Antiwar Radio with Scott Horton » Kurdistan

Gary Brecher

Scott Horton — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 08:15:20 +0000

The Exiled writer Gary Brecher, a.k.a. The War Nerd a.k.a. John Dolan, discusses his stint teaching English at the American University of Iraq Sulaimaniya, the pitched battles and million-plus casualties in “The War Nobody Watched” Iran-Iraq War, how the US used Saddam Hussein as a proxy for revenge against Iran’s Revolution and the Hostage Crisis, Hussein’s slaughter of Jalal Talabani‘s Iran-allied Kurdish faction and how Iran’s larger population allowed them to outlast Iraq’s superior military while still taking high casualties.

MP3 here. (37:15)

Gary Brecher a.k.a. The War Nerd a.k.a. John Dolan is a writer for the original Russia-based The Exile and the current US-based The Exiled. He is the author of War Nerd.

Gareth Porter

Scott Horton — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 07:04:07 +0000

Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses the 3-way Shi’ite alliance of Moqtada al-Sadr, Nouri al-Maliki and Iran that formed in general opposition to U.S. occupation and attacks on Sadr’s Mahdi Army in particular, indications that Maliki had foreknowledge of the successful 2007 plot to kidnap U.S. soldiers in Karbala, the give-and-take exchange of political favors between Sadr and Maliki, the Bush administration’s attempt to exterminate the Mahdi Army – which they saw as an Iranian proxy, doubts about the SOFA 2011 withdrawal deadline and the possible future change in Iraq’s primary sectarian conflict from Shi’ite v. Sunni to Kurd v. Arab.

MP3 here. (42:29)

Gareth Porter is an independent historian and journalist. He is the author of Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam. His articles appear on Counterpunch, Huffington Post, Inter Press Service News Agency and Antiwar.com.

Patrick Cockburn

Scott Horton — Thu, 20 May 2010 10:20:44 +0000

Patrick Cockburn, Middle East correspondent for The Independent, discusses the failure of Iraqi elections to create a functional government, inadequate basic services in Iraq after seven years of occupation, the tendency of countries with oil-based economies to become dictatorships and why the Kurds are better served in the short term by continued autonomy rather than an independent state.

MP3 here. (26:57)

Patrick Cockburn was awarded the 2009 Orwell Prize for political writing in British journalism. He is the Middle East correspondent for The Independent and a frequent contributor to CounterPunch.org. Cockburn is the author of The Occupation: War, Resistance and Daily Life in Iraq and Muqtada Al-Sadr and the Battle for the Future of Iraq.

Jason Ditz

Scott Horton — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 19:44:19 +0000

Jason Ditz, managing news editor at Antiwar.com, discusses the inconclusive Iraq election results, Muqtada al-Sadr’s influence on deciding the next prime minister, why Ayad Allawi is the only hope for Sunni representation in government, confusion about US withdrawal deadlines and why territorial expansion is a necessary prerequisite for a viable independent Kurdistan.

MP3 here. (28:08)

Jason Ditz is the managing news editor at Antiwar.com.

Michael Hastings

Scott Horton — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 04:15:43 +0000

Michael Hastings, author and contributor to True/Slant.com, discusses the backlash against religious political parties in Iraq, why Ayad Allawi’s thuggish past has increased his popularity, the massive security apparatus that enables an Iraqi Prime Minister to act like a strongman and why Iraqi Kurdistan is likely to become an independent state in the not-too-distant future.

MP3 here. (27:38)

Michael Hastings is the author of I Lost My Love in Baghdad: A Modern War Story. In 2008, he covered the U.S. presidential elections for Newsweek, and before that he was the magazine’s Baghdad correspondent. His articles have appeared in GQ, Slate, Salon, Foreign Policy, the LA Times, and other publications. His blog The Hastings Report focuses on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other foreign policy topics.

Patrick Cockburn

Scott Horton — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 22:21:11 +0000

Patrick Cockburn, Middle East correspondent for The Independent, discusses the enforcement power of Iraq’s Status of Forces Agreement in light of comments by General Ray Odierno, the influence Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani still has over the major decisions on Iraq’s future, the disappearance of Iraq as a media topic since the “successful surge” narrative became definitive, the instability in Kurdistan, how the U.S. inadvertently aided Iran’s rise as a regional power and the perils of not learning from history’s blunders.

MP3 here. (32:04)

Patrick Cockburn, Middle East correspondent for The Independent, has been visiting Iraq since 1978. He was awarded the 2005 Martha Gellhorn prize for war reporting in recognition of his writing on Iraq. He is the author of The Occupation: War, Resistance and Daily Life in Iraq and Muqtada: Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shia revival and the Struggle for Iraq.

Robert Dreyfuss

Scott Horton — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 07:17:55 +0000

Robert Dreyfuss, reporter for The Nation, discusses the Iraqi resistance, the myth of the surge’s responsibility for the reduction in violence, Iran’s brokering of Sadr’s cease-fire, Maliki’s tightrope act in needing the U.S. to back him now, but leave soon, the problem of Kirkuk and Russia’s role in the changing Mideast dynamic.

MP3 here. (40:00)

Based in Alexandria, Va., Dreyfuss been writing for Rolling Stone for at least a decade, and currently covers national security for Rolling Stone’s National Affairs section. He’s a contributing editor at The Nation, a contributing writer at Mother Jones, and a senior correspondent for The American Prospect. His articles have also appeared in The Washington Monthly, The New Republic, Newsday, Worth, California Lawyer, The Texas Observer, E, In These Times, The Detroit Metro Times, Public Citizen, Extra!, and, in Japan, in Esquire, Foresight and Nikkei Business. His blog, The Dreyfuss Report, is now at The Nation.

Patrick Cockburn

Scott Horton — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 02:29:02 +0000

Patrick Cockburn, Middle East correspondent for the Independent, discusses the slightly less violent, yet still horrific, conditions in Iraq, the fear and violence that dominates daily life there, the various factions influencing Maliki, the Sunni “Awakening” movement and the volatile tensions in Kurdistan.

MP3 here. (35:05)

Patrick Cockburn, Middle East correspondent of The Independent, has been visiting Iraq since 1978. He was awarded the 2005 Martha Gellhorn prize for war reporting in recognition of his writing on Iraq. He is the author of, his memoir, The Broken Boy (Jonathan Cape, 2005), and with Andrew Cockburn, Saddam Hussein: An American Obsession (Verso, 2000), The Occupation: War, Resistance and Daily Life in Iraq (Verso, 2006) and Muqtada: Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shia revival and the Struggle for Iraq.

Aaron Glantz

Scott Horton — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 09:47:37 +0000

Aaron Glantz of IPS News, KPFA, WarComesHome.org and author of How America Lost Iraq, discusses the Bush administration’s unforgivable neglect of American veterans, their hollowing out of the states’ guard units, Bush refusal to count suicides, the hypocrisy of John McCain and his ignorance about Iraq, the Turkish war against the PKK in Kurdistan and the coming break up of Iraq.

MP3 here. (40:05)

Aaron Glantz has visited Iraq three times during the U.S. occupation: for a month immediately after the fall of Saddam Hussein; from February to May 2004; and during the elections in January of 2005. His work from Iraq has also been syndicated to newspapers around the world by Inter Press News Service.

He is author of the San Francisco Chronicle best-selling book How America Lost Iraq (Penguin/2005), which describes how the war turned to disaster from the perspective of the Iraqi people.

Aaron is a founding producer of Pacifica Radio’s national newscast, Free Speech Radio News In the course of his work he has also reported from Egypt, Turkey, Jordan, South Korea, Indonesia, India, Vietnam, France, and Denmark and their new project WarComesHome.org.

Before becoming an international reporter, Aaron served as California State Capitol reporter for Pacifica’s flag-ship station, KPFA, in Berkeley CA, where he won the California Journalism Award for radio in 2000.

He maintains his own website at AaronGlantz.com.

Patrick Cockburn

Scott Horton — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 01:29:04 +0000

Patrick Cockburn, Middle East correspondent for the Independent discusses the assassination of Benhazir Bhutto in Pakistan, the problem of Islamists there, how terrorism works, and the situation between competing factions in Iraq as it stands in Iraq at the end of 2007.

MP3 here. (49:04)

Patrick Cockburn is the author of The Occupation: War, resistance and daily life in Iraq, a finalist for the National Book Critics’ Circle Award for best non-fiction book of 2006.