A distinction between “old” and “new” wars is vital. “Old wars” are wars between states where the aim is the military capture of territory and the decisive encounter is battle between armed forces. “New wars”, in contrast, take place in the context of failing states. They are wars fought by networks of state and non-state actors, where battles are rare and violence is directed mainly against civilians, and which are characterised by a new type of political economy that combines extremist politics and criminality... I argue in this article that the United States viewed its invasion of Iraq as an updated version of “old war” that made use of new technology. The US failure to understand the reality on the ground in Iraq and the tendency to impose its own view of what war should be like is immensely dangerous and carries the risk of being self-perpetuating. It does not have to be this way.
Iraq: the wrong war - Mary Kaldor writes of what was happening in pre-invasion Iraq, what happened thereafter and what the alternatives were. Well, there is always Exit strategy: Civil war. And on that, note this: Kurdish Officials Sanction Abductions in Kirkuk--a city from which, I am afraid, we will hear more and more as time goes by.
posted by y2karl on Jun 15, 2005 - 20 comments

Bush and Chirac debate Iraq
"I will bomb him in his car; I will bomb him from afar.
I will bomb him in his house; I do not like him, he’s a louse.
I’m going to bomb him here and there.
I’m going to bomb him everywhere."
posted by Perigee on Mar 20, 2003 - 12 comments

Agency disavows report on Iraq arms "The International Atomic Energy Agency says that a report cited by President Bush as evidence that Iraq in 1998 was 'six months away' from developing a nuclear weapon does not exist. 'There's never been a report like that issued from this agency,' Mark Gwozdecky, the IAEA's chief spokesman, said yesterday in a telephone interview from the agency's headquarters in Vienna, Austria."
posted by owillis on Sep 29, 2002 - 52 comments

V.funny tvgohome comment on Bush which contains sexual swearwords words and statements which some republicans may find offensive [slight troll for those of the starboard persuasion]
posted by fullerine on Dec 30, 2000 - 3 comments

Janna Bush's homework is funny on so many levels:

1. This is college-level work in Texas?
2. People in Texas think that people in Harlem attend dances at the VFW?
3. Dubya's daughter, having been sent to a state school to bolster dad's political image as a down-home Texan even though she could surely have legacy'd at Yale as he did (and Skull & Bones admits women now!), is getting just the sort of politically correct education that her father's cohort reviles.

posted by nicwolff on Dec 21, 2000 - 38 comments

MADD Knew of Bush Bust in 1995. By the tone of the article, it seems as if they have no ill-will towards George W. Must be beneath them to slander a reformed alcoholic.
posted by argus on Nov 4, 2000 - 5 comments