The Zero

Robert E. Lee advised his children to avoid fiction and read biography and history so that they might know the world "as it really is." Only recently I came upon a new paperback edition of a book originally published in 1956. If you haven't already read it,...

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Oh, What a Lovely War

The "legality" of the Bush-Blair invasion and occupation of Iraq hasn't presented – so far – much of a problem for President Bush. However, it seems to be presenting quite a problem for Prime Minister Tony Blair. In making the case for the...

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A Useful Whitewash

"Bush views new report on spy lapses with favor," was the headline on the New York Times story previewing the latest commission that reported several weeks ago on the manifest and manifold U.S. government intelligence failures in detecting...

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Muslim Scholar Urges Halt to Extreme Punishments

NEW YORK - A Muslim scholar who was issued and then denied a visa to teach in the United States because of alleged ties to terrorists has called for an immediate moratorium on corporal and capital punishment and dialogue aimed at creating less repressive Muslim...

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The Thirty Years War

This Saturday is the 30th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam war, and in marking it one cannot help but note the parallels with the present intervention. Naturally, there are many differences: the nature of the enemy, the terrain, and the origins of the current...

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More on Gangs and Guerrillas vs. the State

A story in the April 26 Washington Times, "Drug Smugglers, Rebels Join Hands," by Carmen Gentile, offered an interesting illustration of the argument I made in my last column, that Fourth Generation entities may do everything they want to do within the framework of...

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Put the Marx Brothers in Charge

The new Robb-Silberman report on U.S. intelligence capabilities should, but won't, enrage Americans. Too long at 600-plus pages for most to read, the report completes the destruction of the intelligence community – especially the CIA – begun by Congress'...

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Israelis Resist the Arabs in Their Midst

JERUSALEM - More than four years of violence between Israelis and Palestinians may have abated at least temporarily, but its effect is still being felt on relations between Jews and Arabs inside Israel. A string of recent polls, events and policy issues shows that...

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