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The controversy over US President Donald Trump’s pardoning of three soldiers accused of war crimes reveals more than the confrontation of two contrasting interpretations of the law and the limits of executive power. As he does with so many questions of policy and political reasoning, Trump has...
It’s a cliché in Westerns. The bad guys ride into town only to be met by a sheriff who stands tall. “I am the law,” the sheriff says, “and you boys better move on.” This line appears in King Vidor’s 1930 film, "Billy the Kid." But the speaker, sheriff William...
The wave of unrest that has swept through Iraq has gone from protest to violence, creating tension in the region. The demonstrations, which were initially motivated by discontent over the country’s economic stagnation and rampant government corruption, quickly devolved into chaos....
A widespread belief in Iraq is that the post-Baathist system has failed the country. Many Iraqis accuse their leaders of pillaging the nation’s wealth while providing poor services to citizens.
Even before the recent raid that resulted in the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the erstwhile head of the Islamic State (IS or ISIS), US President Donald Trump had spoken of how he had single-handedly defeated the caliphate. “Now, when I came, the caliphate was all over the place,” the...
