Ivory Coast I'm going to level with you and say that I wasn't going to write one of these tonight, but for the fact that something pretty big seems to have flared up in a country that doesn't get much American attention under any circumstances and that has been more or less pretty quiet for … Continue reading Conflict update: January 7 2017

Iraq Here's one terrifying side-effect of the Mosul campaign that, to be honest, I hadn't really thought much about: With the launch of the second phase of the Mosul operations Dec. 29, tens of bodies of killed Islamic State (IS) fighters were strewn across the streets in the neighborhoods of al-Salam, al-Intisar, al-Wihda, Palestine and … Continue reading Conflict update: January 6 2017

World War III Building on an earlier post, this seems problematic: Senior officials in the Russian government celebrated Donald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton as a geopolitical win for Moscow, according to U.S. officials who said that American intelligence agencies intercepted communications in the aftermath of the election in which Russian officials congratulated themselves on … Continue reading Conflict update: January 5 2017

I'm hoping this will be a short one tonight, but I never know until I actually start writing. It's like a fun mystery we get to explore together. Well, not really. United Nations Senators Statler and Waldorf John McCain and Lindsey Graham are among the Republicans leading a push to cut much or all US … Continue reading Conflict update: January 4 2017

Happy New Year, everybody! I had some grand vision of leaping right back into blogging today, but some car trouble (a false alarm, luckily) and a little "I need a vacation from my vacation" syndrome combined to stifle most of those plans. It is a new year though, so I assume that all the bad … Continue reading Conflict update: January 3 2017

and that's the way it was is hitting the road for a few days and, if it's all the same to you fine readers, I'd kind of like to turn the blog more or less off and take a real break. That means we won't be back to regular posting until January 3. Happy New … Continue reading Conflict update: December 29 2016

In the rarest of rarities, I might actually get to go on a date with my wife this evening, so I'm getting this out there early. If anything big happens later I'll come back and update. Israel-Palestine John Kerry's speech on the Israel-Palestine peace process was perhaps (though perhaps not; see below) the biggest story … Continue reading Conflict update: December 28 2016

This may be mercifully (for all of us) short tonight. World War III Senator John McCain (R-WEBOMBINGANYONEYET) went to Estonia today and said some words about America's commitment to NATO and protecting its Baltic members from possible Russian aggression. He was trying to reassure the Baltic states in advance of Donald Trump's inauguration, Trump having … Continue reading Conflict update: December 27 2016

Israel The fallout from Friday's UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel's illegal annexation of occupied Palestinian territory continued all weekend. Benjamin Netanyahu's government began by summoning the ambassadors of the 12 security council members who voted in favor of the resolution and with which Israel has relations (Venezuela and Malaysia also voted yes but don't … Continue reading Conflict update: December 26 2016

Barring some kind of major happening I'm out for the next couple of days. Merry Christmas to those who are celebrating it and Happy Hanukkah to those who are celebrating it. To those who are celebrating both, stop hoarding all the presents. Now, one last dose of (mostly) bad news for you all. Israel-Palestine I … Continue reading Conflict update: December 23 2016