It's been 14 years since George W. Bush declared victory in Iraq. Time flies. So far this year, IraqBodyCount.org says that 5778 Iraqi civilians have been killed as a direct result of the chain of events set off by Bush's Iraq invasion (we'll leave aside the ancillary effects of the invasion in, for example, Syria). … Continue reading Happy Mission Accomplished Day!

Having noted the 100th anniversary of World War I's indecisive First Battle of Gaza just a few weeks ago, I suppose it would be inappropriate to skip over the centennial of the slightly less indecisive Second Battle of Gaza, which was April 17-19. I say that both of these battles were indecisive mostly because each was … Continue reading This Week in Middle Eastern history: the Second Battle of Gaza (1917)

The UN Security Council met today in special session today to discuss yesterday's chemical weapons incident in the Syrian town of Khan Shaykhun, the death toll from which is now up to at least 72. Nothing came of it, because the UN Security Council is set up, pretty much by design, to do nothing on … Continue reading What’s the use

The White House fired Steve Bannon today. Well, not totally. He was removed from his controversial and wholly unwarranted seat on the National Security Council. Bannon has no, as in none, as in zero qualifications to sit on the NSC apart from the fact that he sets the white nationalist, xenophobic, anti-Islam agenda for the … Continue reading NEEDED: Better Quality Lies

Two Sundays ago, March 26, marked the 100th anniversary of the First Battle of Gaza, a small and, to be honest, fairly inconsequential affair (the Second Battle of Gaza was fought less than a month later, so clearly neither side expended itself this time around) that is nonetheless interesting in that what could have been … Continue reading Last week in Middle Eastern history: the First Battle of Gaza (1917)

Language, as in the study of a foreign language, is one of those things that fascinates me while also driving me absolutely bananas. I've studied several and struggle at pretty much all of them, but I enjoy learning about them and that's why I sometimes note interesting stories about language here at this very English-language … Continue reading Fun with languages

The investigation into Donald Trump's ties to Russia, and the assorted wiretapping allegations that have accompanied it, have to be turned over to an independent investigator or, at least, a select Congressional committee with equal Republican and Democratic membership. I say this as somebody who remains largely unconvinced that this story is as big a … Continue reading It’s always the cover-up

Devin Nunes, chair of the House Intelligence Committee (MOTTO: "Searching for Intelligence in the House of Representatives Since 1977"), contributed his best effort yesterday to the ongoing Republican war on objective reality. With the White House facing Congressional investigation over alleged Trump campaign ties to Russia and over President Trump's thus-far completely unsupported accusation that … Continue reading These gasses aren’t going to light themselves

Today is Nowruz, the ancient Iranian holiday celebrating the arrival of spring and, in the Iranian calendar, a new year. That really lovely holiday has unfortunately been marred since 2003 by the fact that it falls on the same day as the anniversary of the start of the Iraq War, for which I suppose we … Continue reading Nowruz, the Iraq War, and my eyeballs

FiveThirtyEight's Harry Enten wrote a piece yesterday on Joe "I Vote With Donald Trump Two-Thirds Of The Time" Manchin (D?-WV) and his value, much evidence to the contrary, to the Democratic Party: So I can see why progressives would be peeved with Manchin. But it’s sort of silly to compare Manchin to the median Democrat. … Continue reading The size of the tent doesn’t matter