Month: November 2001

Two months into the war, and the Americans were hard-pressed to point to a single success, never mind the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. The argument that the Afghan war is a quagmire waiting to swallow them seemed more credible than ever, and significant voices of dissent were beginning to be raised, … Continue reading “THE WAR IS A TRAP”

PEACE STUDIES AREN’T WHAT THEY USED TO BE Twenty years ago, someone might have opened up a journal of “peace studies” with some hope of finding useful analysis or information. At worst, he might confront some well-meaning Norwegian or Swede going on about imperialism, oppression, inequalities in the international state system, and the like. Even … Continue reading “Chimes of Wilson Flashing”

It’s been nearly two months since the September 11 mass-slaughters, and the U.S. response more and more resembles that period when America was beginning its long slide into Vietnam. I grant you that it’s not an exact comparison – one obvious difference, because the 9-11 attack took place on our own soil, is that the … Continue reading “The Vietnam-Afghanistan Mirror”

While conservatives are among the most insistent cheerleaders for the “new war,” they may well turn out to be its biggest losers, at least here on the home front. Congresswoman Nita Lowey (D-NY) could hardly contain her glee the other night on Crossfire when she remarked that she felt sorry for the Republicans “because Tom … Continue reading “POLITICS AND THE WAR”

“Bin Laden’s objective,” I speculated to Hernando de Soto, Peru’s great author of The Other Path and now The Mystery of Capital, “is the expulsion of American interests from the Muslim world.” “No, no,” he replied, “it’s more than that. He wants American interests out of the whole Third World.” In this scenario, the pessimistic … Continue reading “Alternative to Unending War”

China is just days away from WTO membership and the problems forecasted by many analysts, including this young hack columnist, show no signs of disappearing on their own. Chinese peasants still rely on animals, ancient utensils and sweat to till their fields, urban unemployed still prowl the streets hoping for a yuan or two, the … Continue reading “Risk and Promise”

Anthrax I could put up with, an “emergency alert” every 24 hours now seems like normal everyday life, but there is one aspect of the new era that is utterly intolerable: Alan Dershowitz in wartime. The man who was once so vaingloriously solicitous of our “civil rights,” a self-described “civil libertarian,” is now proposing a … Continue reading “WHAT WAR HAS WROUGHT”

You might not think that peace and prosperity would need defending against the pervasive sacrifice and death that characterize war and conflict. To assume that most people, especially public intellectuals, would prefer peace to widespread devastation, however, would be to make a mistake. There are certain sectors of American intellectual life – spread sometimes surprisingly … Continue reading “Defending Peacetime”

Rememberthe post-cold war military doctrine that we had to be able to fight two and a half wars at once? Two major conflicts – one in, say, the Middle East, and the other in Korea or somesuch outpost of Empire – and, perhaps, a guerrilla insurgency in some obscure Third World country (Colombia, for example, … Continue reading “TWO WARS AT ONCE”

The major newspapers have been crowing about the negative impacts the 9/11 attacks and the ensuing War on Terrorism will have on the US economy and therefore the world economy as a whole. Already we are seeing these effects in the US: airlines have been bailed out by the government as they lay off thousands, … Continue reading “Standing Aloof?”