Month: July 2001

The Balkans have long been the focus of the War Party, and now here’s your chance to experience the consequences of US intervention firsthand – while learning more about the ancient culture and uniqueness of the region. The Rockford Institute is sponsoring a trip to Serbia and Montenegro, September 17-28, and I’ll be going – … Continue reading “I’M GOING TO SERBIA!”

Life in the Israel is so difficult – and it’s not just because of the hot and humid summer. No, it’s the neighbours, they are the real trouble. It’s so hard to be the only democracy in the Middle East, surrounded by all those bloodthirsty Arab dictatorships. Prime Minister Shimon Peres (Nobel Prize Winner for … Continue reading “The Chosen Pariah”

"Bah," spat my buddy Victor. "Chinese love face too much." It seems the $10 million performance was so unpopular that the organizers were giving away tickets at the end just to fill the 30,000 seats – the cheapest of those being 800 yuan, a months wage for 80 percent of the population and the most … Continue reading “Too Much Face”

For as long as the cold war lasted, the history of the conservative movement before about 1955 – the history of what I call the Old Right – was for the most part ignored: when they talked about it at all, historians of both the left and the right invariably dismissed it as too politically … Continue reading “THEY FOUGHT THE GOOD FIGHT”

It is tempting to have a sneaking admiration for the “anti-globalization” protesters who assembled in Genoa, Italy to protest the leaders of the world’s industrialized nations meeting at their G-8 summit over the weekend. They showed up and they took the spotlight from the pompous blowhards who lead the countries that industrialized long before this … Continue reading “European Overtures”

Mideast War – Really Imminent? By now, a war in the Middle East will not catch anybody by surprise. Predictions have been so persistent, that the actual surprise is that the war has not started yet. Some people, not necessarily optimistic by nature, start wondering whether a war is really imminent. Why should Sharon make … Continue reading “Mideast War – Really Imminent?”

So how did it go? The Mitchell Report recommended a cease-fire and freeze of all settlements activities. As spin, Sharon announced a "cease-fire" to push aside the issue of settlements. Then we had the Palestinian suicide bomb killing 21 young Israelis in Tel-Aviv, and it was Arafat’s turn to announce a cease-fire, which precluded the … Continue reading “The State of the Army, Part Two”

THE CUNNING OF REASON Those who have been keeping track of such things will recall that ten or so years ago, as the Soviet bloc was falling by the wayside, Francis Fukuyama proclaimed "the end of history" in a famous article that he later expanded into a book. There, the neo-conservative writer maintained that history … Continue reading “Hegel, Well-Regulated Police States, and Empire”

The utter hypocrisy and outright evil of the “war crimes” trials being conducted in the Balkans these days is epitomized by the Croatian court trying Fikret Abdic for alleged “crimes against humanity.” It is a story in which everything is inverted: in which the West, as embodied by the International Criminal Tribunal for War Crimes … Continue reading “FREE FIKRET ABDIC!”

The saga of the Bytyqi brothers, covered in my last column, is an object lesson in how the War Party exploits every opportunity, no matter how dubious, to make propaganda for their cause. It also epitomizes how the media cooperate, allowing themselves to be used as a transmission belt for lies masquerading as “news” – … Continue reading “IS SELF-DEFENSE A ‘WAR CRIME’?”