Month: July 2005

According to neo-crazy media sycophants at the New York Times and elsewhere, the Bush-Cheney administration is currently engaged in the six-party talks "aimed at ending North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs" and is "supporting" European Union efforts to force Iran "to end its nuclear weapons program." But media sycophants to the contrary, that is not what … Continue reading “No Stinking Badges”

Is America preparing to pull out of Iraq without victory? Are we ready to leave that war-ravaged land without any assurance a free, democratic, pro-Western Iraq will survive? Is President Bush willing to settle for less than we all thought? So it would seem. For it is difficult to draw any other conclusion from the … Continue reading “Is America’s War Winding Up?”

Historic days in Israel: a showdown between the government and the settlers. Though the sides do negotiate behind the scenes, this time it does not look like the cat-and-mouse games for the media a few years ago, Prime Minister Barak’s favorite dissimulation, when a few settlers were filmed dragged from some unmanned West Bank outpost … Continue reading “Disengagement’s Foreplay”

In a desperate 11th-hour bid to save face and salvage credibility amid the violent collapse of their predictions of a "cakewalk" victory over Iraq, neoconservative opinionmakers appear to be preparing to spin America’s likely troop drawdown as just another stage in the fulfillment of their larger plans for the region. "In Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and … Continue reading “A Costly Education for America”

Conscience is not in the chain of command. "Before being sentenced to 15 months for refusing to return to Iraq with his Army unit, Sgt. Kevin Benderman told a military judge that he acted with his conscience, not out of a disregard for duty," the Associated Press reports. Benderman, a 40-year-old Army mechanic, "refused to … Continue reading “In Praise of Kevin Benderman”

There’s been a distinct shift in the way U.S. officials talk not only about the war on terror, but about the "mission" in Iraq. As the International Herald Tribune noted in a story Wednesday, the "global war on terror" has been transmogrified into "a global struggle against violent extremism," as Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman … Continue reading “Reality Bites Back”

Barely two minutes into the premiere episode of Over There, Steven Bochco‘s gritty television series about soldiers fighting in the Iraq war, and already the myth of the “stab in the back” – the nutty idea that we are, somehow, not being allowed to win by pansy generals and public relations hacks – had reared … Continue reading “Over There – Hollywood Joins the War Party”

The election of the hardline Tehran mayor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, over former President Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani as the new head of Iran is undeniably a setback for those hoping to advance greater social and political freedom in that country. It should not necessarily be seen as a turn to the Right by the Iranian electorate, however. … Continue reading “Democracy, Terrorism, and Nuclear Weapons”

The five elderly women stood in front of a U.S. Army recruiting office in Tucson, Arizona, and began to sing. To the tune of "There’s No Business Like Show Business," they belted out the lyrics they had written: "There’s no business like war business The worst business we know Never mind the homeless and the … Continue reading “Grannies Rage Against the Machine”

JERUSALEM – A growing number of Palestinians are beginning to believe that Israeli disengagement from the Gaza Strip will not mean the end of occupation. "The Gaza Strip will still be occupied territory under international law," says Renad Qubbaj of the Palestinian NGO Network, based in Ramallah in the West Bank. "After implementation of the … Continue reading “Gaza Will Be ‘Vacated but Still Occupied’”