Despite the 24/7 triumphalism on the cable news channels, the war isn't over yet, although it's difficult to see an outcome other than eventual U.S. and British supremacy, at least for now. The U.S. decision to send convoys of tanks and Bradley vehicles into the heart...
The real war is quite different from the one we are seeing on television, as reported by journalists "embedded" so deeply in the militarist mystique that they no longer bother to disguise their role as cheerleaders. Their role is to shout "Hail Caesar!" at the...
This sad burlesque With miserable failures making entertainment of our fate Laughter cannot dignify or elevate This sad burlesque. —Elvis Costello Whom shall I ridicule this week? Why even bother? Better tyrants than ours might listen to their jesters; better...
This week Congress will be working on the $75 billion supplemental appropriations to pay for the war. Financing the war is not as simple as it appears. It involves more than just passing a piece of legislation labeled as support for the troops. It has now been...
As the propagandistic fervor on American television reaches a crescendo of triumphant self-righteousness, and our noble centurions gather at the gates of Baghdad, ready for the final assault, the battle-cry of the neocons is heard above the din: "On to Damascus!...
On March 31st, ten women and children were killed near Najaf when a van they were in was riddled with fire from U.S. Marines who had tried to get it to stop at a military checkpoint. After Saturday's suicide bombing that caused the death of four U.S. Marines at...
Despite the insistence of high Imperial officials, it is obvious that after two weeks of fighting, the un-American war is going rather badly. Instead of gleefully surrendering, Iraqis are (gasp!) defending not so much their leader as their country. The same happened...
While the battlefield success of the "coalition" forces may be the subject of a vigorous debate, none can dispute their conquest of the American media. They took out NBC this week, although Iraqi television flickers back after each bombing raid. We can't be...
Last October, the New York Times reported that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld ordered the military's regional commanders to rewrite all of their war plans to capitalize on precision weapons, better intelligence and speedier deployment in the event the United...
Perhaps the oddest phenomenon of the current moment is the insistence by top military brass – and their doppelgangers disguised as retired-military consultants on TV networks – that the original plan for the invasion of Iraq was just hunky-dory and...
