Middle East

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Escape from Baghdad

Unlike many who would also like to leave, today I board a cargo plane and fly away.

By Anna Badkhen May 23, 2008
Cry me a river

In a tiny room in Baghdad, U.S. soldiers connect with their friends and family back home. Sometimes hearts break.

By Anna Badkhen May 22, 2008
Has life in Iraq improved?

With pools of open sewage in the streets and little electricity, life for most Iraqis remains bleak.

By Anna Badkhen May 21, 2008
The battle against spoiled milk

Iraqis scrimp to pay for black market power so their food won't rot in the desert heat. Plus: Shopping for bread in a Bradley.

By Anna Badkhen May 20, 2008
Another day in paradise

On patrol with U.S. soldiers in Risala, sewage seeps through the dirt and pools underfoot.

By Anna Badkhen May 17, 2008
Hoping for magic from Americans

The Iraqi government still can't provide its citizens with basic security and services. So many look to Americans -- for everything.

By Anna Badkhen May 15, 2008
Buying security in Baghdad

At a U.S. combat outpost in the Iraqi capital, money is just as important as guns. Plus: Tensions flare in a neighborhood council.

By Anna Badkhen May 12, 2008
Bradleys used to be considered impregnable

As the hatch closes, I think about the four men from the platoon I'm with who were charred to death in one of these fighting vehicles.

By Anna Badkhen May 10, 2008
If Austin Powers were French -- and funny

He might be the star of "OSS 117," a deadpan, borderline-brilliant satire of postwar spy movies and preening Euro-idiocy in the Middle East.

By Andrew O'Hehir May 9, 2008
Guns and water coolers in Iraq

U.S. soldiers drink water, lots of it, in scorching hot Baghdad. Plus, patrolling the streets with a less than disciplined Iraqi army squad.

By Anna Badkhen May 9, 2008
Helicopter travel in Iraq

Military travel is grueling, especially for a soldier with a hole in his face from a sniper bullet who's trying to get back home to Missouri.

By Anna Badkhen May 7, 2008
When my finger was on the button for Israel

I was a young law student applying for a part-time internship. To my amazement, I was soon casting votes at the U.N. and working for Ariel Sharon.

By Gregory Levey April 22, 2008
Iraq: The ten commandments

In honor of Charlton Heston, here are 10 lessons we should engrave on our foreign policy tablets as we prepare to leave Iraq.

By Gary Kamiya April 15, 2008
How Iraq spawned wider terrorist chaos

As experts long warned, Islamic militants steeped in urban warfare against U.S. troops in Iraq have expanded their violent campaign beyond Iraq's borders.

By James Martin April 14, 2008
"Petroleum perpetuates patriarchy"

Blame oil, not fundamentalism, for keeping the Middle East's women down.

By Lynn Harris April 2, 2008
The fine art of battling oil addiction

Why I hope the president of Nigeria will make good on his plans to attend my show on oil politics.

By Dan Hoyle March 25, 2008
Bomb, bomb Iran?

John McCain's gaffe about an Iran-al-Qaida connection revealed how he and his hard-line allies are itching to target the mullahs next.

By Joe Conason March 21, 2008
Five years of Iraq lies

How President Bush and his advisors have spent each year of the war peddling mendacious tales about a mission accomplished.

By Juan Cole March 19, 2008
Of war and cancer

Five years after Bush invaded Iraq, anti-Americanism has metastasized. But we can still beat it.

By Gary Kamiya March 18, 2008
A new face for American diplomacy

Barack Obama is perceived by Muslims abroad like no other candidate. He would begin a presidency with tremendous potential to heal U.S. relations with much of the world.

By Hooman Majd February 21, 2008
Getting through these dark times

Foreign policy whiz Samantha Power sheds light on a legendary diplomat killed in Iraq, advising Barack Obama and how America can emerge from the Bush era.

By Leigh Flayton February 18, 2008
Journalism's last line of defense

A nervous news industry is killing off its ombudsmen. But after facing enraged NPR listeners when I had that role, I know the public has the most to lose.

By Jeffrey Dvorkin February 12, 2008
The blind giant of the Middle East

Israel's disastrous Second Lebanon War showed we've become an existential danger to ourselves. Our future depends on fundamental change.

By David Grossman February 11, 2008
Bush's delusions die in Gaza

The mass jailbreak of Gazans into Egypt revealed the bankruptcy of both Israel's policy of collective punishment and Bush's attempt to make Mideast peace.

By Gary Kamiya January 29, 2008
Egypt's Gaza nightmare

Palestinians have flooded into Egypt en masse since militants blew open a border wall. Is it a blessing in disguise for Israel?

By Pierre Heumann January 28, 2008