Not many countries are developing as swiftly as China. After 50 years of foolishness, despair and acute poverty, the 1980s and ’90s came as a thunderbolt for most Chinese. As a result, the development is most uneven, with the latest Benz honking furiously at peasant-pulled vegetable-laden go-carts in the middle of a somewhat-paved garbage-strewn thoroughfare. …
Continue reading “Afghanistan and Chinese Power”
They’re telling us everything’s changed since 9/11, it’s a new era, and I’m afraid they’re right: it’s the Age of the Nutballs, where the bizarre reigns supreme. Citing "a senior foreign official," the New York Times reports that, the day before 9/11, Osama bin Laden called his mother. This information, we are told, comes from …
Continue reading “WARTIME MADNESS”
This three-part series will propose the actions I believe our government should take to fight terrorism. Before looking at those proposals, however, we need to establish some ground rules. Perfection isn’t an option Rule #1: No solution is going to be perfect. Our government has created ill will in many parts of the world. It …
Continue reading “What Can We Do About Terrorism?”
Ann Coulter is a leggy, sassy blonde telebimbo, (and constitutional lawyer) whose career as a TV talking head took off during the Clinton scandals – and, like Clinton, she never really went away. Her column, distributed by Universal Press Syndicate, has been a mainstay of the firebreathing Right, and she is (or was) a regular …
Continue reading “KU KLUX COULTER”
Leon Hadar, a foreign policy analyst whose books and articles for the libertarian Cato Institute have long argued for a foreign policy of restraint, worries aloud in the Business Times that George W. Bush may lose support if he doesn’t invade somebody, somehow, and soon. While support for the President is at an all-time high, …
Continue reading “THE INCOMPETENCE OF EMPIRE”
On this 52nd anniversary of the founding of this magnificent nation, not much transpired. Girls dressed up as they always do and pranced around this or that stage. Men toasted each other, bought stuffed toys for 200 yuan, pretending to be rich. Pink ballons were the rave this time around. The balloon hawkers stared into …
Continue reading “New War May Reveal New Superpower”
Despite some absurdly bellicose rhetoric and impossible goals – I don’t know many people who think terrorism and evil can be wiped out once and for all – U.S. leaders have so far moved with a certain amount of deftness in the wake of the September 11 atrocities. But while some sort of military or …
Continue reading “Anti-Terrorism for the Long Haul”
All the media coverage and commentary has neglected to ask the big question: why is it or how is it that the new U.S. war will differ from the Soviet experience in Afghanistan? That 1980-88 war was labeled by many Americans as the "Soviets’ Vietnam," which raises yet another current glaring omission, that being a …
Continue reading “From Infinite Justice to Infinite Jihad”
The cloud of dust and ash had yet to clear from the Manhattan skyline before politicos, ideologues, and pundits of every stripe were using the tragedy to push their agendas.
