Word: iraq
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Similarities exist between the Iraq and Afghan theaters of war: the enemy's weapons of choice in both countries include suicide bombings and improvised explosive devices (IEDs). But the river valleys of Iraq are very different terrain from the mountains and hills of Afghanistan. The equipment the U.S. used in the flatlands of Mesopotamia isn't likely to be as effective in the high crags of Central Asia. Indeed, apart from sending 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan, the U.S. is looking to redesign their equipment - from the gear they carry to the vehicles they drive to the drones that...
...plan is to issue soldiers lighter gear to help them navigate the mountainous terrain. Humvees will also have to be transformed. Those in use in Iraq have been much improved since the war began. However, they cannot be simply transfered over to Afghanistan. IEDs in Afghanistan have been delivering bigger bangs (in a seven-month period in 2008, IED incidents increased from 50 to 154) and, says, Dean Lockwood of the think tank Forecast International, "while the up-armored Humvees have good protection, it is not enough for a large IED." Furthermore, the vehicles have to be lighter...
...past few weeks, al-Maliki has issued several calls for national reconciliation, even reaching out to former low-level members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, encouraging them to return to mainstream politics. But Iraq isn't a place with short memories. Reconciliation is difficult in a land where the 1,400-year-old Shi'ite-Sunni schism is still very much alive. Gone are the days when some Iraqi men carried three national identification cards - one listing their name as Omar (a predominantly Sunni name), another as Ali (predominantly Shi'ite) and a third as Ammar (which...
Harder to gauge will be the long-term influence of Iraq's neighbors on the direction of the country. Iraq shares borders with Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria, Jordan, Turkey and Kuwait. It's a tough - and nosy - neighborhood, populated by regimes jostling for influence among the various internal factions in Iraq. The key issue is Baghdad's ability to cobble together a semblance of national unity that will enable it to fend off its neighbors. The fear is that Iraq will become a new Lebanon, a multisectarian country whose diversity is both its blessing and its curse. Will Iraq...
...Iraq's tribes may hold one of the keys that will give this place a chance at putting its past behind it. While the tribal dynamic does not extend throughout the country, especially in more urban centers or among Christian communities, much of the fighting came from tribal elements, both Sunni and Shi'ite. Tribal reconciliation is an age-old mechanism for resolving disputes. When the leader of a tribe speaks, if he says he has reconciled with another or with the government, his word is law, and all members of that tribe fall in line. That...