. Democracy. Why Nemesis Is at Our Door
By Chalmers Johnson. TomDispatch. January 30, 2007 History tells us that one of the most unstable political combinations is a country — like the United States today — that tries to be a domestic democracy and a foreign imperialist. Why this is so can be a very abstract subject. Perhaps the best way to offer […]