Iraq

When I was in college, during Ronald Reagan’s "Morning in America," I had a classmate who is the person I always think of when I try to imagine the young George W. Bush. (Although the comparison is terribly unfair to this person, since unlike Bush, he has considerable accomplishment to show for his first 45 years on this planet.) This guy had a little motto, typical of the privileged-punk campus conservatism that was then just taking hold, and that would… more

What do fifteen of the smartest people in the room-presidential scholars, best-selling biographers, and White House veterans of both parties--think history will say about the legacy of George W. Bush? And is there anything he can still do to change it?...

Michael LindIf you look at George W. Bush in a larger perspective quite apart from Iraq, you see him as the peak of the post-sixties conservative wave that began with the white backlash against the civil rights revolution. A… more

"Have you tried any of the new Iraqi restaurants over on Coldwater Canyon?"

That might sound odd today, but within a few years, Angelenos may very well come to learn more about Iraqi cuisine and culture than they ever could have imagined. There may develop a Little Mesopotamia -- possibly with its own marker on the freeway -- in the Valley, or maybe in the OC. You never know.

What’s likely, though, is that this appreciation we’ll gain of Iraqi… more

Washington - Vying for support in an anti-war party, the Democratic presidential candidates are with each passing week embracing new and tougher measures to bring U.S. troops home from Iraq, adopting ideas they once shunned. In June, Barack Obama voted against a deadline for withdrawal, saying an "arbitrary" date could make things worse, "plunging Iraq into an even deeper and, perhaps, irreparable crisis."

But a few weeks ago, the Illinois senator proposed a withdrawal date (March 2008), saying,… more

Before the U.S. toppled Saddam Hussein, Iraq had been something of a counterweight to Iranian power in the Middle East. Now with Saddam gone, Iranian political influence has been expanding, not just in Iraq, but in the region. As VOA correspondent Gary Thomas reports, Saudi Arabia is not happy about the shift in what had been a delicate balance of power.Empowering Iran was not one of aims of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. Nevertheless, analysts say, it… more

A new study says the war in Iraq is creating terrorists out of foreign fighters who will then pose a new threat when they return to their home countries. The study comes to the conclusion that Iraq War critics have been making for some time: the war is causing terrorism rather then stopping it.We speak with Peter Bergen, a research fellow at the Center on Law and Security at the NYU School of Law and senior fellow at… more

WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 (UPI) -- Attacks by jihadist groups and the rate of fatalities in those attacks have increased significantly since the invasion of Iraq, according to a new study. The study's authors data shows a sevenfold increase in the global yearly rate of fatal jihadist attacks.

"Even when terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan is excluded, fatal attacks in the rest of the world have increased by more than one-third," [said] Peter Bergen and Paul Cruickshank, authors of… more

Has the war in Iraq diminished or increased the threat of jihadist terrorism worldwide? Although widely debated, there has been no systematic empirical analysis to determine the answer -- until now.

At this New America Event, Peter Bergen and Paul Cruickshank discussed their groundbreaking new report, which shows that terrorism has dramatically increased worldwide following the onset of the Iraq war. Based on an analysis of the MIPT-RAND terrorism database, Bergen and Cruickshank conclude that the incidence of terrorism… more

The US House of Representatives on Friday issued a rebuke to George W. Bush’s Iraq strategy in the first concrete demonstration of opposition to the war by Capitol Hill since the US-led invasion almost four years ago.The 246-182 vote was non-binding and will have no impact on Mr Bush’s plan to deploy 21,500 extra troops in addition to the 131,000 already there as part of his “new way forward in Iraq” unveiled last month...Democratic leaders plan… more

JEFFREY BROWN: Also this weekend, and again today, the Bush administration asserted it was not looking to provoke a war with Iran.

And for more on all of this, we get two views. Flynt Leverett covered Middle East terrorism and political issues at the CIA, State Department, and on the National Security Council staff from 1992 to 2003. He's now a senior fellow at the New America Foundation...

Mr. Leverett, what is your overall reaction to yesterday's briefing?FLYNT… more