Month: September 2003

President Bush looked calm, determined and resolved Sunday night as he capped off Week One of the National Football League with a reminder that U.S. troops are committed to a much more serious and deadly game halfway around the globe. Still it was not difficult to detect a certain sense of desperation in the decision … Continue reading “US in for More Than a Penny in Iraq”

Matt Welch is vexed. According to him, U.S. involvement in Iraq has unleashed a storm of lies. No, not about uranium from Niger, or 45 minute launch times, or vast stores of anthrax, not those little fibs. Welch is referring to "lies" that exaggerate the impact of sanctions on Iraqis, especially children. These "myths" are … Continue reading “Coherent Argument, Meet Matt Welch”

The Sunday morning talk shows were teaming with administration spokesmen, prepping the public for their boss’s evening pitch for support on Iraq. Here’s Colin Powell on “Face the Nation”: “It’s going to cost more, and there will be continued sacrifice on the part of our young men and women. Hopefully, in the very near future … Continue reading “BUSH SPEECH: NO U-TURN ON THE ROAD TO EMPIRE”

It is significant that US Treasury Secretary John Snow arrived in Beijing on the heels of the six-party talks concerning peace on the peninsula. Snow arrived to discuss the undervalued yuan, which may be held up during next year’s elections as the dead rat fouling up Sino-US relations. The yuan is pegged to the dollar … Continue reading “Let’s Hope Nobody Calls the US’s Bluff”

If even many supporters of a ground invasion of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq are disappointed in how the military action has gone to date, then much of the blame for the disillusionment can be placed on the rhetoric used to sell the use of ground troops. Despite Hussein being, as the President put it, "one of … Continue reading “Losing the War on Terror and the Prostitution of Faith”

I‘m not surprised at the news that the citizenship oath all immigrants take is being “updated.” An empire, after all, demands a different sort of loyalty than a republic. As the Los Angeles Daily News puts it: “The citizenship oath, which requires immigrants to renounce loyalty to ‘princes and potentates,’ is getting a makeover after … Continue reading “IMPERIAL EYE FOR THE REPUBLICAN GUY”

As the growth of the Internet matched the unfolding Balkans conflicts of the 1990s, the Web has become a significant medium for news and commentaries in the region. NATO’s 1999 invasion of Kosovo drove the point home, as internet journalists outmaneuvered the Imperial media blockade and informed the world of lies and liars who told … Continue reading “Balkans Online”

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The recent bombing of the UN headquarters in Iraq has refocused the world’s attention on the dangerous situation in that nation. The Bush administration is now softening its position against UN involvement, and is considering the use of UN military forces to serve as an international peacekeeping coalition in Iraq. We should not expect any … Continue reading “Can We Afford To Occupy Iraq?”

Who was responsible for the Najaf bombing, in which 125 people were killed – including the leader of the pro-Iranian Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI)? As of this writing, there are at least six versions of the truth to choose from: one fingers two Iraqis and two Saudis, another blames “two … Continue reading “IRAQ’S MYSTERY TERRORISTS”