Iraqi Democracy: Not Quite the Cakewalk
If I had a choice of catching 1,000 feral cats or bringing democracy to Iraq, I’d take the cat job in a New York second. The Shiites want immediate elections; the Sunnis have just organized themselves and oppose immediate elections. The Kurds want autonomy, but the Turks have warned that they’ll cause big trouble if [...]
Recalling Pol Pot’s Terror, but Forgetting His Backers
“It is my duty,” wrote the correspondent of the Times at the liberation of Belsen, “to describe something beyond the imagination of mankind.” That was how I felt in the summer of 1979, arriving in Cambodia in the wake of Pol Pot’s genocidal regime. In the silent, gray humidity, Phnom Penh, the size of [...]
Can China Keep Up the Pace?
A recent study by a Chinese Academy of Social Sciences claims the emerging Chinese middle class is a myth. All those interviewed who believe they are middle class, are actually deluding themselves or lying. Or are being lied to. A concurrent stream of research by the Henry Luce Foundation in cooperation with the Baker Institute [...]
Perle Must Resign
At Antiwar.com – we get results. When Richard Perle, high-visibility neocon and co-author of a recent book that faults the Bush administration for being soft on terrorism, spoke at a rally associated with the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), an Iranian terrorist group once allied with Saddam Hussein, the “mainstream” media was nowhere to be seen. [...]
Jewish, Arab Americans Disapprove of Bush Mideast Policy
If U.S. President George W. Bush believed that aligning US policies more closely to those of the right-wing Likud government headed by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon would win him more votes from Jewish Americans, he should think again. That is the message of a new survey of 500 Jewish Americans polled by Zogby [...]
Concerns Grow Over Taliban Resurgence, Opium
Suicide bombings that killed two peacekeepers from Britain and Canada in 48 hours have abruptly reminded Washington and its NATO allies they face major challenges in ensuring sufficient security in Afghanistan to hold credible elections scheduled for June. Already, some officials are suggesting the vote might have to be rescheduled as a result of [...]
Canada to Probe Intel Agencies’ Role in Arar Deportation
The Canadian government has ordered a public inquiry into the role of intelligence agents in the arrest and deportation of a man who was seized by U.S. authorities while he changed planes in New York City and sent to a Syrian prison. Maher Arar, a native Syrian with Canadian citizenship, was arrested in September [...]
