Iraq

Ten Years Later, and How Iraq Can Change a Generation's Trajectory

Every day after baseball practice, my Dad picked me up. Still clad in my dirt-stained pants, still too young to have a full appreciation for deodorant, I would toss my bookbags and gear in the back of our Volvo and jump in the front seat with him. He'd ask how practice was, and I'd tell him about th ... More >>

Returning War Contractors Face Second Battle, Against AIG

Whatever your role in the U.S. war effort, if you were injured overseas, at least you'd be covered back home, right?

Ashes of the Wake: A Playlist for Baghdad

On this day in 762 A.D., caliph Al-Mansur founded the city of Baghdad in what is modern-day Iraq. The area was and remains one of the commercial and intellectual centers of the Arab world, though it's obviously had a few problems since the U.S. invaded in 2003 and toppled Saddam Hussein's regime. No ... More >>

Festival of Originals

Breaking It Down

It may not be PTSDs or brain injuries that pose the most long-term danger to our surviving vets from their Middle East tours.

KBR Loses Bid to Have Iraqi Court Hear Electrocution Suit

Ryan Maseth: Electrocuted while showering at an Iraq base.​A federal judge has said no to KBR's move to have a (friendly) court in Iraq, rather than one in America, handle the lawsuit filed against the company by survivors of a Green Beret who was electrocuted in one of their facilities. U.S. ... More >>

Skype Testimony From Iraq Helps Convict Conroe Murderer

Skype: Putting murderers behind bars​A man was convicted or murder in Conroe based partly on testimony delivered via Skype from an Army base in Iraq. A Conroe police officer who had been involved in the investigation into the December 2008 murder is serving now in the Texas National Guard in ... More >>

Keyboardist Seeks Arabic Players To Explore Local Scene

​Rocks Off combs through Craigslist's postings hoping to find the genesis of some great musical endeavor. So when we saw a posting looking for Arabic singers, we were intrigued. After all, this is a time of mosque burnings and our upstairs neighbors passing anti-Sharia laws. It must take a he ... More >>

Foreign Relations

Readers debate asylum for Mexicans.

Laura Resendez: Another Woman Sues Over Alleged Sexual Assault In Iraq

Not only the big players get hit with Iraq sex-abuse suits​Houston-based energy services companies have gotten plenty of ink over the past several years due to allegations and accusations that male employees working in places such as Iraq have raped and abused their female co-workers. Much of it i ... More >>

"Secrets of the Silk Road"

Meet a woman who's 3,800 years old - and still looks good

The Complete History of America (Abridged)

See the story of the U.S. smashed into just 90 minutes

Top 8 Post-2000 Soldier Songs

​Like many of you, Rocks Off has friends and family members who have served (or are serving) in our armed forces. Memorial Day is when we honor the sacrifice so many of them have made - and are still making - fighting America's wars. Songs about the hardships suffered by soldiers and their familie ... More >>

Texas State Rep Goes All Hollywood With Matt Damon

​We expected nothing more than "Bourne in Iraq" from Green Zone, but we were pleasantly surprised. Although the movie didn't delve too far into the juicy tales of utter administration incompetence that the book did, it still delivered a good bit of entertainment and a fair recapping of the WMD sea ... More >>

Noncombat Deaths: Another Casualty of War

The mass shooting at Fort Hood was just one of a growing number of troubling military deaths, murders and suicides.

KBR Wins A Victory In One Of Its Iraq-Electrocution Suits

​Sometimes it's not enough to simply bring in billions from no-bid contracts from in Iraq; sometimes a company needs a hug.And that's what KBR got from federal judges in Houston and Florida, the company announced late yesterday.Judges dismissed two lawsuits stemming from the electrocution death of ... More >>

Set to Explode

As unconventional as the warfare it depicts, The Hurt Locker is a ticking time bomb of a movie.

UT's Mack Brown Visits The Troops, And Complains Endlessly

Mack Brown, along with a handful of other NCAA coaches, is making a goodwill visit to the troops in Germany, Iraq and Kuwait. (He's following in the footsteps of a coach at an actual good football school, Notre Dame's Charlie Weis, who visited the Middle East earlier this year.)Brown's to be com ... More >>

Man Pleads Guilty To Trying To Help The Iraq War Effort (And Himself)

Stephen Patrick Day of Houston is a patriot.When war came in Iraq, he asked not whether it was the right war; he asked not if WMDs existed or if Iraq had anything to do with 9/11.Instead he asked how he could scam some serious bucks out of the venture.Day owns Logistics Group International, and he p ... More >>

KBR's Iraq Adventure Now Includes Child Porn

KBR (Halliburton to the old-schoolaz) has had its share of troubles on its way to making untold billions of dollars of profit in Iraq.There's the rape and sexual harassment (Female and male-on-male!). There's the electrocuting soldiers. There's the dogs running around chomping on human remains inten ... More >>

“Beyond the Walls: The Battle for Iraq’s Future”

Web exclusive!

U.S. Military Deserters Once Again Flock to Canada to Avoid War

Looks like this time they picked the wrong country.

Yay! Houston's KBR Gets Another Iraq Contract!

UPI (Motto: "Yes, we're still around") is reporting that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has awarded a "follow-on" contract to Houston's KBR (Halliburton) to continue work on a convoy supply camp in Iraq.And why not?It's not like KBR has senators demanding investigations into allegations that soldi ... More >>

"Iraqi Artists in Exile" Showcase Their Haunting Works

Cut and Shot

Roger That, Houston

Congratulations Houston, you showed your big heart once again. The Move America Forward tour stopped off at the Wal-Mart on Highway 6 North this afternoon and asked Houstonians for help in sending care packages overseas to American troops. Gold Star Mom Debbie Lee spoke with Hair Balls and had good ... More >>

“Iraqi Artists in Exile”

The Station Museum of Contemporary Art presents the first look at work from Iraq’s banished

No End in Sight

Find out who’s responsible for the Iraq war

Houston Company Fails To Bribe Its Way To Success In Iraq

Soldier Suicides

Surviving our War on Terror calls for more than an ability to dodge bullets and IEDs

Fresa Spanish and Latino Soldiers

Slideshow: "What We Think Now," by Jonathan Hollingsworth

Apolitical Theater in Stop-Loss

Iraq war movie does its best not to mention the war

Paul Miles, Iraq and PTSD

Nothing Happening Here: Protest Music, Then and Now

Anthony Arnove

Author of Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal speaks at Rothko Chapel

In the Valley of Elah

Don't let Paul Haggis's heavy hand stop you from seeing his latest

That Man Makes a Mean Lemonade

Dissent for Sale

Opposition is a Commodity in Sundance Docs.

Pick a Side

Take That, Osama!

Seeking Asylum

FrenetiCore's new show is all-out Bedlam

Don't Ask, Don't Be

A Houston-area man leads the fight against the ban on gays in the military

Virtual Quagmire

The Army's realistic first-person shooter bogs down under fire

Applause Time

Houston Press writers are finalists in two journalism contests

Gambling on Iraq

Hundreds of Houstonians have signed up for wartime jobs with KBR. The hefty paychecks come with a scary, bloody price.

The Whole Truth?

Inside Al-Jazeera, journalists tell a familiar story unfamiliarly

Weapons of Mass Distraction

At Miami's Winter Music Conference, P. Diddy blows up dance music while the U.S. blows up Iraq

War on War Songs

Iraq and roll don't go together well when rockers protest

Protesting Peace

Plus: Been There, Din That; No Smut Glut; Cursory Check

The Art of War

The MFAH presents "Afghanistan: A Timeless History." What's next -- "Iraqis Are People Too"?