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 War
and Terror
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December 2011
How Iran outsmarted the US on
Iraq
United States Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's suggestion that the withdrawal
of troops from Iraq deserves to go down in the annals as a US military success
story ignores the fact that a semi-permanent military presence was the
preferred outcome. The real story behind the departure is how the US was beaten
by deception and diplomacy. - Gareth Porter (Dec
19, '11)
IRAQ MISSION [FINALLY?]
ACCOMPLISHED
A dictatorship without a dictator
A democratic Iraq in a neighborhood riddled with dictatorships will not work,
because Arab and Iranian regimes will always try to bring it down, as they did
with Lebanon for more than 40 years. With Saudi Arabia and Syria, though,
distracted by their own internal problems, it will fall on Tehran to continue
its meddling ways in Baghdad.
- Sami Moubayed (Dec 16, '11)
Intervention ends with scarcely
a whimper
When the US formally ended its eight-and-a-half year military adventure in Iraq
on Thursday, hardly anyone in Washington seemed to notice, let alone mark the
occasion in a special manner. People, perhaps, simply want to forget "the
greatest strategic disaster in United States history". - Jim Lobe
(Dec 16, '11)
 THE
OCCUPIED EYE
The war is pronounced dead
The tenor of the US's moving farewell ceremony, officially called "So long,
towelheads", was likely to sound an uncertain trumpet for a war that was
invented to get rid of non-existent weapons of mass destruction. And it now
ends without the Iraqi chapter of the Empire of Bases the Pentagon badly wanted
in the first place - and the oil. - Pepe Escobar
(Dec 16, '11)
Soviet-armed Iraq switches to
US weapons
As United States troops depart Iraq, high-tech US weaponry is flooding in, with
America cornering supply for the army it devastated in 2003. While the Iraqi
Air Force has been promised 18 F-16 fighter planes, a proposed $10.9 billion
arms package includes Abrams battle tanks and Hellfire missiles. Not only is
the deal generating business, Washington also relishes arming a neighbor of
Iran. - Thalif Deen (Dec 15, '11)
THE
ROVING EYE
NATO dreams of
civil war in Syria
By adopting a pincer movement from bases in Turkey and Jordan, the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization is actively diversifying into an Iraq-in-the-1990s
strategy; to submit Syria to a prolonged state of siege before eventually going
for the kill. But NATO's dream is to push Turkey to do the dirty work, even
though this country remains the great imponderable on a complex chessboard. - Pepe
Escobar (Dec 14, '11)
Did the Pentagon help nip the
Arab Spring? As the seeds of rebellion spread throughout the
Arab world, the Pentagon acted decisively. Trainers were dispatched across the
region to provide security forces with in-depth training in the finer points of
defeating uprisings. While the extent of joint military exercises in Saudi
Arabia, Kuwait and Morocco is shrouded in secrecy, the suffering of protesters
who have endured their results is clear. - Nick Turse
(Dec 14, '11)
Deep chill envelopes US-Pakistan
ties
With supply lines to American troops in Afghanistan blocked and relations
suspended, cynics argue that Pakistan is taking its freeze with the US to a
point of no return. The whole nation is convulsed in rage over the deaths of 24
soldiers in an air strike the West says was accidental and Islamabad concludes
was carried out in cold blood, and Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani is matching
the mood. The American response is hardly helping resolve matters. - Karamatullah
K Ghori (Dec 13, '11)
US outed, and far from drawn down
The eviction of the United States from its air base in Pakistan could mean the
end of the drone war in Afghanistan, but holds wider strategic implications
that reveal the Pentagon's hidden agenda as war clouds gather on another
horizon. The US military now has a reason to re-interpret President Barack
Obama's "drawdown" from Afghanistan, keeping combat troops there to help "box
in" Iran and use its bases as a springboard for invasion. - M K Bhadrakumar
(Dec 12, '11)
Pakistan Taliban shift focus to
Afghanistan
The Pakistan Taliban and the government can't seem to agree in public on
whether or not they are engaged in peace talks, with both sides issuing
contradictory statements. What can't be denied, though, is that the number of
suicide attacks inside Pakistan has dropped dramatically, while terror
incidents across the border in Afghanistan are on the rise.
- Amir Mir (Dec 12, '11)
US moves for new sanctions on
Iran
Legislation that would impose drastic measures on any foreign bank involved in
transactions with Iran's central bank is making its way through the US House of
Representatives, causing Tehran to warn of skyrocketing oil prices; the US's
Iran policy has become an issue of political football.
- Kaveh L Afrasiabi (Dec 9, '11)
Tehran prods and pokes CIA
drone
Iranian television has broadcast footage of military men examining a United
States drone that Tehran claims to have brought down. The capture is more than
just a huge propaganda windfall for the regime; the downed aircraft could yield
a bonanza of secret spy technology so sensitive that US officials reportedly
considered going into Iran to retrieve it. - Heather Maher
(Dec 9, '11)
War clouds gather in the Middle
East
While Israel basks in the American generosity of sanctions that are wearing
down Iran's economy, civil unrest rocks its regional allies and sabotage blunts
Tehran's nuclear and weapons programs. Tel Aviv is also focused on closing gaps
in its high-tech missile shields, which fits with predictions of a strike on
Iran by the second half of next year, although a war in Gaza may be needed
first. - Victor Kotsev (Dec 8, '11)
THE
ROVING EYE
The Dead Drone sketch
The Central Intelligence Agency's drone that went down in Iran is no more. It
has ceased to be. It's expired and gone to meet its industrial-military complex
maker! It's a stiff! Bereft of life, it rests in peace in a Shi'ite paradise!
Its metabolic processes are now history, it's shuffled off its mortal coil ...
but don't tell the CIA. - Pepe Escobar (Dec
8, '11)
Terrorists can also bestow favors
On the Afghan chessboard, it is impossible to accept Tuesday's twin terror
strikes on Shi'ite worshipers at face value. The ugly specter of sectarian
killings is a sudden departure from even the darkest days of the past decade.
The party that stands to lose most from escalating tensions is the Taliban,
with Iran and Pakistan big losers too. United States interests are,
paradoxically, very well served if Western troops become the only credible
provider of security in Afghanistan. - M K Bhadrakumar
(Dec 7, '11)
Iran prepares to strike back
Increasingly aggressive responses to bombings and assassinations inside Iran
that were almost certainly directed by foreign agents suggest the rising ire of
the Iranian government, the political ascendancy of the Islamic Revolutionary
Guards Corps, and the likelihood of sharper hostilities in the region. These
could include encouraging Shi'ite uprisings in the Gulf, attacking United
States personnel, and a wave of bombings against Israel and its US and Saudi
allies.
- Brian M Downing (Dec 7, '11)
Bonn 0 + Iran
From transition to transfiguration is an apt description of where fragile
Afghanistan is heading, with intense regional rivalries, exhausted foreign
donors, internal corruption and a sustained insurgency plaguing the country
with violence and fear. In this complex situation, the United States and Iran -
both in attendance at the Bonn summit on Afghanistan - have every reason to put
aside their differences and open a new dialogue on regional security.
- Kaveh L Afrasiabi (Dec 6, '11)
Pakistan retort matches Taliban
demands
The Pakistan government's sharp retort to the air strike that killed 25 of its
soldiers on the troubled border with Afghanistan matches much of the conditions
that militant Pakistan Taliban fighters set for taking part in peace talks.
Amid political endorsements for a breakthrough in the tribal areas come echoes
of past accords that militants have used to strengthen their hand, ultimately
leading violence to spiral. - Amir Mir (Dec
2, '11)
Pakistan attack a big loss for
US policy
The story of what actually happened last Saturday - how and why a NATO
helicopter attacked a Pakistani army post inside that country's borders,
killing 24 troops - has been shifting all week, and the Pentagon seem unable to
come to grips with it. But one thing is clear: The Pakistani government and
people have become more aggressive in their stance against US activity both in
their own country and in Afghanistan. - Gareth Porter
(Dec 1, '11)
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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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