Iraq

New America Fellow Janine Wedel was quoted by WBAI-FM New York City Radio on the Blackwater quagmire in Iraq. Ms. Wedel's WBAI interview follows her op-ed titled “The Shadow Army,” appearing in Boston Globe on September 30, 2007, where she argues against the privatization of military and intelligence forces.

"One of the major problems is that, while military contracting is increasing, the number of Defense department people that are available to oversee contractors has declined."

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"The United States is one of the biggest weapons dealers in the world, with client countries on every continent, including government's accused of human rights violations.

U.S. officials have sold weapons and military systems to Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Columbia. Iraq, alone, has ordered $2.3 billion worth of military equipment.

Bill Hartung, director of the Arms and Security Initiative at the New America Foundation, says Iraq plans to pay for its purchases — small arms, ammunition and… more

Iraq has ordered $100 million worth of light military equipment from China for its police force, contending the United States was unable to provide the material and is too slow to deliver arms shipments, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said Wednesday [Oct. 3, 2007]....

The capabilities of Iraqi security forces are pivotal to the U.S. exit strategy in Iraq, with the creation of a viable police force critical to reconciliation. Talabani said only one in five Iraqi police officers is armed… more

Iraq has ordered $100 million worth of light military equipment from China for its police force, contending that the United States was unable to provide the materiel and is too slow to deliver arms shipments, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said yesterday.

The China deal, not previously made public, has alarmed military analysts who note that Iraq's security forces already are unable to account for more than 190,000 weapons supplied by the United States, many of which are believed to be… more

“You have now entered Iraq,” my taxi driver joked. We had in fact just entered Sayida Zeinab, a neighborhood on the outskirts of Damascus. This shrine city, long a destination for Shia pilgrims, had become home to an estimated one million Iraqis seeking refuge in Syria. “Everybody is Iraqi,” laughed another driver after several people he had asked for directions replied in Iraqi Arabic that they did not know. Indeed, walking through the alleys of Sayida Zeinab I felt… more

One of the most bitter ironies of the Iraq tragedy is that our occupation has been a godsend to Al Qaeda and its affiliates, drawing thousands of foreign fighters to the country over the past four years. As a result, jihadist terrorists have, for the first time, secured a substantial presence in a country at the heart of the Middle East. The Iraq war has also inspired a rising wave of terrorist attacks, from London to Kabul, and it has… more

Last December, the Army released a document entitled “Counterinsurgency,” an updated field manual designed to guide United States forces to victory in guerrilla wars. “Legitimacy Is the Main Objective” is one heading above its thematic advice. To defeat a resistance force in irregular war, the manual observes, it is essential to recognize “that political factors have primacy” and may account for as much as four-fifths of the struggle -- an insight ascribed, a little showily, to a strategist on Mao… more

Civilian Corps Plays Big Role in Iraq War. It's the other army. The private one, perhaps 160,000 strong in Iraq alone, armed, sometimes dangerous, often sloppy with tax dollars, and without which U.S. troops would represent a far less formidable force.

The coalition of willing contractors has swallowed more than $100 billion of U.S. spending on the Iraq war. More than 1,000 of its ranks have been killed since the 2003 invasion. Today, there is a U.S.-paid contractor doing… more

During a recent high-powered Washington dinner party attended by 18 people, Zbigniew Brzezinski and Brent Scowcroft squared off across the table over whether President Bush will bomb Iran.

Brzezinski, former national security advisor to President Carter, said he believed Bush's team had laid a track leading to a single course of action: a military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities. Scowcroft, who was NSA to Presidents Ford and the first Bush, held out hope that the current President Bush… more

Director of New America Foundation's American Strategy Program Steve Clemons appeared as a panelist on Al Jazeera's "Inside Iraq" to discuss the impact of General Petraeus's troop "surge" assessment. The special episode looked at the implications within the United States, and also explored what the American vision of its Iraq policy might mean for Iraq and its neighbours.

To watch the video of Steve Clemons, please visit the Al Jazeera website.