The unspeakable truth is that we lost in Iraq. We must not lose in Afghanistan too

Britain has fought more wars than any other country, but rarely has it suffered two defeats in a row. That humiliation is what this country is currently drifting towards, following failure in Iraq with failure in Afghanistan…Westminster might be obsessing over the Iraq inquiry’s revelations about how the decision to go to war was made, but the really important part of the inquiry’s work will come when it turns its attention to what happened after the invasion. Read more

Coordinated Bombings Kill at Least 101 in Baghdad

BAGHDAD — In what appeared to be a coordinated assault, a series of car bombings across Baghdad on Tuesday killed at least 101 people and wounded scores more, according to preliminary accounts by police and hospital officials… Five bombs, including at least one suicide attack, struck near a university, a court, a mosque and a market in a neighborhood near the Interior Ministry. The blasts began shortly Read more

Why debt at Dubal World is

As conglomerate Dubai World delays debt payments, most analysts look for Arab Monetary Fund to step in to avert a crisis in financial markets. That’s not likely, though, until Sunday.

How can Dubai, a tiny emirate on the Persian Gulf, shake financial markets from Shanghai to New York?

The answer is familiar to tens of thousands of Americans struggling to make payments on their mortgages or credit cards: too much debt… On Thursday, Dubai World, a conglomerate, shook world financial markets by asking for a six-month moratorium on Read more

The Best Allies Money Can Buy

In 2003, I was on a trip to Iraq and had arranged an appointment in the Green Zone with a member of the then-Iraqi Governing Council. Security was tight. I was with my Iraqi translator, a middle-aged man who had once been a teacher. When we arrived at the council, after a long walk, I showed my ID to two young uniformed U.S. soldiers. They told me to wait, went inside and out came a man wearing civilian clothes, one of those fishing vests and an Read more

Keep an Eye on the Balkans

Trouble is brewing.

The Balkans is a region we love to forget. Sandwiched between the Adriatic and Black seas, the peninsula is a hodgepodge mix of religions, peoples and cultures. The complexity and obscurity of the Balkans—together with its geographic situation—fosters the perception of the region as a largely irrelevant backwater to Europe, Russia and the Middle East… History punctures this perception… Historically, the Balkans is a place where civilizations have converged and clashed. During the Middle Ages, the peninsula fell under the control Read more

Palestinians warned over UN move

Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, has warned the Palestinian leadership against any attempts to unilaterally declare statehood for the Gaza Strip, the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem… West Bank-based Palestinian officials said on Sunday that they were preparing to ask the United Nations Security Council to declare their backing for the Palestinian quest for an independent state… In a radio address on Sunday evening, Netanyahu said: “There is no substitute for negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority—[read more…]

This story from Al Jazeera.net | posted: 16 November 2009

On patrol in Mexico’s most dangerous city

Mexico’s Ciudad Juarez is one of the world’s most dangerous cities, plagued by battles between drug gangs. A BBC team witnessed its violence at first hand on a police patrol, as Ian Sherwood reports… The sun sets early now that winter is approaching. It is nearly 1800 and Ciudad Juarez has already descended into darkness…We drive up to Estacion Delicias police station, where all is quiet–[read more…]

This story from BBC NEWS | posted:16 Nov. 2009

A health care plan so flawed even some Democrats have

From Salon.com

More than 1.5 million vets don’t have it, and 2,200 vets die every year because of it

It’s Veterans Day, and members of both parties compete to show service members the most respect. How about passing health insurance reform?

Two Harvard researchers chose today to release a study showing that 1.5 million American veterans have no health insurance, and more than 2,200 die every year Read more

America the jobless-Ron Paul wins, Timothy Geithner loses

From csmonitor.com

Frustration at how Washington has managed the ‘jobless recovery’ is turning some members of Capitol Hill against Treasury Secretary Timothy Gauthier – and in favor of a controversial measure by Rep. Ron Paul.

America is angry about the economy, and the biggest winners could just be Congress’s odd couple: Reps. Ron Paul (R) of Texas and Alan Grayson (D) of Florida… Mr. Paul, the far right former presidential candidate, and Mr. Grayson, the far left rabble-rouser who said the Republicans’ healthcare plan was for ill people to “die quickly,” are Congress’s two biggest critics of the Federal Reserve – [read more…]

By Mark Sappenfield |  Staff writer for www.csmonitor.com | Posted: 22  November  2009

Take Two Kickbacks

From motherjones.com

So your doctor says it’s time to consider that hip replacement. Trouble is, more than a dozen firms make artificial hips, and there’ve been plenty of recalls—no small inconvenience when the recalled product resides in your pelvis. So how do you know which implant—or arterial stent, or prosthetic knee joint—performs best? Can you trust your doctor’s judgment? We’ve been left jaded, after all, by the endless reports of drugmakers’ seducing physicians with golf and spa weekends, expensive gifts, and lucrative consulting contracts. Well, now that federal investigators have quietly turned their sights on the makers of medical devices—a $200 billion industry [read more…]

By Peter Stone | From motherjones.com | posted: 02 November 2009