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Unfinished Business in Iraq - New York Times

When the last American troops came home from Iraq in December, thousands of Iraqis who had worked with the Americans were left behind. Many have already been targeted by militants...

Looking Into the Syrian Abyss - Derek Flood, Asia Times

Syrian activists along the Turkish border describe a lopsided conflict bearing little resemblance to Libya, with Iraq lending Bashar al-Assad's regime American surveillance equipme...

How Iraq Helps Iran Undermine Sanctions - Nima Assl, The Guardian

The US and EU have announced new sanctions in the hope of persuading Iran to abandon its alleged nuclear weapons programme, though how effective these will be is question...

Turkey's Activist Foreign Policy Backfires - The Economist

As Mr Assad’s forces continue to slaughter innocent civilians, many in Syria and beyond are hoping that Turkey will ride to the rescue. But the Turks would do this only as ...

Haditha Verdict an Indictment of the U.S. - The National

War is a brutal business, an obvious point but one that cannot be overstated. Its execution demands strong and moral leadership to preserve any semblance of legitimacy. Sacrificing...

Iraq After America - Hoover Institution

What a difference two years make. Little more than two years ago, Iraq seemed headed on a sure path to stability. The U.S.-Iraqi “surge” that ended the spiral of sectar...

The GOP's Iraq War Amnesia - Peter Beinart, The Daily Beast

Gingrich, Romney and Santorum pushed for the Iraq War. Now the media should make them explain what they’ve learned from being wrong and why we should trust their eagerness to...

Will Iraq Be an Iranian Satellite? - Guzansky & Lindenstrauss, J'lem Post

The question still remains whether Iraq will become an Iranian satellite state....

Kudos to Iraqi Kurdistan - Hussain Abdul-Hussain, NOW Lebanon

In a region consumed by violence, uncertainty and despair, Iraqi Kurdistan stands out as an oasis of stability, economic growth and a relatively acceptable level of political fre...

Maliki Against Turkey - Gokhan Bacik, Sunday's Zaman

Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, criticized Turkey for playing a role that may lead to disaster in the region. For Turkey, Maliki's recent policies are an open threat t...

Iraq's Politics, Iraq's Problem - Christopher Hill, Project Syndicate

The notion that Iraq's ongoing political problems were caused by America's departure, or that they could be improved by its return, is something that only a solipsistic American ...

The Iraqi Revolution We'll Never Know - Michael Hanna, Foreign Policy

In a tumultuous year that witnessed the fall of Arab tyrants and the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, proponents of the 2003 invasion, including former Vice President Dick Cheney and con...

What Would Happen If NATO Invaded Syria? - Michael Peck, Foreign Policy

Crowned by clouds of dust and diesel, the German panzers clanked through the chalky Syrian plain, crunching the ripening crops beneath their tracks. Stone walls and orchard-strewn...

Arab Spring Deals Losing Hand to Iran - Samuel Segev, Winnipeg Free Press

It's obvious that Iran underestimated the depth of resentment the masses have of Shiite dominance in the Arab world....

Iraq's Slide Back to Dictatorship Makes Sacrifice in Vain - Globe and Mail

Not since the brutal sectarian conflict that engulfed the country in 2006 and 2007 has Iraq been as dangerously close as it is now to civil war. Meanwhile, the Obama administration...

Obama Closes the Book on the 9/11 Era - David Ignatius, Washington Post

When you ask Obama administration officials to explain their foreign policy agenda for 2012, they point first to the defense budget. That's where they want to make a 'pivot' in U...

Maliki's Politicized Iraqi Army - Maria Fantappie, The National

With increasing control over the Iraqi army, Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki has the means to dominate his main political rivals....

Political Role for Iraq Militants Worsens Tensions - Healy & Schmidt, NYT

It was one of the deadliest insurgent groups in Iraq in recent years, an Iranian-backed militia that bombed American military convoys and bases, assassinated dozens of Iraqi offi...

Why a One-War U.S. Policy Will Work - Michael O'Hanlon, Washington Post

Threats from Iran or China, at least in the short term, are much more likely to involve U.S. naval, air and special forces (which should retain a capacity for handling more than ...

Turning the Page on a Decade of War - President Barack Obama

We can't afford to repeat the mistakes that have been made in the past -- after World War II, after Vietnam -- when our military was left ill prepared for the future. As Commande...

U.S. Pulled Iraq Troops Out Too Soon - Michael Hayden, CNN

Very little in life is truly inevitable. When briefing policy makers, I would try to point out that a lot of it wasn't even predictable (at least in any scientific sense). But su...

The Lasting Damage Done to Iraq - Shlomo Ben-Ami, Project Syndicate

The folding of the American flag in Iraq amid a collapse of public security and a severe crisis in the country’s fragile political order seals a tragic chapter in the history of...

The Casualties of War - Andrew Exum, Abu Muqawama

John Tirman has an important if flawed op-ed in today's New York Times. He urges U.S. military and political leaders -- as well as the general public -- to be honest...

Iraq's Christians Under Siege - Naby & Choksy, RealClearWorld

As 2011 came to a close, Iraq’s Christians prayed 'for peace, goodwill, and that they will make it until next Christmas alive.' They know their situation is precarious. Assyri...

Iraq's Fugitive Vice-President - Asli Aydintasbas, Newsweek

On Dec. 18 in Baghdad, a plane carrying Iraq’s vice president, Tariq al-Hashimi, was stopped before it could take off. Instead, Hashimi and his bodyguards were escorted off the a...

America's Iraqi Allies Now Live in Fear - Sarah Mustafa, The Daily Beast

Many Iraqis are celebrating the withdrawal these days of American troops after eight years of the Iraq War. But for me and tens of thousands of others who worked with U.S. forc...

How to Save Iraq From Civil War - Leslie Gelb, Newsweek

In early 2006, then-senator Joe Biden and I discussed Iraq for three unbothered hours while our shuttle to Washington idled on the LaGuardia tarmac. We agreed that without an inter...

The Sunni-Shia War - Gwynne Dyer, Hurriyet Daily News

Last Thursday, there were 16 bomb blasts in Baghdad (72 people killed, 217 injured). On Friday, two big car bombs in Damascus killed 40 people and injured 150. Even for Iraq, where...

How Iraq Can Define Its Destiny - Ali Allawi, New York Times

THE Iraq the United States left behind last month is dramatically different from the country it invaded in 2003. Gone are the comforting simplicities of the “war on terror&rd...

The Unintended Consequences of Iraq - Dov Zakheim, The National Interest

Now that the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces from Iraq is complete, sectarian warfare once again has reared its ugly head. There were the killings of Shi’a during the mont...

Iraq's One-Man War Machine - Richard Bonin, Los Angeles Times

When Vice President Joe Biden slipped into Baghdad this month to commemorate the end of eight bloody years of war in Iraq, there was one face conspicuously absent from the host ...

2012: No Peace, No Prosperity, No Progress - Simon Tisdall, The Guardian

Worse is likely to come in conflict zones from the Middle East to Africa and for Europe's troubled economies....

Only Iran Can Save Iraq - Mohammed Ayoob, CNN

Iraq is on the edge of the precipice as a consequence of the standoff between Shia Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, with the former accusi...

Who Doomed Iraq? - Daniel Serwer, Peacefare

I confess my strong sympathy with the plight of these Iraqiyya leaders: former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, current parliament Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi and current F...

How to Save Iraq from Civil War - Allawi, Al-Nujaifi & Al-Essawi, NY Times

We are leaders of Iraqiya, the political coalition that won the most seats in the 2010 election and represents more than a quarter of all Iraqis. We do not think of ourselves as ...

If 2011 Was Turbulent, 2012 Will Be Worse - Tony Karon, Time

The foreign policy crisis horizon shows little respect for the calendar New Year: The Obama Administration ought to have a pretty good idea of the crises that await it in differe...

Understanding the Iraq Crisis - Brookings Institution

We were all wondering how long it was going to take after the withdrawal of American troops for Iraq to face its first major political crisis. But I seriously doubt that anyone wou...

What Will Happen to Kurds? - Ergun Babahan, Today's Zaman

Turkey may seek to establish a voluntary federation with Kurds in Iraq and Syria. Such a federation may be run by a powerful president based on the principle of democratic equali...

Iraq War a Blow to Nuclear Nonproliferation - Jessica Mathews, Wash Post

What might have happened had the United States sought WMD disarmament and not regime change?...

A Troubled Farewell in Iraq - The Economist

The troops' final departure on December 18th was a quiet affair marked by flag-folding and the rumble of convoys heading towards Kuwait. But though many have lamented t...

The Plight of Iraq's Minorities - Mardean Isaac, The Guardian

Smaller communities such as the Assyrians are being squeezed still further. Their fate is a crucial test of Iraq's democracy....

Iraq Back on the Brink - Kenneth Pollack, The Daily Beast

At least the Nixon administration got something of a “decent interval” before North Vietnam betrayed their exit strategy from Southeast Asia. The Obama administration d...

A New Hezbollah in Iraq? - Irena Sargsyan, The National Interest

Although the Iraq war is over, many perils remain that can destabilize the country: factional struggles for political power and economic resources, disputed internal boundaries in ...

The Real Outcome of the Iraq War - Center for Strategic and Int'l Studies

The events of the last few days have made it all too clear that the US celebrated the end of the Iraq War without any realism as to the impact of the war and US occupation or the f...

Political Crisis in Iraq Undermines Fragile Security - The National

Yesterday's violence in Baghdad shows that the country's political divisions remain as deep as ever....

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