Month: May 2000

We’ll see if legendary investigative reporter Seymour Hersh’s story suggesting that former Gulf War commander and now "drug czar" Gen. Barry McCaffrey either ordered or condoned actions that would be viewed as those of a war criminal if done by a foreigner turns out to "have legs," as we say in the business. Gen. McCaffrey … Continue reading “McCaffrey a War Criminal?”

BACK IN THE SADDLE AGAIN Back from rusticating in the kindly shadows of a bodacious western mountain range, I naturally grow thoughtful – first of all, about mountains and music. Americans tend to romanticize mountains, forgetting what our ancestors knew, namely that mountains are bloody great obstacles to migration, unless of course you decide to … Continue reading “The Great Yodeling Conspiracy”

Debates can be fun, and feuds can be a blast if they’re done right. But I’m afraid my recent series of exchanges with National Review Online Editor Jonah Goldberg has degenerated into the kind of ugliness can only be properly answered with a left hook. Now I won’t play the innocent – that won’t work … Continue reading “Sex, Lies and the National Review”

The growing convergence between the ideological extremes of “right” and “left” has been noted, in this column and elsewhere; little noticed, however, has been a corollary development, the drawing in of the political center to a common position that dispenses with the traditional conception of polarized politics. While Pat Buchanan (on the “far” right) and … Continue reading “Clintonizing Intervention: ‘It’s for the Children’”

This headline should set your alarm bells ringing: "Inquiry of Intelligence Failures Hits Obstacles." The effort to ferret out the truth from government officials is, predictably, like pulling teeth. But, in this case, the natural bureaucratic resistance to oversight is augmented by the reluctance of our legislators to probe too deeply. The much-vaunted congressional investigation … Continue reading “The Story of the Century”

As Justin completes his upcoming book on Murray Rothbard, we present a Classic Raimondo piece from last year. October 18, 1999The web of lies woven by this Administration to cover up its crimes in the Balkans is so thick and crawling with vermin that it is virtually certain we won’t know the unvarnished truth for … Continue reading “Web of Lies: Will We Ever Know the Truth about the Chinese Embassy Bombing?”

Well, well, well. The mainstream press is catching on to the tissue of lies woven by Pentagon and NATO spokesmen to justify the late, lamentable war on Kosovo and Yugoslavia. The question is whether the skepticism they are able to display now, more than a year after the war was begun with near-universal cheerleading from … Continue reading “The mainstream catches up”

SPOONER’S REAL VIEWS ABOUT EVERYTHING In truth, I have not been entirely candid in composing the above title. Spooner never said that much about foreign policy as such; but did have a lot to say about governments and wars, and that is close enough for present purposes. Another snag is that few have ever heard … Continue reading “Lysander Spooner (1808-1887) and Foreign Policy”

[O]ne more time Kuchma has demonstrated his unshakable position of the leader of a geostrategically important country that permanently balances on the verge of economic collapse but nevertheless successfully maneuvers its political course through the conflicting interests of Washington and Moscow. Taking into account the latest outburst of popular love for and confidence in the … Continue reading “The Ukrainian Model of Democracy”

It isn’t very often that we get to see the doctrine of global intervention expressed in its pristine pure form. Oh, there are a few examples: Joshua Muravchik’s book, Exporting Democracy, which hails the US military occupation of Germany and Japan as models for American foreign policy in the post-cold war era, is one, and … Continue reading “Invade Africa?–You First, Jonah!”