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 War
and Terror
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THE ROVING EYE
Operation Tomahawk
with cheese
By pronouncing the use of chemical weapons in Syria a "red line", President Barack Obama effectively strangled his own options, with the forthcoming G20 summit now further limiting his room for maneuver. So Operation Tomahawk, set to unleash missiles on Syrian innocents, must go ahead - with or without added ingredients - if only to maintain his own credibility. - Pepe Escobar
(Aug 29, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
Obama set for holy Tomahawk war
"Responsibility to protect", invoked for the war on Libya, has transmogrified into "responsibility to attack" - just because the Obama administration says so. Forget (again) about getting the facts right about chemical or any other weaponry; the window of opportunity for war on Syria is now, before Bashar al-Assad's forces get too much into the habit of winning.
- Pepe Escobar
(Aug 27, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
Hi, I'm your new Axis of Evil
The bloodbath in Egypt marks a victory for the House of Saud/Israel/ Pentagon triumvirate. And as they plot their way round a Middle East, with more settlements in Palestine, Egypt in civil war, Syria and Iraq bleeding to death (and never losing sight of Israel's perpetual survival), what's left is the certified proliferation of all kinds of axes, and all kinds of evil. - Pepe Escobar
(Aug 16, '13)
The spy and the patriots
American Revolutionary War hero and spy Nathan Hale - executed by the British in 1776 - would likely be as bemused by today's labyrinthine US security state as current intelligence "employees" would be by Hale's devotion to his country. In searching for spies who demonstrate Hale's true ideals today, only two names spring to mind - Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden. - Tom Engelhardt
(Aug 8, '13)
The post-terror terrorism of war
Heightened terror alerts from the US State Department serve as a reminder that terrorism originates from imperialism and military aggression against the poor and helpless. With the War on Terror a recipe for disasters far more destructive than rational minds can perceive, new thinking is needed to create peace; but that won't emanate from leaders intent on a never-ending war. - Mahboob A Khawaja
(Aug 8, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
Al-Qaeda to the rescue
Fatwas from former Osama bin Laden sidekick Ayman "Doctor Evil" al-Zawahiri and jailbreaks galore have given the US a golden opportunity to deflect attention from the heady atmospherics of the Edward Snowden saga and back to trusted terror firma. Washington is waving its al-Qaeda false flags high, while hiding the colors of a truer enemy. - Pepe Escobar
(Aug 5, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
Manning guilty, war criminals on the loose
The young Bradley Manning faces a lifetime behind bars after the delivery of a (predictable) guilty verdict in his show trial for spying. The US government went no holds barred, and failed, to prove that Manning had helped al-Qaeda. Events in Iraq this week show it's the US government that has actually enabled al-Qaeda, while the real culprits are still on the loose. - Pepe Escobar
(Jul 31, '13)
The rise of al-Qaeda 2.0
While today's al-Qaeda lacks a centralized leadership and prominent figurehead, successes like this week's prison break in Iraq and the chaos it has fomented in Syria highlight that its diffuse nature is a strength. By eschewing spectacular terrorist attacks in favor of exploiting local conflicts, "al-Qaeda 2.0" can gradually start to again exert global influence.
- Frud Bezhan
(Jul 25, '13)
When Iraq invaded the United States
 When world history is presented as a calendar of anecdotes, US war-making features on almost every page, with momentous dates such as the August 6, 1945, Hiroshima bombing and the March 20, 2003, Iraq invasion impacting back and forth across humanity's age of rule. Seen in fragmentary glimpses, the storms of bombs and professional fear-mongering are still traumatizing.
- Eduardo Galeano
(Jul 25, '13)
Pashtuns rue militant image
Propaganda portraying Pashtuns as violent warriors, based on their considerable presence in the Taliban's rank-and-file, ignores that the militants have never identified with the ethnic group, and that Pashtun history is replete with heroes who fought with the pen instead of the sword. While the situation can be partly blamed on the geopolitical vortex in Afghanistan, a fragmented Pashtun leadership is also responsible. - Ajmal Shams
(Jul 24, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
War against Iran,
Iraq AND Syria?
The signing by officials of Iraq, Syria and Iran of a memorandum of understanding to build a gas pipeline linking Iranian gasfields to the Mediterranean coast makes manifest a fundamental reason for the proxy war in Syria. The Europeans - who endlessly carp about being hostages of Gazprom - should be rejoicing. Instead, once again, they are shooting themselves in their Bally-clad feet. - Pepe Escobar
(Jul 23, '13)
Jihadi embers reignite a vulnerable Iraq
The rise of Salafi-jihadi groups in Syria's war theater has breathed new life into al-Qaeda's Iraq affiliate, with its new moniker, the Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham, reflecting a desire to conflate conflicts in Iraq and Syria and forge an Islamic state stretching from the Iranian border to the Mediterranean coast. - Derek Henry Flood
(Jul 23, '13)
SPENGLER
Islam's civil war moves to Egypt
Whether Egypt slides into chaos or regains temporary stability under the military depends on the view from the royal palace in Saudi Arabia, not on the conflicting protests in Tahrir Square. Democracy activists are a hapless force as democracy in Egypt is dead. Crosswinds from the great Sunni-Shi'ite civil war enveloping the Muslim world are at work, and the only question in the current power struggle is whose Islamism will win out.
(Jul 8, '13)
Taliban talks renew specter of civil war
The opening of a Taliban political office in Qatar raised alarm bells in Kabul not only because it honed the ousted group's image as an Afghan power, but because it threatens to unravel everything President Hamid Karzai's government has worked for. Saber rattling by warlords opposed to talks with the Taliban, like General Abdul Rashid Dostum, could lead to war breaking out again. - Frud Bezhan
(Jun 26, '13)
SPEAKING FREELY
US warriors in search of Afghan peace
The United States' plans to hold peace talks with the Taliban highlight the moral bankruptcy of the Washington's initial decision to invade Afghanistan. There's little chance of any peace succeeding without help from Iran and Pakistan, but it will be hard for them to help the US - a country that's continually undermining them through warmongering, drone attacks and threats. - Mahboob A Khawaja
(Jun 24, '13)
THE TERROR DIASPORA
US spreads blowback nightmare
As the war in Afghanistan winds down, the United States military has greater incentive and opportunity to project power ever deeper into Africa. US destabilization of the continent has already sparked the spread of terrorist outfits like wildfire (from none before 9/11), and now it's creating what increasingly looks like a blowback machine. - Nick Turse
(Jun 20, '13)
Taliban hints at Afghan power-sharing
Amid attempts by the United States to defend efforts to negotiate with the Taliban, and Kabul's strident rejection of the hardline Islamic group's political representation in Qatar, Taliban spokesman Mohammad Naeem expresses the militants' readiness to share power in Afghanistan. - Abubakar Siddique
(Jun 20, '13)
US-Taliban talks set to begin
Nearly 12 years after the United States ousted the Taliban, the US will begin formal talks with the militant Islamist group this week as part of Afghanistan's national reconciliation process. Whether a major change in US policy, or more a reflection of shifting power inside Washington, the road ahead will be long, and negotiations between the Taliban and the Hamid Karzai government will also be of crucial importance. - Jim Lobe
(Jun 19, '13)
Dystopian secrecy
fuels clueless wars
Bradley Manning, WikiLeaks' source inside the US Army, has done more to make Americans safer than the Navy SEAL unit that assassinated Osama bin Laden. As his trial proceeds to its foregone conclusion, the greatest threat to the United States is not terrorism but secrecy and the clueless foreign policy that Manning helped expose.. - Chase Madar
(Jun 12, '13)
How to pre-convict an American Muslim
From manufactured "plots" and outsourced "confessions" to mental tortures designed to skirt the boundaries of legality, domestic US justice for terror suspects has evolved to match the Guantanamo detention center's grey system of pre-punishment and pre-conviction. In the world of special administrative measures, the George W Bush-era of "taking the gloves off" is still being pushed to the limit. - Victoria Brittain
(Jun 11, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
Meet the 'Friends of Jihad'
That about 70% of the Syrian people support President Bashar al-Assad is something the "Friends of Syria" prefer to trample under the nearest Persian rug. As Western governments - notably Britain and France - "lead from behind" to play the Sunni-Shi'ite divide, all they are promoting is perpetual petro-war by proxy. - Pepe Escobar
(Jun 5, '13)
Drone death would hit
Pakistani Taliban hard
 The death of key Pakistani Taliban commander Wali-ur Rehman Mehsud in a US drone strike would be a big blow to the militants. The as yet unverified killing of the deputy leader would deprive the Taliban in Pakistan of a key strategist and operative capable of navigating politics, raising funds, and carrying out major attacks. - Abubakar Siddique
(May 30, '13)
Afghanistan: Is it really the end game?
Given the fragility of the Afghan government and army, and the skepticism rising over the bloody and expensive Afghan conflict's legacy, most would expect the United States to place extra effort into securing a safe withdrawal and military and economic transition. Yet instead of pursuing the inclusive dialogue needed to prevent chaos, Washington is relying on a "shoot and talk" strategy that's consistently failed.
- Conn Hallinan
(May 30, '13)
SPEAKING FREELY
Islamabad faces drone dilemma
Placing limits on Pakistan's cooperation with the US in the use of drones to fight the Taliban would ease
intense political pressure over the issue for the incoming Nawaz Sharif government, but the resultant power vacuum in the northwest would enable the militants to regroup and inflict maximum damage on the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
- Sajjad Ashraf
(May 29, '13)
A warning shot for Turkey-Qatar axis
Limited US condemnation of the Reyhanli bombing in Turkey suggests Washington, like its ally Saudi Arabia, is frustrated with how Turkey and Qatar are pursuing their agendas in Syria, especially their arming of groups linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. Like a recent blast targeting a Qatari delegation in Somalia, the Reyhanli bombing seems targeted to warn Ankara off.
- Alper Birdal and Yigit Gunay
(May 29, '13)
Naming a nameless war
George W Bush's "Global War on Terror" ended long ago, banished from the lexicon of his successor, while Barack Obama's pledge last week to give new definition to the scope of the now nameless conflict doesn't stand scrutiny. Washington seems in as little hurry to come up with a name as it does to end the war. Names and dates matter, and might actually explain what's going on. - Andrew J Bacevich
(May 29, '13)
SPEAKING FREELY
America's truth-seeking drone program
Hunting militants through morally and legally questionable bombing missions hardly provides real justice to the victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center in New York. The same international laws are broken by the drone program purportedly intended to protect American soil from foreign enemies seeking to eliminate its citizens. - Elliot Saunders
(May 24, '13)
Nuclear terror in the Middle East
Projections of the millions who would be killed in an Israeli nuclear strike on Iran's capital are as frightening as the knowledge that the US is powerless to derail a war path set by two countries committed to conflict. In a world awash in nuclear weapons, a detonation would cause suffering on an almost unimaginable scale, perhaps nowhere more so than in Tehran. - Nick Turse
(May 14, '13)
Drone strikes on trial in Pakistan
A High Court declaration in Pakistan that Central Intelligence Agency drone strikes are war crimes comes as US critics of the strikes increasingly call into
question the lack of legislative or judicial pressure to curb the executive powers used in launching the unmanned aircraft. For many, the lack of transparency suggests that the administration is well aware the drone program breaks international law. - George Gao
(May 13, '13)
Fear envelops Pakistan elections
The mounting death toll from the Pakistani Taliban's campaign of terror in the last days before the country's general election and the switch in targets to include both secular parties and the leading Islamist contender have created a chaotic climate of fear surrounding the May 11 vote. That is exactly what the Taliban wanted as punishment for candidates and voters taking part in a democratic process the banned militants have branded "un-Islamic". - Syed Fazl-e-Haider
(May 9, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
Israel rescues
Mujahid Obama
Israel's bombing of Syrian army installations near Damascus is an act of war, and a timely one for President Barack Obama, just when the "red line" charade was reaching fever pitch and he had to choose between the US "exercising restraint" or "directly involving itself" in the Syrian war. - Pepe Escobar
(May 7, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
The Islamic Emirate of Syriastan
 As Islamic brigades answer al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri's call to form an Islamic Emirate in Syria, Syrian jihadists, with a little help from Western weapons, are preparing an annex to Iraqi jihadis. Baghdad sees the writing on the wall: as a direct consequence of divide and rule Sunni-against-Shi'ite games the Americans have been encouraging for 10 years now, the stage is set for a civil war, Syria-style, in Iraq.
- Pepe Escobar
(Apr 12, '13)
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ATol Specials
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Syed Saleem Shahzad reports on
the Afghan war from the Taliban side
(Dec '06)
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How
Hezbollah defeated Israel
By
Mark Perry and
Alastair Crooke
(Oct '06)
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Mark Perry and
Alastair Crooke
talk to the 'terrorists'
(Mar, '06)
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The evidence for and against Iran's alleged
nuclear weapons program
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Nir Rosen goes inside the Iraqi
resistance
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Nir Rosen rides with the 3rd
armored cavalry in western Iraq
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Islamism, fascism and
terrorism
by Marc Erikson
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For earlier articles go to:
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