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I've been mulling over an NBC Nightly News report from Iraq last Friday in which a number of soldiers expressed frustration with opposition to war in the United States. I'm sure the soldiers were expressing a majority opinion common amongst the ranks - that's why it is news - and I'm also sure no one in the military leadership or the administration put the soldiers up to expressing their views, nor steered NBC reporter Richard Engel to the story. I'm all for everyone expressing their opinion, even those who wear the uniform of the United States Army. But I also...

On January 30, 2007, William M. Arkin wrote a sickening commentary titled “The Troops Also Need to Support the American People”, which appears on the Washington Post’s website. In this disgusting piece, Arkin ponders the thoughts and obvious dismay of our American heroes – the troops in battle in Iraq – in an NBC Nightly News story in which soldiers from Ft. Lewis, Washington, now stationed in Iraq, expressed frustration at the American media, and the left-wing and anti-American protesters hell-bent on undermining their life-or-death mission. Arkin, himself frustrated with the news that these valiant heroes clearly disapprove of his...

The Washington Post has attempted to go after a slice of the blogging pie. This seems only fair. The blogsphere has seemingly spent the last five or so years producing the closest thing out there to fair and accurate reporting of the news. Unfortunately, the Washington Post seems to have used The Huffington Post as their model. If William M. Arkin’s Early Warning Blog indicates their intended direction, they won’t be telling us anything that hasn’t already shown up writ large in the bulk of their “reporting”. Mr. Arkin seems to think our troops should be thankful that all the...

I knew when I used the word "mercenary" in my Tuesday column that I was being highly inflammatory. NBC News ran a piece in which enlisted soldiers in Iraq expressed frustration about waning American support. I intentionally chose to criticize the military and used the word to incite and call into question their presumption that the public had a duty to support them. The public has duties, but not to the American military. So I committed blasphemy, and for this seeming lack of respect and appreciation for individuals in uniform, I have been roundly criticized and condemned. Mercenary, of course,...

In compliance with the Fairness Doctrine and other proposed federal rules aimed at balancing online media opinions, I am introducing Iowahawk's new "Equal Time" feature. From time to time, I will be opening these pages to those with opposing viewpoints, where we will be debating the various top issues of the day. Please welcome today's guest dissenter, retired US Marine Corps LTC Mike Williams, as we debate today's Equal Time question: "Should Washington Post Military Analyst William Arkin Be Beaten Like the Repulsive Sack of Sh*t He Is?" The Iowahawk View Washington Post Military Affairs correspondent William Arkin recently stirred...

I'm all for everyone expressing their opinion, even those who wear the uniform of the United States Army. But I also hope that military commanders took the soldiers aside after the story and explained to them why it wasn't for them to disapprove of the American people.

Top News Story Payvand Tehran, May 17, IRNA-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad intends to write another letter but it will not be for a political figure, "informed sources" were quoted on Wednesday. The Persian-language daily, Tosse'e, quoted the sources as saying Ahmadinejad's second letter is expected to be sent next week. According to the daily, the president, in an April 24 interview, said that he "will again send messages to leaders of certain world powers calling their attention to the state of the world and inviting them to imbibe the message of the Divine Prophets which happens to be also the...

Top News Story EU considers giving Iran a nuclear reactor. Yahoo News reported that European nations are considering adding a light-water reactor to a package of incentives meant to persuade Tehran to give up uranium enrichment.   China approves of the idea. The New York Times reported that China said it supported European efforts to create a new package of incentives for Iran as a way of resolving the standoff over its nuclear program. The report added that Europe would not offer Iran security guarantees against potential threats by its neighbors.   The CIA's history of over estimating the...

Top News Story The under reported "Achilles heel" of the Iranian Regime: Its workers. Amir Taheri, Arab News challenged the perception that the internal opposition to the present Iranian regime is marginal. Pointing to recent new reports, Iran's urban working class that has just started to flex its muscles. It showed its force with the biggest May Day demonstration ever seen in the Middle East. The participants made no secret of the fact that they were unhappy with the Khomeinist system as a whole.   Hitchens: Bush should speak directly to the Iranian people. Christopher Hitchens, Slate argued that...

Top News Story Iran preemptively says NO! to EU3. Reuters reported that EU foreign ministers will meet on Monday to agree initiatives on Iran's nuclear program.Chron.com reported that Iran's president said Sunday that any European proposal that demanded an end to his country's uranium enrichment activities would be unacceptable.   Pressure builds for direct talks with Iran. CNN News reported that Zbigniew Brzezinski, the national security adviser under former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, said Sunday that the United States should open direct talks with Iran over its nuclear program.Rooz Online reported that "reformist" analysts believe the US will likely...

Top News Story TheStar Zbigniew Brzezinski — former Canadian and a McGill alumnus who rose to be Jimmy Carter's national security adviser — knows a thing or two about the broader Middle East, including Iran, having lived through the American hostage crisis on his watch. I first met him in the 1980s in Pakistan while returning from Soviet-occupied Afghanistan, where he had helped initiate American support for the Afghan resistance. On cutting off aid to the Palestinians for having elected Hamas, he said: "I think the American foreign policy is mindless. "When Likud came to power in 1977, it...

Top News Story Judeoscope IRNA: Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez prays for Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Venezuela’s visiting President Hugo Chavez said here Friday Caracas supports the Islamic Republic of Iran. Vienna - Speaking to IRNA on the sidelines of the EU-Latin America Summit, Chavez said, "We pray to `Allah’ that no war would be launched against Iran!" The Venezuelan President added, "We believe the Iranian nation’s campaign is our own nation’s, and we ask the world countries to respect Iran’s independence." He concluded stressing, "We are on the side of the Iranian nation and pray for President Ahmadinejad." The EU-Latin America-Caribbean...

Top News Story Ahmadinejad warns that Israel will one day "vanish," and so will the U.S. Khaleej Times Online reported that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Thursday that Israel “one day will vanish.” But he has also said the same thing about the US. Photo.   Iranians students clashing with regime over democracy. Iran Press News reported that a seminar on democracy and daily life that was organized by the association of social sciences faculty of school of Social Sciences of Tehran University has been cancelled under pressure and threats from the ministry of intelligence and security.Iran Press...

Top News Story China won't veto sanctions on Iran and Russia may not either? Rooz Online reported that while the UNSC has not reached a consensus on the next step on Iran, they said the Chinese foreign minister said that it would not veto a UN Security Resolution, while his Russian counterpart told Iran’s foreign minister Manoutchehr Mottaki, “We have not promised to veto sanctions against Iran.”The Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. and its allies will slow their push for U.N. Security Council action against Iran and develop a new list of incentives and punishments. They said...

Top News Story EU nations want to offer Iran security guarantees? The New York Sun reported that Ambassador John Bolton, responding to the difficulty the UNSC is having in drafting a new resolution on Iran, said: "We're not going to drop it," he said, adding that if Russia and China fail to agree, a vote might be forced before the end of the week.The New York Times reported that the foreign ministers of major powers failed to come up with a joint strategy for dealing with Iran. A senior U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: ``I...

Top News Story Iran's President sends a letter to Bush... about Islam not nukes. MyWay.com reported that Iran's leader had written to President Bush proposing "new solutions" to their differences in the first letter from an Iranian head of state to an American president in 27 years.Reuters reported that U.S. intelligence Chief John Negroponte said a letter Iran sent to President George W. Bush over its nuclear ambitions may have been timed to influence a UN Security Council debate on Iran.DEBKAfile claimed that Iranian sources revealed the contents of - not one but two - letters Iran’s Ahmadinejad has...

Top News Story UNSC discussions on Iran reach a "decisive phase." IranMania reported that German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the ongoing row over Iran's nuclear program have reached a "decisive phase."   Iran to Kofi: No! Bloomberg reported that Iran rejected a call by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan for the U.S. to hold direct talks with the Islamic Republic about its nuclear program.   Iran threatens to withdraw from the NPT... again. Yahoo News reported that the Iranian parliament threatened to force the government to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty if the West continues pressuring Tehran...

Top News Story Gulf countries express fears over Iran. Reuters reported that Gulf Arab countries have a number of public and private concerns about the nuclear program in Iran.Al Jazeera reported that Gulf Arab leaders have called on Iran to do more to show it was not trying to obtain an atom bomb, thereby saving the region from another war.   As the UNSC ponders its Iran resolution... Rooz Online reported that on the eve of the Security Council's decision on Iran, Tehran is changing its tone.InsightMag reported that Vice President Dick Cheney has privately warned that the United...

Top News Story Bangkok Post Moscow (dpa) - Russia on Saturday affirmed its opposition to the draft resolution on Iran's nuclear programme currently under discussion at the United Nations Security Council in New York. The document in its current form, proposed by Britain, France and the United States, needed "significant corrections," news agency Interfax quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak as saying in Moscow. Talks on the issue at UN headquarters in New York would continue, Kislyak said. Analysts however said agreement on the issue was not expected before a meeting of Security Council foreign ministers on Monday. The...

Top News Story Russia's moment of truth on Iran. The Los Angeles Times reported that as the U.N. Security Council meets this week to discuss how best to stop Iran's march toward nuclear weapons capability, Russia has the potential to serve as a bridge between the West and the Islamic Republic. This is "a moment of truth for Russia."The Financial Times reported that Russia’s stance on Iran’s nuclear program took centre stage on Thursday, as the United States and the European Union sought to win Moscow’s support for a hard-hitting United Nations Security Council. The Russian government fears the...