Short Shots

Iraq secures cities for US exit

The US still has about 133,000 troops in Iraq

The Iraqi authorities are tightening security in preparation for next Tuesday's deadline for US soldiers to pull out of the country's cities.

All police leave has been cancelled and extra troops have been drafted in, amid a spate of bomb attacks this week which has left 250 people dead. More

Let them have water in Gaza

Israeli bombing of Gaza infrastructure creates crisis of clean water shortage. More

Leahy Wants Probe of Bush

Senator Patrick Leahy (D) wants committee to investigate the Bush administration on taking the U.S. into Iraq. Obama wants to look forward not backward, but, says people must be accountable for crimes.

ACORN's Stimulus

With a new president ensconced in the White House, it's time to roll out the goodies for loyal supporters in left-of-center political advocacy groups such as ACORN. More

Rebuilding Gaza a Political Minefield

With much of Gaza lying in ruin, the international community faces both physical and political challenges in the daunting task of its rebuilding. More

Obama: Tough decisions on Iraq, Afghanistan loom

Emerging from his first Pentagon briefing as president, Barack Obama said Wednesday that his administration faces "difficult decisions" about Iraq and Afghanistan. But the new commander in chief offered no further details about his plans as the U.S. carries on wars in both countries. More

Violence flares in Iraq ahead of elections

A string of politically-targeted attacks took place on Tuesday across Iraq, as the country gears up for provincial council elections on January. More

Rove Subpoenaed

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) subpoenaed former White House senior adviser Karl Rove, a sign that Democrats are not letting go of investigations the Bush administration stonewalled. More

Why not Afghanistan "once again"?

Very few are questioning whether 30,000 more troops should be added in Afghanistan. Someone should.

Barrack Obama is Now President of the United States

Amidst elation not seen in decades, if ever, Barrack Obama, was sworn in as President of the United States "twice" due to miscues between he and Chief Justice Roberts during the original ceremony on January 20th.

Palestine Attempts to Rebuild after 22 days of Bombing by Israel

It is estimated that the damages done to Palestinian infrastructure amounts to approximately 2 billion dollars. Saudi Arabia has already donated 1 billon dollars and others will help. The reconstruction, under normal circumstances would take about 5 years. However, Israel intends to make it difficult blocking the import of construction materials and conducting inspections in the name of security.

Obama: "I won"

In a bipartisan meeting this week concerning the stimulus bill, when others expressed their ideas, Obama let the dissenters know: "I won." Obama staffers have been reminding those on the Hill that he won and is very popular. Some think the "I won" statement is tantamount to Bush saying he was "the decider."

Will Obama Push for Missiles in Poland?

A thorn in the side of Russia and American foreign policy, if it is to change, it the Bush administrations agreement to put missiles in Poland. Russia has reacted adversely and Secretary of Defense Gates has in essence given them the finger. As Russia moves a ship into a Cuban harbor and plays naval games off the coast of Venezuela, will Obama reinforce what some call a bad move.

Afghanistan will last longer than Vietnam

The newly-appointed US special envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, has said that the Obama administration had to face many tough challenges with regard to the war in Afghanistan and global peace but the toughest was the insurgent sanctuaries in the tribal areas of Pakistan. More

Short Shot Archives

Featured Articles

One Sided is one sided, no matter what side you are on.

By D. Lindley Young

WASHINGTON, D.C. (6/28)US President Barack Obama is taking fire from all sides on his position, or some would say lack of it, on Iran. Some say he hasn’t done enough and others say he has done too much: the US is meddling. Full Article >>

Torture Photos Already Released

A little over three years ago, SBS Dateline, an Australian television program, released leaked photographs from the U.S. prison in Iraq, Abu Ghraib. It is believed that the pictures being held back by the Obama administration may include some of these shots that most of the US press ignored, although RAW STORY ran them in 2006. Full Article >>

Why Are We Still at War?

By Norman Solomon

The United States began its war in Afghanistan 88 months ago. “The war on terror” has no sunset clause. As a perpetual emotion machine, it offers to avenge what can never heal and to fix grief that is irreparable.

For the crimes against humanity committed on Sept. 11, 2001, countless others are to follow, with huge conceits about technological “sophistication” and moral superiority. But if we scrape away the concrete of media truisms, we may reach substrata where some poets have dug. Full Article >>

Will War Ever End?

By David Swanson

I wrote recently about the possibility of out growing the use of war. Today I got a in the mail that makes a strong argument intended as a tool for ending war. The book is called "Will War Ever End: A Soldier's Vision of Peace for the 21st Century" by Captain Paul K. Chappell, U.S. Army. It's short, more of a hardcover pamphlet than a book, but it is packed with ideas. Full Article >>

Mullen: Using force against Iran still an option

By Hilary Krieger

JERUSALEM (1/29) American military force against Iran remains an option, though it would be a "last resort," US Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in response to a question from The Jerusalem Post Tuesday.

Mullen emphasized, however, the importance he placed on engagement with the Islamic Republic, particularly when it came to Afghanistan, at the same time that he called for stricter UN resolutions to block Iran's weapons smuggling abilities.

In a rare press conference with the foreign media Tuesday, he alluded to a recent US interception of a ship sailing under a Cypriot flag with weapons that America believed had come from Iran and were heading toward Syria, "where we think they will get in the next day or so." Full Article >>

Russia Offers Obama Olive Branch on Missiles: Report

By Reuters

Russia has halted a plan to retaliate against a proposed U.S. missile defense shield by stationing its own missiles near Europe's borders, a Russian news agency quoted the military as saying on Wednesday.

The suspension of plans to deploy tactical missiles in the Western outpost of Kaliningrad, if confirmed, would show Russia is extending an olive branch to President Barack Obama after rocky relations under his predecessor. Full Article >>

A Bibi-Barack Collision?

By Patrick J. Buchanan

WASHINGTON, D.C. (1/2) - "There there is no solution, there is no problem," geostrategist James Burnham once wryly observed.
Ex-Sen. George Mitchell, the latest U.S. negotiator to take up the Palestine portfolio, may discover what it was that Burnham meant. For Israel's three-week war on Gaza, where Palestinians died at a rate of 100 to one to Israelis, appears to have been, like Israel's wars in Lebanon, another Pyrrhic victory for the Jewish state. Full Article >>

Is Egypt Listening?

By William Fisher

NEW YORK (1/27) - You may have missed it because it was ignored by virtually the entire the American mainstream press, but there's a really creepy irony that accompanied President Obama's decision to close Guantanamo and end torture, secret prisons and extraordinary rendition. The irony is that some of the most lavish praise for Obama came from the press in countries that most of us would find, what shall we say, paradoxical. Countries that for many years have been the poster boys for unlawful detention, torture, secret prisons and "disappeared" prisoners. Countries in a part of the world that has been a consistent destination for those rendered by our CIA. Full Article >>

44 Years Later, LBJ’s Ghost Hovers Over the 44th President

By Norman Solomon

SAN FRANCISCO (1/26) - A few days after the inauguration, in a piece celebrating the arrival of the Obama administration, New York Times columnist Bob Herbert wrote that the new president has clearly signaled: “No more crazy wars.” Full Article >>

Dangerous Executive Orders

By David Swanson

WASHINGTON, D.C. (1/24) - The Center for Constitutional Rights has expressed concern that President Obama's executive order banning torture may contain a loophole. But no president has any right to declare torture legal or illegal, with or without loopholes. And if we accept that presidents have such powers, even if our new president does good with them, then loopholes will be the least of our worries. Full Article >>

Muslim World Hails End of a Despised Symbol

By William Fisher

NEW YORK, (1/26) - While the decision of President Barack Obama to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay Cuba, and end the practice of interrogation techniques that violate international law, made front page news throughout the United States, press reaction in the Middle East was far less extensive - but generally favourable. Full Article >>

Prosecute George W. Bush for Illegal Acts

By Ivan Eland

The Obama administration is reluctant to turn over too many rocks in the Bush administration's conduct in the War on Terror. Obama has pledged to reach a post-partisan nirvana, and Republicans could condemn any investigation of Bush administration abuse of the republic as a partisan witch-hunt. Also, the Obama administration has a conflict of interest in pursuing investigations and prosecutions against Bush administration officials because now that Obama is president, he may not want to entirely discredit Bush's precedents, which significantly expanded executive powers. Full Article >>

We are ready to lead once again.

By D. Lindley Young

WASHINGTON, D.C. (1/24) - In a workmanlike manner President Barrack Hussein Obama delivered his acceptance speech on January 20th in one of the most watched events in the history of television and at the most expensive inaugural ever. His mission was to appear presidential, display confidence, set a general tone for the direction he intends to take America, and make clear that there would be change on eight years of Bush policies. Most would agree he did this. Full Article >>

Afghan roadside bombs hit record in 2008

By Tom Vanden Brook

WASHINGTON — Roadside bomb attacks against coalition forces in Afghanistan hit an all-time high last year, killing more troops than ever and highlighting an "emboldened" insurgency there, according to figures released by the Pentagon. Full Article >>

Revisiting: Accountability for an illegal war?

By D. Lindley Young
Reprint of TMT 2005 Article

WASHINGTON, D.C. (1/14) After the White House confirmed Wednesday that the Iraq Survey Group headed by Charles Duelfer had halted any further search for nuclear, biological and chemical weapons in Iraq, some are calling for answers. This week, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D - California) said, “Now that the search is finished, President Bush needs to explain to the American people why he was so wrong, for so long, about the reasons for war." Full Article >>

Revisiting: Above the Law or Beyond its Reach?

By D. Lindley Young
Reprint of TMT 2005 Article

George W. Bush plotted with others starting as early as 1998 to go to war with Iraq as part of a strategy to dominant the Middle East and its oil, to dominant cyberspace, to dominant space and to keep the United States as the world's sole superpower by repressing all challengers by any means necessary including illegal and unlawful actions and false and misleading statements. Knowing their mission, George W. Bush joined with Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, I Lewis Libby, John Bolton, Jeb Bush, Elliot Abrams and others made a written plan to deliberately, willfully, wantonly and recklessly violate United States statutory law and international law by promoting, causing, commencing and justifying a war on Iraq that he and all involved knew was clearly illegal. Full Article >>

Fourth Column

Iran pledges a 'crushing' response to US critiques

Ahmadinejad pledges 'crushing' response if Obama continues criticism of postelection crackdown. More

Obama contemplates Executive Order for detention without charges

When Obama first unveiled his "preventive detention" policy, many defenders praised him (and claimed he was different than Bush) because of his vow that -- as he put it -- "my Administration will work with Congress to develop an appropriate legal regime." But now,.... More

Obama Says Failing to Act Could Lead to a ‘Catastrophe’

President Obama took his case for his $800 billion economic recovery package to the American people on Monday, as the Senate cleared the way for passage of the bill and the White House prepared for its next major hurdle: selling Congress and the public on a fresh plan to bail out the nation’s banks. More

Iraqis vote. New Era?

Iraqis across the country voted Saturday in provincial elections that will help shape their future, but regardless of the outcome it is clear that the Americans are already drifting offstage — and that most Iraqis are ready to see them go. More

17k More US Troops to Afghanistan

Testifying on Capitol Hill today, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told the Senate Armed Services Committee that there is little doubt that Aghanistan is the greatest military challenge for the US right now. More

Iraq Bans Blackwater

The Iraqi government has informed the US embassy today that it will decline to renew Blackwater Worldwide’s license to operate in the nation. This will require the security contractors, still being used by the State Department, to leave the nation once the joint US-Iraq committee finishes drawing up its formal guidelines for contractors. More

China: US arms sales to Taiwan 'harm' to relations

China made a rare appeal for cooperation between its normally secretive military and Washington on Tuesday but said U.S. arms sales to Taiwan remain a "serious harm to Sino-U.S. relations."

The statements came as China issued a major policy paper on national defense that said blocking formal Taiwanese independence remains the chief concern for one of the world's fastest-growing armed forces. More

Egypt to Hamas: Take Gaza Truce Before Likud Takes Over in Israel

The Egyptian government is reportedly pressing Hamas to hurry up and agree to a ceasefire with Israel’s outgoing Kadima-led government before next month’s elections. Several terms are yet to be agreed upon by both sides, but they have maintained a ceasefire for over a week and negotiations continue. More

Netanyahu:
Settlements
would grow

Front-runner in Israel's upcoming election says he'd expand Jewish West Bank settlements if he's elected premier, threatening to put him at odds with the Obama administration. More

Senate confirms Geithner as Secretary of Treasury

The Senate voted today to confirm Tim Geithner as the next treasury secretary amid ongoing uncertainty about the nation's economic future. Geithner, who will spearhead President Obama's response to the financial crisis that threatens to unravel economic growth around the globe, won approval by a vote of 60 to 34. More

U.S. missiles "don't help" Pakistan war effort

U.S missile attacks on Islamist militants in Pakistan do not help its efforts in the U.S.-led campaign against militancy, a spokesman for President Asif Ali Zardari said on Sunday. More

Obama’s Stance on Gaza Crisis “Approximately the Bush Position”

In a visit to the State Department Thursday, President Obama made his first substantive comments on the Middle East conflict since Israel’s attack on Gaza. More

Pakistan urges Obama to halt missile attacks

Pakistan urged President Barack Obama to halt U.S. missile strikes on al-Qaida strongholds near the Afghan border, saying Saturday that civilians were killed the previous day in the first attacks since Obama's inauguration. More

A shameful war: Israel in the dock over assault on Gaza

By the time the shooting stopped, more than 100 Palestinians had been killed for every Israeli who died. More

Issue of terrorists' rights to test Obama's pledge

President Barack Obama's pledge of bipartisan cooperation with Congress will be tested as he tries to fulfill a campaign promise to close Guantanamo Bay and establish a new system for prosecuting suspected terrorists. More