New Ambassador to Iraq Done Little with Life But Iraq Mistakes
Rule No. 1: When you find yourself in a hole, first thing to do is stop digging it deeper. So, with all the good news in Iraq these days (didn’t you see, Disney is buying up land for an oil-based water...
View ArticleHappy Ninth Anniversary Iraq Invasion!
(This article originally appeared on Huffington Post) Just like with my own wedding anniversary, I’m a few days late recognizing the ninth anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq War, but sincere in...
View ArticleViral BJ (BJ=Basic Justice, not that other thing)
If you are one of the few people who missed the story about an “alleged” sex tape that includes an “alleged” State Department VIP having “alleged” sex on the roof of the old US Embassy building in...
View ArticleEmbassy to Nowhere
The American Conservative nails the symbolism: It would be too easy to say the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad is a metaphor for the arrested development of our highly anticipated new “strategic partnership”...
View ArticleWhy Peace: Occupying Iraq, State Department-style
I was very happy to contribute an essay, “Occupying Iraq, State Department-style” to the new book edited by Marc Guttman, Why Peace. My essay deals with the increasing narrow gap between the actions of...
View ArticleHey, Remember Iraq?
In honor of Memorial Day, just checking in on America’s 51st state seeing how things are going there. You’ll recall that the State Department has been busy as beavers training Iraqi police (until they...
View ArticleMcGurk Senate Confirmation Hearing: Do the Emails Matter?
US ambassadors in Iraq (and Afghanistan, and Pakistan…) seem to have the lifespan of Spinal Tap drummers. Our current man in Baghdad, James Jeffrey, is packing now and of the 220 million people in the...
View ArticleMcGurk’s Wife Resigns from Wall Street Journal
USA Today reports that Gina Chon, the most recent wife of Brett McGurk, ambassador-to-wanna-be-but-it-ain’t-gonna be nominee for Iraq has “been forced out of her job at the Wall Street Journal,” just...
View ArticleState Department Twitter Overload
Woooo, too much at once, like eating ice cream too fast and getting that brain freeze. So, no time to rest, here are the Tweets, now let’s break them down: To begin: HUZZAH! Thanks to the tireless...
View ArticleSocial Media Uber Alles: Embassy Baghdad Gets Its Head Around Twitter
Taxpayers, a robust group huzzah please! The US Embassy in Baghdad has taken a bold, innovative step towards resolving all problems in Iraq, large and small: The Embassy is now paying someone with your...
View ArticleFollow Maliki on Twitter
This has to be a sign of the Apocalypse or something worse. Iranian-backed American puppet democratic leader Iraqi strongman Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki now has a Twitter account you can follow at...
View ArticleSocial Media Fails in Baghdad (and London)
One assumes that the purpose of US State Department social media is to win friends and influence enemies, build support for America, something like that. So WTF is this all about? The photo below was...
View ArticleRebuilding America’s Infrastructure (in the Middle East)
Storms that knock out power for days, stripping away the veil that America’s infrastructure matches its first-world ambitions, are now common-place. Equally common, at least while there was an election...
View ArticleReport from Baghdad: Still Liked on Facebook
Along with the odd threat or hate mail (a few people hilariously misunderstand the book’s title We Meant Well as being serious and chastise me for supporting the Iraq War), some interesting things pop...
View ArticleIraq PRT Nostalgia
I would have thought that it was a bit early for nostalgia for the halcyon days of Provincial Reconstruction Work (PRT) in Iraq, but things move quickly these days. At least no one is calling it “The...
View ArticleWhither Iraq? What’s Happening Had to Happen
The events unfolding now in Iraq are inevitable. They are the latest iteration of all the good we failed to do from day one of America’s ill-fated invasion in 2003. Some History Iraq before our...
View ArticleInside the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad
As the U.S. “relocates” personnel (it’s not an “evacuation”) out of the World’s Largest Embassy in Baghdad, it is valuable to look at that one billion dollar monument to American hubris. Though likely...
View Article#SaveOurYazidi (in Iraq)
Show of hands: anybody out there who heard much of the Yazidi in Iraq before a day or two ago? Because our president is going to re-engage in combat in Iraq to save them. Airstrikes are now authorized!...
View ArticleWhy Peace: Occupying Iraq, State Department-style
I was very happy to contribute an essay, “Occupying Iraq, State Department-style” to the new book edited by Marc Guttman, Why Peace. My essay deals with the increasing narrow gap between the actions of...
View ArticleHey, Remember Iraq?
In honor of Memorial Day, just checking in on America’s 51st state seeing how things are going there. You’ll recall that the State Department has been busy as beavers training Iraqi police (until they...
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