Month: April 2003

From the conflicting news stories, suggesting that different factions leak to different media outlets or different writers, it is almost impossible for a mere citizen to get anything resembling a clear idea of U.S. intentions in postwar Iraq. Is the United States there for the long haul, or will a noticeable presence be a matter … Continue reading “Postwar Blues”

The Iraqi morality play grinds on, now well into its second Act. Will the Shi’ites clash with the Sunnis, or will they unite and drive us back from whence we came? Will the long drama of the Kurds end in subjugation, or independence? And what of the Israelis – can they be accommodated without a … Continue reading “Putting America First”

Last week, in an essay titled "Iraq’s Cultural Catastrophe – and Ours," Christopher Deliso wrote, "Having almost no history of its own, America is ignorant, almost contemptuous of that of other peoples." While ignorance and envy certainly played a role in the destruction, larger motives were at work, motives that go to the heart of … Continue reading “Dada Conservatives”

One of the noteworthy features of the very late 20th and very early 21st centuries is the way in which everything that was once an historical accusation has become a defense. Thus, if on the evidence, FDR had a really good idea where the Japanese fleet was and where it was going in early December … Continue reading “Truman, Treaties, and the Bricker Amendment”

No sooner had the War Party declared victory in Iraq and started looking impatiently around for their next victim, when their supposed easy conquest began to fall apart at the seams. The laptop field marshals and the Chickenhawk Brigade barely had time to pound out their demand that the peaceniks repent before it dawned on … Continue reading “Fickle ‘Victory’”

It all started when the Peace Corps quietly slipped out of China two weeks ago. There was a small, muted gathering at the local watering hole in Chengdu, and then they were gone, SARS being the culprit. Chengdu is a focal point for the Peace Corps in southwest China, they taught in the schools, ate … Continue reading “Rumors and Leavetakings”

Last week’s "liberation" of Iraq bore a striking resemblance to the "liberation" of Kosovo four years ago, or the continuing "freedom" Bosnia enjoys, replete with the Imperial occupation troops, a viceroy, general devastation and cultural destruction. Empire’s quest for a global Balkans grows more apparent by the day. The polls may indicate that most Americans … Continue reading “Empire’s ‘Liberation’”

War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength – and Daniel Pipes, the nation’s leading Islamophobe and a stalwart of the War Party, has been named to the Board of Directors of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). While the Institute – a U.S. government agency first proposed in the 1970s by President … Continue reading “Nesting Habits of Washington’s War Birds”

Destroying the Iraqi tyranny, the US has demonstrated that the entire globe is now subject to American dictatorship. Not bothering to obtain even a disguise of international legitimacy from the Security Council, the two dozens of neoconservative men who are running our planet (for the sake of the weapon and oil industry) send hundreds of … Continue reading “Israeli Militarism At War”

The news of the moment, especially the escalating rhetoric of certain U.S. spokesmen on Syria, is fascinating and worthy of some tut-tutting a bit later. But for me the most fascinating news of the past week was almost taken for granted: the virtually instant crumbling of Saddam Hussein’s regime after decades of brutal totalitarian rule. … Continue reading “The Harder They Fall”