The federal government agreed to reimburse Guam for most of the $56 million it spent cleaning up a World War II/Vietnam War-era toxic waste dump. The settlement represents the U.S. government’s “fair share of remediation costs” for Ordot Dump, a 23-acre landfill opened prior to World War II and operated by the military for decades before being passed to the …
Iran/Iraq Physical Link Mirrors Political Link
For the first time ever, a rail line will connect longtime frenemies Iraq and Iran. Conductors might yell “All aboard!” by the end of 2024. Builders will lay a little over eighteen miles of track between Iraq’s southern city of Basra and the Iranian border town of Shalamja, linking nations with ties that have deepened since the 2003 U.S. invasion …
Rebels Gain Steam in Southern Syria
Protesters recently took to the streets in Sweida, a southern province with a mostly Druze population that has remained securely in government hands throughout the civil war. Syria is in a deep economic crisis that saw its currency plunge to a record 15,500 Syrian pounds to the dollar last week in a rapidly accelerating free-fall. It traded at 47 pounds …
Fifty Years and Counting at Diego Garcia
Predictably, festivities marking the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Naval base on Diego Garcia focused on the base’s strategic importance instead of its controversial past. “For 50 years, the Master-at-Arms rate has upheld a tradition of high standards of conduct, courtesy, and military excellence,” said Master-at-Arms 1st Class Andrew Bourdier, president of the MA ball committee, during the opening ceremony …
Biden Touts PACT Act to Skeptical Westerners
President Joe Biden marked the one-year anniversary of the PACT Act, a law that is personal to him, during a speech in Utah. Biden spoke to veterans at the George E. Wahlen Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salt Lake City to highlight the one-year anniversary of the PACT Act, which has already provided 4.1 million veterans with free …