Month: May 2003

It’s beggars belief, but it is true. Last week, a group of influential politicians who inhabit the rarefied but influential world of Washington DC think-tanks, proposed that US government officials be given the right to sit in on the European Union’s inter-govermmental conference, and on meetings of its other executive bodies, so that the USA … Continue reading “Becoming the 51st State”

When Jonathan Foreman of the New York Post, who earlier did a piece on how the rest of the media were downplaying expressions of affection for Americans among Iraqis (a story several pro-war readers helpfully emailed to me), that the United States seems to be blowing the occupation, you know things can’t be going especially … Continue reading “The Justifications Crumble”

I’m shocked – shocked! – but it appears that neither Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld nor General Tommy Franks has read Ludwig von Mises, or even David Hume. Their economic ignorance has led to the only American defeat — not on the battlefield, but on the economic front. The ‘Saddam dinar’ (picture on the left) has … Continue reading “Dinar Is Served”

At first it looked like it was going to be Syria: Baghdad had no sooner fallen, you’ll remember, when Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld began glowering in the direction of Damascus. Colin Powell’s powwow with Syrian President Bashar Assad cut the War Party off at the pass, however, and the focus soon shifted elsewhere: when an … Continue reading “Regime Change Roulette”

A fter 9 months of TV-free studies at college, I spent a solid week of vacation in front of the set and its only source of “intellect”: cable news. Boy, was I spoiled! My only exposure to world news in those 9 months came from Antiwar.com, Google News, NPR and my local newspaper in Wisconsin. … Continue reading “Isn’t the World Better Off…?”

“You could oversee a bombing mission overseas then break for dinner with the family” – Boeing engineer Roy Smith on the new X-45 unmanned bomber Well, it’s about time. I often think to myself, as my frozen dinner rotates in the microwave, "Shouldn’t I be blowing the limbs off of some goddamn foreigners?" Then my … Continue reading “Joystick Mayhem”

I knew there was something awfully suspicious about the announcement, a few weeks ago, that most U.S. troops were going to be withdrawn from Saudi Arabia. After all, since when does the Empire hail a major retreat? And now my suspicions have been confirmed…. The close, almost symbiotic U.S.-Saudi relationship dates back to the World … Continue reading “Blowback in Riyadh”

General Zhu of the Chinese Air Force is from Canton, but today he is sitting in tiny little Xinjin city, just south of Chengdu, hosting a small banquet of friends and family. Two majors are concentrating hard on providing the General with choice morsels and keeping his cup of baijiu full. The General waves them … Continue reading “Powers Behind the Thrones”

Is Gordon Brown a Eurosceptic? Well of course he\’s not, but every time that question is asked of him, or the label is tentatively applied to him, what\’s really meant is: the Chancellor\’s not as keen as the Prime Minister to replace Sterling with the Euro. Whether this distinction exists because the Chancellor, having sat … Continue reading “How Iain Won\’t Save Britain”

Recent revelations that a New York Times reporter invented quotes, fabricated facts and flat-out lied in dozens – if not hundreds – of his stories hardly come as a surprise to a jaded Balkans observer. Lying journalists, fallacious newspapers and severely biased TV coverage are all old news in Belgrade, Sarajevo and Zagreb, even if … Continue reading “Lies Reporters Tell”