Month: September 2006

Although Afghan president Hamid Karzai may not be much of a ruler of the kind that firmly establishes control of the entire country – which might not be a bad thing in less parlous times in Afghanistan, which has never really cottoned to central government – he clearly excels President Bush at one aspect of … Continue reading “Much Ado Over Not Much”

By enacting new legislation this week governing the treatment and trial of suspects in Washington’s "global war on terror," Congress has turned its back on both international law and the U.S. Constitution, according to the country’s major human rights groups. The legislation, which cleared the Senate Thursday and is expected to be signed into law … Continue reading “Groups Unanimously Assail New Detention Law”

President Hugo Chávez’s speech at the U.N. on September 20, 2006 created a new nadir of crudeness. It was also just one more attempt to demonize an opponent. He depicted President George W. Bush as the devil. Watching him speak extemporaneously, and with so much malice, one wonders where this world of ours is heading. … Continue reading “The Devil and the Post-9/11 Era”

A deluge of experts, attracted by government money, is drowning Washington. So many elected and appointed officials know even less than the phony experts that it’s like a gold-rush town for the briefcase-toting fast-talkers. You, however, don’t need to be an expert – phony or genuine – to figure out the broad outlines of the … Continue reading “Not Worth a Camel”

A mistake too often made by those examining Israel’s behavior in the occupied territories – or when analyzing its treatment of Arabs in general, or interpreting its view of Iran – is to assume that Israel is acting in good faith. Even its most trenchant critics can fall into this trap. Such a reluctance to … Continue reading “Bad Faith and the Destruction of Palestine”

Last week at the United Nations, Hugo Chávez, the president of Venezuela, called President George W. Bush “the devil” and complained he could still smell the sulfur. The reaction was immediate, visceral, and scary. Even the president’s most virulent enemies took umbrage. Charles Rangel, a liberal democrat from Harlem, raged, “You don’t come into my … Continue reading “My President, Right or Wrong”

Recently, in one of many speeches melding his Global War on Terror and his war in Iraq, George W. Bush said, “Victory in Iraq will be difficult and it will require more sacrifice. The fighting there can be as fierce as it was at Omaha Beach or Guadalcanal. And victory is as important as it … Continue reading “Iraq at the Gates of Hell”

How quickly we forget. It seems like only yesterday that the headlines were ablaze with news of the color-coded revolutions supposedly inspired by our president’s commitment to fostering “democracy” throughout the globe. In an inaugural speech widely derided by those who hadn’t quaffed too deeply of the neoconservative Kool-Aid, George W. Bush declared that U.S. … Continue reading “The ‘Color’ Revolutions:
Fade to Black”

At America’s behest, Pakistan sent its army into the tribal territories along its northwest frontier. Predictably, its army got beaten. The Pakistani government has now signed a truce with the tribes in North Waziristan, a wise move given that government’s fragility. (On Sunday, when the power went out all over Pakistan, everyone assumed there had … Continue reading “The Sanctuary Delusion”