Month: January 2003

It may be in somewhat poor taste to say "I told you so," but I can’t resist. My prognosis that the Iraq war, far from being "inevitable," as we’ve been endlessly told, has been postponed if not put on the back burner indefinitely has been all but verified by recent events. In a column posted … Continue reading “War Party In Retreat”

I have received a lot of curses in my lifetime, and here and there some compliments, too. But I have never received a compliment like this one: an important party, represented in the Knesset, has mentioned my name in its official election platform. Under the heading "Legislation and strict supervision of organizations and activists of … Continue reading “Liberman’s Supreme Soviet”

The prospect of a war to subdue and occupy Iraq has brought the neo-imperialists out of the closet, so to speak, and inaugurated a new honesty among political commentators on the left as well as the right. As Americans wake up to the brutal reality of a war that could cost half a million Iraqi … Continue reading “Hail Caesar?”

We’ve been getting all these trial balloons, so maybe there’s a serious effort underway. (Or maybe not.) A December 29 Associated Press story that ran in numerous newspapers and Web sites around the world, says that Arab leaders "are considering the possibility of pressing Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to step down and go into exile. … Continue reading “Can Exile Solve the Saddam Problem?”

On June 13, 2002, Shin Hyo-soon and Shim Mi-sun, both 14 years old, walked along the side of a road on their way to a birthday party, chattering and laughing, as children do. They never saw the mammoth U.S. military truck with two soldiers on board as it crushed them, grinding their bodies into the … Continue reading “Korean Ghosts”

Max Boot starts out his essay on "What the Heck is a ‘Neocon?’" – which should have been titled "Who, Me?" – by claiming to find the label affixed to his political persona "mystifying." Yet he winds up writing a mini-manifesto of the Neocon Creed: "It is not really domestic policy that defines neoconservatism. This … Continue reading “Do Neocons Exist?”

Being an American living in China means never lacking for small talk. During times of peace, conversation tends to be genial. "If I visit Hollywood, where should I stand to see the most movie stars?" is a common query. "Can I really buy a gun at any supermarket in your country?" is another. Recently though, … Continue reading “The View From Over Here: Killing the Chicken to Frighten the Monkey”

If Pakistan’s president, General Pervez Musharraf, wanted to send a shiver down the spine of the international community, and remind it that South Asia still remains the world’s most dangerous place, he could not have done so more effectively than he did last Monday while addressing Air Force veterans in Karachi. Gen Musharraf said he … Continue reading “Musharraf’s Speech Raises the Nuclear Danger”

To get some idea of what we’re in for in 2003, take a gander at this news report from South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency: “Seoul, Dec. 27 (Yonhap) – The United States would deploy some 690,000 troops to augment the 37,000-strong American military presence already here if war should break out on the peninsula, a … Continue reading “Happy New Year?”