Word: iraq
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...truth of what is happening in Afghanistan was laid out during recent gatherings held by the advocacy group Iraq Veterans Against the War, during which vets testified to the brutality that is an everyday part of the occupation. Hamid Karzai's government is just like the puppet regimes the U.S. set up in South Vietnam. And as in Vietnam, civilians are being massacred by U.S. troops. The media will deny it until, like My Lai, it becomes too big to be denied. While I heartily disagree with its policies, even the Taliban would be better for Afghanistan than...
...trouble with the new lightweight armored vehicles is that they were planned before the U.S. had to deal with the deadliest weapon used by its latest enemies in both Iraq and Afghanistan: Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). Those vehicles were part of the Army's decades-long $160-billion Future Combat Systems (FCS) modernization efforts. Eight variants of the new vehicles, totaling several hundred, were supposed to have gone into service by 2015. The Army is now refining its strategy and drafting new requirements for its combat vehicles. In the meantime, it will modernize and maintain its fleet of Abrams tanks...
...crux of the current debate is that heavy steel has counter-intuitively proven crucial to securing the lives of America's fighters even amid the hide-and-seek urban battles of Iraq, according to U.S. Army Gen. Peter Chiarelli, Vice Chief of Staff of the Army. "I find this argument that somehow there is not a role for the heavy stuff in urban fighting or in irregular war just kind of denies the facts. I grew up in an Army where those of us in heavy units were told to stay out of built-up areas," said Chiarelli, who commanded...
Sadr's ambition to be the grand ayatollah of Iraq is taken as a given by many observers in Baghdad. But whether the Shi'ite clergy in Iran will allow this remains murky. Some observers figure that Sadr, who has a reputation as a dullard, simply does not have the intellect Qom's religious instructors demand in would-be ayatollahs. In other words, Sadr may flunk out of ayatollah school and never attain the kind of religious authority many believe he hopes to wield in Iraq in future years...
...that turns out to be the case, Sadr could still return to Iraq and reassert himself at some point with two powerful political cards he currently retains: a sizeable bloc of loyalists in the parliament and, most importantly, the still powerful Mahdi Army militia. Sadr issued a cease-fire edict to the Mahdi Army late last year as the militia struggled to fend off a crackdown by strengthened Iraqi security forces. But dormant fighters with the group say they are ready to take to the streets again if Sadr sends out the call, a prospect that has many in Baghdad...