Iraq's Shi'a community is in the ascendency after decades of Baathist suppression, and whether this bodes well or bodes ill for the future remains to be seen. Is there really as much animosity between the two Islamic sects as we have been led to believe? Is civil war...
Pogrom divides Kosovo occupiers
According to Canadian military reporter Scott Taylor ("NATO in Kosovo, a place of divided goals" - The Halifax Herald Limited, Monday, April 19, 2004), various units among Kosovo's NATO occupiers reacted quite differently to the March 17-19 pogrom. For example, German...
Fallujah a “rat’s nest?”
US General calls Fallujah a "rat's nest." "We went in because we had to to find the perpetrators and what we found was a huge rat's nest that is still festering today. It needs to be dealt with," he told the Senate Armed Services Committee. All right. It's time to...
Into Fallujah Again
Jo Wilding took a second trip into Fallujah Saturday. Here's how it went: Sergeant Tratner of the First Armoured Division is irritated. “Git back or you’ll git killed,” are his opening words. Lee says we’re press and he looks with disdain at the car. “In this piece of...
Rats to Ship, Pt. II
Marcus Epstein spares us the drudgery of re-reading what the kids at National Review were saying about war and Wilsonianism last year. Arthur Silber re-reads Jonah Goldberg and gets the willies. UPDATE: I fixed the second link. Sorry.
Mahdi Army’s Humvee
Sadr's Army Has a Humvee Gutted Humvee becomes trophy for cleric's troops Raed Jarrar writes:A funny image of AlMahdi Army soldiers going around Kufa today driving an American Hum-vee, the military Hummer was left behind after some clashes around the city. That...
Troops in Iraq – Gear Isn’t
It seems that there are quite a few troops held over in Iraq that have worse problems than still lacking the body armor they were supposed to get and haven't yet. Some of them don't have anything at all. 23 News has learned that the 333rd Military Police Unit in...
LCpl. Boudreaux Update
The saga continues. Boudreaux says the image is doctored; the Marine Corps has "reopened" the case. If the Corps reopened the case after Boudreaux screamed foul play, that indicates to me that the initial investigation (the results of which have not been released)...
“Anti-Iraqis” shoot at Marines
ANTI - IRAQI FORCES FIRE ON MARINES FROM MOSQUE This is an actual headline from a "Centcom" press release. Think about this for a minute. "Anti-Iraqi" forces fired on Marines from a mosque? What the hell are "anti-Iraqi" forces? Why would an anti-iraqi person care...
Today’s “Collateral Damage”
If you'd like to know more about warbloggers, Salam, Zeyad, etc., from today's column, I recommend these two pieces, one from shortly after the Lileks debacle and another from two weeks ago. I was going to include both in the essay, but I'm trying to be conscientious...
