We all know about jihadists, but what about those waging an ‘anti-jihad’?
As the UN Security Council tackles the entity claiming to be “Islamic State,” and President Barack Obama invokes global Muslim responsibility, many ask whether people of Muslim heritage do enough to counter extremism. The fact is, away from the media spotlight, thousands wage daily battles in their own countries against what President Obama called a…
Read in full »
Kurdish hunger strikers stage protests seeking support against Isis jihadis
Members of the Kurdish diaspora have been staging protests and hunger strikes around the world in support of calls by Kurdish leaders in Syria for weapons to help their forces fighting Islamic State (Isis) in the besieged border town of Kobani, where they fear a massacre if support does not arrive soon. While Kurds have taken to the streets of Europ…
Read in full »
Eid al-Adha: a time for Iraq to remember its war dead
Umm Issam, 51, believes that her husband, who was killed during the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and was buried in the Wadi al-Salaam cemetery in Najaf, 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of Baghdad, “expects” her every Eid. He would be sad if she were late to visit. About two years ago, Umm Issam could not make it on time to weep and pray at his gr…
Read in full »
Our mission in Iraq is personal, say RAF crews
Aircrews flying combat missions over northern Iraq feel their task is “personal” because a British aid worker who was beheaded by Islamic State militants had once served in the RAF, sources said. David Haines spent 12 years as an RAF engineer before he later became an aid worker helping people in war zones to rebuild their lives. The 44-year-old was…
Read in full »
European Kurds swap violins for Kalashnikovs
Hundreds of Kurds from across Western Europe are returning to Iraq’s Kurdistan region to join the peshmerga's ranks and help defend their ancestral lands from the jihadist threat. As the sun dips into the dusty horizon, Lukman Hassan and Hussein Mohammad emerge from their armoured personnel carrier emblazoned with the official flag of Iraq’s Kur…
Read in full »
UNESCO warns IS militant group is destroying and looting Iraqi heritage sites
UNESCO is warning that members of the group calling itself Islamic State in Iraq are destroying and looting ancient heritage sites to sell valued artefacts on the black market. The extremist group has destroyed shrines, churches and precious manuscripts in Mosul, Tikrit and other areas of Iraq and excavated sites to sell objects abroad. UNESCO chief…
Read in full »
Iraq still uses phony bomb detectors
A policeman in Baghdad knows the bomb detector he uses is fake, and will do virtually nothing to save anyone’s life, but he has his orders. “If I were given a mop and told that it detects bombs in cars, I would still do it without any hesitation,” he told AFP, asking not to be identified. “The device is a 100 percent failure and we know that, b…
Read in full »
Maliki Wields 'De-Baathification' In Iraqi Power Struggle
Nouri Al-Maliki The former members of the dissolved Iraqi Baath party have become a point of contention in the conflicts between Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his rivals. According to the de-Baathification Law, which was issued by the former administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority of Iraq, Paul Bremer, members of the Baath …
Read in full »
The new and scary face of Iraqi sectarianism
Wathiq Al-Battat, the leader of the “Mukhtar Army,” an armed Shiite militia belonging to Iraq’s Hezbollah, is “the new face on the Iraqi scene,” according to Dubai-based news channel Al-Arabiya. Battat on Saturday threatened to strike Saudi Arabia and to bomb the Mubarak seaport in Kuwait, which he accused of encroaching into Iraqi territory. I…
Read in full »
Vets feel 'alone' in their guilt
A veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, former Marine Capt. Timothy Kudo thinks of himself as a killer — and he carries the guilt every day. "I can't forgive myself," he says. "And the people who can forgive me are dead." With American troops at war for more than a decade, there's been an unprecedented number of st…
Read in full »
Ailing vets turn to charities in larger numbers
Brandon Pelletier sits with his dog, Skylar, Feb. 19 at a park near his home in Chula Vista, Calif. Susan Rocco starts authorizing help on a litany of pleas from wounded Iraq and Afghanistan veterans at 7 a.m. in her home north of Quantico, Va. One is a young Marine veteran living in a shelter who needs clothing and electricity turned on so he can…
Read in full »
Ten Years On: Endless War?
Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller I read with interest the article "Ten Years On: Endless War?" by Lindsey German and there are some points which I feel need to be highlighted, in the interest of establishing clarity over the question of Iraq. While people are debating the tenth anniversary since the Iraq invasion, it is often forgotten that …
Read in full »
A Soldier’s Promise and an Iraqi Family’s Journey to the US
The Iraqi man known as “Roy,” an interpreter for US troops. In 2008, he was killed, along with six US soldiers, by a bomb in Iraq. His family recently arrived to California after receiving threats for Roy’s work with the US. I’m sitting in a San Diego café with former US Army captain Blake Hall. In just an hour, we’ll head to the airport to greet the p…
Read in full »
Veterans Work to Bring Those Left Behind to US
Officially, the war in Iraq is over. And US troops are withdrawing from Afghanistan. But for some US veterans already home, their mission still continues. Recently I met three vets, all students at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. We gathered in a small room on campus and the veterans broke out their laptops to show me documen…
Read in full »
Ignore Blair's lust for war
Labour leader Ed Miliband should closely examine the views put forward by Tony Blair in a recent TV interview, and have nothing to do with them. Blair, who has hoovered up a personal fortune of up to £60 million since stepping down as prime minister, was unapologetic about the military adventures into which he dragged Britain's armed forces. …
Read in full »
Iraq: A Broken Justice System
Iraq’s leadership used draconian measures against opposition politicians, detainees, demonstrators, and journalists, effectively squeezing the space for independent civil society and political freedoms in Iraq, Human Rights Watch said in its World Report 2013 . The number of violent civilian deaths in Iraq increased in 2012, for the first time sinc…
Read in full »
THE VALUE OF VETERANS
As part of the U.S. Army's Hire a Veteran campaign, the Army recently partnered with the Society for Human Resource Management to conduct a research study on veteran employment. The results indicate that assumptions about veterans often influence employers' hiring decisions—and not always in the veterans' favor. The study finds thre…
Read in full »
Veterans battling myriad challenges
When Anthony Vidales walked out of a lie detector test as part of his application process at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department earlier this month, he wanted to cry. He failed the test, he said, due to irregular breathing, a condition he contracted from radiation, pollution and burn pits he was exposed to while fighting in Iraq. “They to…
Read in full »
