Month: May 2002

You might think I never advocate an expansion of any government function. Not so. I’d like to see a greater national defense. In fact, I’d like to see a national defense – period. Today our government spends virtually nothing on defense. Instead, it spends over $300 billion per year on offense – the most intimidating … Continue reading “National Defense & National Offense”

The horror of 9/11 was bad enough, but what makes it worse is the positively sinister undertone of what we are coming to learn about the events surrounding that singular event. In reviewing my "what’s up with that?" file of 9/11 news stories, it looks like I have enough material for a whole television series: … Continue reading “Unsolved Mysteries of 9/11”

This week, news from the Balkans has focused on the arrival of Bosnia’s new viceroy and the Serbian parliamentary purges. The fact that “Paddy” Ashdown, an accomplished belligerent statist, was to become Bosnia’s new overlord was already mentioned here. And while purges in Serbia might sound like exciting reading, they are but empty political posturing … Continue reading “The Long Shadow of Kosovo”

Cui Bono was the Latin legal term in old Rome for investigating a crime.  Who benefited from 9/11 is the question? No one would accuse Bush of the strategy used by Roosevelt at Pearl Harbor to get America into the Second World War.  But for others in Washington the question of Who Benefited may be … Continue reading “Cui Bono on 9/11?“

A good deal of President Bush’s trip to Russia and Europe amounted to the kind of image-polishing and schmoozing most U.S. presidents do at various times. U.S. presidents usually spend about two years trying to work on their purported domestic agenda before figuring out that they look a lot more “presidential” when traveling overseas than … Continue reading “Creating a New Axis”

I apologize to our non-American readers, but in the US it’s the Memorial Day weekend, and everyone is on vacation. So instead of writing a column that only half my regular readers will see, I’ve decided to run an "oldie but goodie" – written last year, when Ariel Sharon was running for Prime Minister. I … Continue reading “Who Is Ariel Sharon?”

There’s one very good reason why conspiracies are so genuinely rare in international relations, and that’s because, although you can hide what you’re doing, you can’t very often hide why you might do it. In other words, ‘secret diplomacy’ and everything more Bondian beneath that is all well and good, but the interests of a … Continue reading “Conspiracy Corner”

I rise in opposition to this bill. The President has not asked for this piece of legislation; he does not support it. We do not anticipate that it will be passed in the other body. But there is one good part of the bill, and that is the title, "Freedom Support.” We all support freedom. … Continue reading “Don’t Force Taxpayers to Fund Nation-Building in Afghanistan”

Yasser Arafat just can’t get no respect. And it isn’t only the Israelis and their international amen corner who hate him. Check out this leftist diatribe in the [UK] Guardian aimed at the President of the Palestinian Authority: "T. E. Lawrence wrote of the Arab revolt of 1918 against Ottoman rule: ‘I had preached to … Continue reading “The Palestinian Pimpernel”

The Israeli far-right – always the best indicator of Israel’s true intentions – is quite outspoken: its aim is to make Palestinian life unbearable to a point that they would rather get up and go. Asked about his conception of “voluntary transfer” of Palestinians, Minister of Tourism (Rabbi) Benny Eylon compared the “voluntary” element to … Continue reading “Palestinian Enslavement Entering a New Phase”