Just when you were wondering what direction George W. Bush's foreign policy will be taking, Charles Krauthammer has it all figured out: in his Washington Post column [June 8, 2001] and in the Weekly Standard, the secret doctrine that animates our seemingly random and...
The State’s Dark Underside
Various loyal acolytes including CNN, most of the newspapers and the major networks worked diligently to make the killing of Timothy McVeigh into something of a solemn religious event that bolstered the power and dignity of the State and the Empire it fitfully tries...
The Peculiar U.S. Theory of Self-Defense
A CLASSIC WORK REVISITED Albert K. Weinberg’s Manifest Destiny: A Study of Nationalist Expansionism in American History (Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1963 [1935]) still repays close and careful reading. Already in 1935, this work brought together most of the themes...
CHAOS IN KATMANDU
The vortex of intrigue and international politics swirling around the murder of Nepal's King Birendra – a deed supposedly committed by his own son – and the slaughter of practically the entire royal family threatens to engulf the Himalayan kingdom, and...
RED DIAPER BABY
The memoirs of ex-Communists – from the embittered fulminations of Benjamin Gitlow (an early defector from the Left) to the tale of espionage and angst told by Whittaker Chambers in his famous book, Witness – constitute a literary subgenre, one that, with...
GO, MAKIKO, GO!
Why is the Japanese media out to get Makiko Tanaka? Ever since she took office, Japan's "Iron Lady," the blunt-talking daughter of a former prime minister, has been the target of leaks from within her own Foreign Ministry, and vicious attacks in the Japanese media....
Reassuring Nobody?
The Bush administration is putting out all sorts of statements that are presumably supposed to be reassuring. I just wonder who is supposed to be reassured by some of these statements. For example, in domestic affairs, the Bushies want to reassure us that they are...
CHINA ON THE ROAD TO CAPITALISM
This past March, Robert Cassidy – the chief negotiator in bilateral talks with Long Yu Tu, China’s Vice Minister of Foreign Trade, over China’s entry into the World Trade Organization – made a promotional tour of Chinese universities and business...
McCAIN’S MUTINY
When I read the Washington Post story on John McCain's mad scheme to bolt the GOP and form a "centrist" third party, my first thought was: I've got Nostradamus beat. This, of course, is the typically self-referential mindset of any writer – just so you'll know...
McCAIN’S MUTINY
When I read the Washington Post story on John McCain's mad scheme to bolt the GOP and form a "centrist" third party, my first thought was: I've got Nostradamus beat. This, of course, is the typically self-referential mindset of any writer – just so you'll know...