Month: February 2001

Is George W. Bush just a little, er, slow? Just because Hollywood flake Martin Sheen says he is doesn’t mean it ain’t so. The BBC reports that Sheen, a longtime Clinton camp follower – who plays the presidential role in that TV series about the White House of a liberal’s dreamworld, The West Wing – … Continue reading “It’s The Empire, Stupid”

The overwhelming victory in the Israeli prime ministerial election by former defense ministers and noted hawk Ariel Sharon could be viewed as a harbinger of wider conflict and violence in the region. Despite his margin over Ehud Barak, however, Sharon may not have nearly as much latitude to do what he wants as some observers … Continue reading “Middle East: A Time for Reassessment”

Internet journalism is growing by leaps and bounds, and bookmarks change with the passing of time. Some sites go under, or go dormant, while others spring to life. But a few have managed to endure, in spite of everything: mostly because they’re totally without corporate pretensions and haven’t suffered the disability of being injected with … Continue reading “Bookmarks”

I know a lot of good conservative Republicans, fierce opponents of US global military intervention, who have signed on the to the Bush administration’s National Missile Defense program for what they regard as good “isolationist” reasons. To begin with, they opine, the US does indeed have a growing number of determined enemies who would like … Continue reading “Globalizing ‘Star Wars’”

Something really strange is going on in Saudi Arabia, but you wouldn’t know it if your primary source of news is the “mainstream” American media. It is only just now that they are getting around to reporting the facts, and even then, as we shall see, only to a limited extent and without bothering to … Continue reading “What’s Up with the Saudis?”

Even as Dubya is earning unexpectedly good reviews for his first couple of weeks in office (a generally meaningless indicator of which the media are nonetheless inordinately fond), especially for his deft handling of domestic issues and Congress, there are rumblings about rifts among the Bush foreign policy advisers. Or perhaps some folks are trying … Continue reading “Tussling in the Bush Foreign Policy Team?”

When Ariel Sharon visited an agricultural high school outside Beersheva in the final phase of his campaign to become Israel’s Prime Minister, he was met by 16-year-old Ilil Komey, whose father has suffered from shellshock in the wake of Israel’s illegal 1984 invasion of Lebanon. In a scene recorded by Israeli national television , Ms. … Continue reading “Who Is Ariel Sharon?”

The no-nonsense military affairs columnist Colonel David Hackworth, who gives his readers a grunt’s-eye view of what the perfumed princes of the Pentagon are up to, writes that “war is in the wind. But you wouldn’t know it if you get your news from Brokaw, Jennings and Rather.” Ah, but you would know it if … Continue reading “The Myth of the Saddam Bomb”