Shifting Targets (links to The New Yorker)

The Administration’s plan for Iran.
by Seymour M. Hersh | New Yorker | October 8, 2007

"In a series of public statements in recent months, President Bush and members of his Administration have redefined the war in Iraq, to an increasing degree, as a strategic battle between the United States and Iran…"

MORE HERSH ON IRAN:
“THE REDIRECTION” (2007)
“THE NEXT ACT” (2006)
“THE IRAN PLANS” (2006)

The Real War 1939-1945

by Paul Fussell - The Atlantic Monthly | August 1989

On its fiftieth anniversary, how should we think of the Second World War? What is its contemporary meaning? One possible meaning, reflected in every line of what follows, is obscured by that oddly minimizing term "conventional war." With our fears focused on nuclear destruction, we tend to be less mindful of just what conventional war between modern industrial powers is like. This article describes such war, in a stark, unromantic manner.

This is the best description I have found of what modern war is like for those who are doomed to fight one.

Iraq Will Have To Wait

Article by Scott Ritter on recent media and Bushies' mis-management and threat of war with Iran. It includes advice on what needs to be done if we are to avoid a much more damaging war which the Bushies are seeking.

The Problem With a "War Strategy"

by Thom Hartmann, one of my 'most favorite writers, from his newsletter. This article discusses
what it would take for the US to claim a 'victory' in Iraq.

Planning for Defeat

How should we withdraw from Iraq?
by George Packer | New Yorker | September 17, 2007

Oil and Betrayal in Iraq

By George Lakoff

(George Lakoff examines what Alan Greenspan's admission that "the Iraq war is largely about oil" means for America's troops and for the people of Iraq:)

The Redirection [ PDF file ]

by Seymour Hersh From The New Yorker, Issue of 3-05-07
Is the Administration's new policy benefitting our enemies in the war on terrorism?

Older files on the subject of        War With Iran

Losing the War On Terror [ PDF file]

by Ahmed Rashid in Washington Post

LAHORE, Pakistan -- In the five years since Sept. 11, the tactics and strategy of Islamic extremists fighting U.S. or NATO forces have improved dramatically. To a degree they could not approach five years ago, the extremists are successfully facing off against the overwhelming technological apparatus that modern armies can bring to bear against guerrillas. Islamic extremists are winning the war by not losing, and they are steadily expanding to create new battlefronts.

War is Not A Solution For Terrorism

by Howard Zinn in Boston Globe, (9-2-06)

THERE IS SOMETHING important to be learned from the recent experience of the United States and Israel in the Middle East: that massive military attacks, inevitably indiscriminate, are not only morally reprehensible, but useless in achieving the stated aims of those who carry them out.

No Win

by Andrew Bacevitch in Boston Globe, August 27, 2006 -

With the failure of the United States and Israel to achieve decisive victories in Iraq and Lebanon, the age of Western military dominance in the Middle East appears to be ending. It's time for a new strategy.

Mutually Assured Destruction

by Chris Hedges in TruthDig.Com, July 14, 2006 -

The former Middle East bureau chief for The New York Times and author of the bestseller “War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning” argues in this Truthdig column that the bloodshed now engulfing Lebanon and Israel will only worsen as long as extremists on both sides continue to indulge in “collective necrophilia.”