Iraq

Continuing on its quest to cover all of the world’s top 40 languages and 99 percent of its Internet users, Google has finally launched Iraq.

In an unintended twist of fate, Libya’s expulsion from the Arab League has left the fragile state of Iraq at the helm of the Arab League. It remains to be seen whether they’ll be ready to lead.

Eight years and one day ago, the United States government disregarded international law and began the invasion of Iraq with a staggering display of “shock and awe.” On Thursday, the United Nations Security Council approved the use of force in Libya, including “all necessary measures…to protect civilians and civilian populated areas under threat of attack.” […]

There’s currently a spirited debate shaping up on the Washington Post’s Post Partisan blog between heavy-weight commentators Charles Krauthammer and Anne Appelbaum. Their discussion sheds light on a provocative contention some conservatives are now promoting; namely, that the Bush Doctrine set precedent for the Middle East’s demand for democracy.

As Congress hammers out budget cuts, Robert Gates, warned a Senate committee the mission in Iraq (and the “gains” we have made) will be critically threatened if State doesn’t get the money it has requested to fund its mission.

In the spirit of self-reflection on mistakes made during the Iraq War, former Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld is busily promoting his 800 page new memoir, “Known and Unknown,” while defending the Bush administration’s most critical decisions. Appearing on the public circuit for the first time since stepping down in 2006, Rumsfeld has stated that none of the top officials lied about weapons of mass destruction as a pretext for the war.

In a somber illustration of the ever warming ties between Baghdad and Tehran, Iraqi security forces carried the remains of 38 dead Iraqi soldiers across the border crossing between Iraq and Iran in al-Shalamjah, Iraq, on Tuesday.

I admire the patience and perseverance of the Iraqi people, but I must wonder how long until they join their fellow Arabs in Egypt, Lebanon and Tunisia to say “Kifaya!”

Given the sad state of affairs, I often feel that it’s my responsibility to locate some silver lining that threads through the Iraqi experience. Now, in the midst of crisis, concern and carnage, Iraq’s national soccer team is making another run at the Asia Cup.

Today, speaking from a podium outside a compound that once was once home to his father, the grand ayatollah who had sacrificed his life defying Saddam Hussein’s brutal dictatorship, Muqtada al-Sadr addressed thousands of loyal followers for the first time since he left Iraq in exile in 2007.

Feared, reviled and revered, Sadr has officially staked his claim to his personal legacy and his nation’s future.

In a developing story, Reuters is reporting that firebrand cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has returned to Iraq after years of self-imposed exile in Iran. The radical nationalist visited the holy city of Najaf where his father is buried. The source said Sadr had left Iraq at the end of 2006.  Sadr, whose Mehdi Army fought U.S. troops after […]

In an effort to preserve a nation’s humanity after decades of dictatorship and war and in a modest tribute to the enduring spirit of the Iraqi people, I have decided to ring in the New Year with a brief study of the unique and compelling poetry of Iraq.

By this time next year, the United States should have withdrawn all of its troops from Iraq. We can hope that this long, bloody chapter in American military history may be at an end.

On Saturday, Iraq’s new oil minister, Abdul Kareem Luaibi, announced that Iraq will recognize an array of oil deals signed by the Kurds in northern Iraq. Luaibi, who has been at the head of negotiations with the Kurdistan Regional Government also said in his statement that dialog “with our Kurdish brothers will continue in order to reach a resolution […]