Start with the simplest, most basic fudge. Newspapers and the TV news constantly report on various plans for the “withdrawal of American troops” from Iraq, when what’s being proposed is the withdrawal of American “combat troops” or “combat brigades.” This isn’t a matter of splitting hairs; it’s the difference between a plan for full-scale withdrawal … Continue reading “Democratic Doublespeak
on Iraq”
Tom Engelhardt
An editor in publishing for the last 25 years, Tom Engelhardt is the author
of The
End of Victory Culture, a history of American triumphalism in the Cold
War era, now out in a revised edition with a new preface and afterword, and Mission Unaccomplished, TomDispatch Interviews With American Iconoclasts and Dissenters.
He is at present consulting editor for Metropolitan Books, a fellow of the
Nation Institute, and a teaching fellow at the journalism school of the University of California, Berkeley.
Visit his Web site.
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Democratic Doublespeak
Yes, Bush Is Naked, What of It?
President Bush’s announcement of a new Middle East summit is being dutifully reported as a move to “revive” the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, designed to culminate in a two-state solution. But the meeting, if it ever comes about, will be nothing of the sort. U.S. officials have already made clear that the gathering’s purpose will be … Continue reading “Yes, Bush Is Naked, What of It?”
The War Is Lost
The week in Iraq began with a particularly brutal triple bombing in the oil-rich, disputed city of Kirkuk – a truck bomb took out part of the headquarters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the party of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, and subsequent car bombs hit a nearby market and a police patrol, with over … Continue reading “The War Is Lost”
Wrong Again!
Okay, it’s another lemon, the second you’ve bought from the same used-car lot – and for $1,000 more than the first. The transmission is a mess; the muffler’s clunking; smoke’s seeping out of the dashboard; and you’ve only had it a week. You took it, grudgingly, as a replacement for that beat-up old Camry that … Continue reading “Wrong Again!”
Iraq on My Mind
What if you spoke regularly of “haji food,” “haji music” and “haji homes”? What if your speeding convoys ran over civilians often enough that no one thought to report the incidents? What if your platoon was told pointblank: “The Geneva Conventions don’t exist at all in Iraq, and that’s in writing if you want to … Continue reading “Iraq on My Mind”
Planet Pentagon
As the editor of Chalmers Johnson’s Blowback Trilogy for the American Empire Project, I was struck by an oddity when the second volume, The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic, was published in 2004 to splendid reviews in this country. Johnson’s focus in the book – its heart and soul, … Continue reading “Planet Pentagon”
‘Accidents’ of War
The first news stories about the most notorious massacre of the Vietnam War were picked up the morning after from an Army publicity release. These proved fairly typical for the war. On its front page, the New York Times labeled the operation in and around a village called My Lai 4 (or “Pinkville,” as it … Continue reading “‘Accidents’ of War”
What Tenet Knew
In a week dominated by the CIA – the Agency of the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s – it might be easy enough to forget the Agency of the new century, the one known for creating its own offshore Bermuda triangle of injustice, including a global system of secret (or borrowed) prisons, as well as for … Continue reading “What Tenet Knew”
Surging Numbers in Iraq
Sometimes, numbers can strip human beings of just about everything that makes us what we are. Numbers can silence pain, erase love, obliterate emotion, and blur individuality. But sometimes numbers can also tell a necessary story in ways nothing else can. This January, President Bush announced his “surge” plan for Iraq, which he called his … Continue reading “Surging Numbers in Iraq”
Robert Gates, the Specialist
“I may be dangerous,” he said, “but I am not wicked. No, I am not wicked.” – Henry James, The American It was a failed administration’s ritual scapegoating, the ousting last winter of its ruinous secretary of defense. But in the sauve qui peut confirmation of his replacement – “The only thing that mattered,” said … Continue reading “Robert Gates, the Specialist”