war

Gen. David Petraeus was named the new head of United States Central Command, the military command unit that oversees Iraq and Afghanistan.

Petraeus's appointment as combatant commander of Central Command was set in motion several weeks ago, with the firing of then-combatant commander Adm. William Fallon. The administration let him go not for opposing a possible strike against Iran, as was widely speculated, but for arguing too often with Petraeus over troop levels in Iraq. Petraeus, who may be the most well-read analytical mind in the military, wanted to maintain troop levels, rather than reduce them for use in Afghanistan and for other contingencies -- to say nothing of relieving strains on the army. But Fallon and Pentagon generals wanted troop levels in Iraq to come down. Petraeus won the debate.

Patrick Cockburn's Muqtada, an account of the life and ascent of Mahdi Army leader Muqtada al-Sadr, is published by Scribner.

Four years ago last week, the subcommander of an armed faction in Iraq appeared in a grainy video -- shot somewhere in Baghdad and distributed to Western journalists -- and vowed to kill the leader of a rival group. Today that subcommander is alive but forgotten, and his rival, Muqtada al-Sadr, is one of the most powerful figures in the country. The forgotten subcommander, of course, is Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the three-star whose command of Coalition forces in Iraq lasted a scant two months after he issued the kill order on Sadr. The contrast between Sadr's massive public rallies and Sanchez's furtive low-fi video should have given a clue as to how high young Sadr would rise.

A leaked U.S. document details the proliferation among Iraqi insurgents of proximity-fuze rockets, a deadly improvement on previous weapons.

The roadside bomb is the signature weapon of the Iraq war, but measured purely by the man-hours of dread they inspire, rockets and mortars easily have it beat. Roadside bombs kill soldiers only when they're on the road. But indirect fire can hit U.S. bases at any hour, in any place, and with little warning. (Some bases have red-alert sirens, which usually crank up only after the attack has started and are therefore widely ignored.) The homey comforts of the bases -- rich food, well-stocked stores, fast-food restaurants -- only increase the psychological stress, since they make death a constant presence during what otherwise feels like your safest moments. That war-zone Whopper tastes a lot less like comfort-food when you know each bite could be your last.

A Senate committee heard testimony from an Illinois woman who alleges that a co-worker and a soldier raped her while she worked in Iraq for KBR, the former Halliburton subsidiary and contracting giant.

Someone, somewhere, is hunting for rape statistics right now, to show that nationwide in the U.S., the rate of sexual assault is lower than the rate among contractors in Iraq. I would not be surprised if that is so. There are, for one thing, far fewer women per capita to assault among Iraq contractors than among the American population at large, and it's far more probable that a female contractor is armed or has easy access to a weapon of vengeance. On the other hand, there does seem to be a connection between gruesome crimes like this one and the climate of lawlessness and license in which military contractors operate.

In his first foreign-policy address since winning the GOP nomination, John McCain argued that the U.S. has a "moral obligation" to fulfill in Iraq.

Place McCain's speech side by side with the address Barack Obama delivered last week, on the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, and you don't just have two divergent takes on the war in Iraq. You have two completely different prisms through which to view the conflict.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has suspended peace talks after the deadliest fighting in Gaza in more than a year.

At this rate, it may not be long before someone declares the third Intifada already underway. First stones, then guns and suicide-bombs, and now rockets.

With dozens of rockets fired into southern Israel -- for the first time regularly hitting the city of Ashkelon -- Hamas is once again pulling Israel into a gruesome fight in Gaza to tighten its own domestic political grip. George W. Bush's latest half-hearted peace initiative; attempts at accommodation by the moderate Palestinian leadership; the calls by Israel's realists for uprooting West Bank settlements; and those touching concerts, conferences, and student exchanges devoted to Middle East peace: all remain hostage to Hamas's ability to start a war at a time and place of its choosing.

A B-2 bomber, at $1.2-billion apiece the most expensive bird in the US Air Force, crashed in Guam. The crew ejected safely.

Over a billion dollars, and all that's left is a pit of ashes.  Defense appropriations is tricky, and there are hidden costs to funding -- or not funding -- programs.  Will the B-2 prove indispensable in a war with Iran?  Is the US edge over its competitors in an air war too slim to permit slacking off in our quest for the most fearsome, and fearsomely expensive, plane the world has ever seen?

Here's a guess: the US would do just fine without the B-2.  Our air edge is massive, comparable to our sea edge, which is overwhelming enough that our navy is larger than those of all our major competitors and allies combined.  And the price of just one of these contraptions would go a long way in financing smaller-scale initiatives much more likely to improve our safety, like incentivizing defections, and placing bounties on the heads of our enemies.  A billion dollars buys a lot of heads.