Month: November 2003

George W. Bush had barely finished bemoaning the “democracy deficit” in his speech to the National Endowment for Democracy when General John Abizaid, commander of U.S. troops in the Middle East, showed the true face of the American occupation. The headline said it all: “Top U.S. general warns of harsh measures unless attacks stop.“ Apparently … Continue reading “Iraq: It’s Getting Ugly”

Congress recently voted to send $87 billion to Iraq, money that will be used to build everything from roads to power plants to hospitals. Yet while Congress appears ready to rubber-stamp unlimited monies for nation building in Iraq, thousands of our own soldiers at home are languishing with substandard medical care. You may have read … Continue reading “Mistreating Soldiers and Veterans”

The right-wing coalition that powered the United States into Iraq earlier this year appears in ever greater disarray amid increasingly heated complaints by friends, as well as foes, that the US occupation is not going well at all. The main target is Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld, who appears increasingly at a loss to explain US … Continue reading “Rumsfeld Takes More Friendly Fire”

Other areas of the world seem to demand our attention, of course. But the question of whether the American people – or even significant sectors of those who pay attention to such things, beyond the small circle of likely losers running for the Democratic presidential nomination – are starting to reconsider the wisdom of the … Continue reading “New Skepticism on War?”

It’s just a coincidence that George W. Bush gave a speech announcing that the U.S. was leading a “global democratic revolution” on the eve of Leon Trotsky’s birthday, but it is one that neatly illustrates the militant revolutionism at the core of American foreign policy in the post-9/11 era. The proximity to Trotsky’s birthday was … Continue reading “GEORGE W. BUSH, TROTSKYITE”

Pfc. Jessica Lynch survived an auto accident. I’ve been in a nasty one myself, so I won’t splash ice water on her ordeal, but that’s what it was: a car crash. She’s less Alvin York than a lucky Princess Di. If the vultures at Knopf had any style, they would have hired J.G. Ballard to … Continue reading “Survival as Virtue: The Real Jessica Lynch Story”

I think Americans would be surprised to know how conservative the views of many Chinese are concerning such “mutual” problems as Iraq, North Korea, terrorism and the whole world order as it is now. Of course, young Chinese males with internet access tend to rant on about the global conspiracy engineered by the US and … Continue reading “Anti-Fools of the World Unite!”

I would feel better about President George Bush’s tough schoolboy rhetoric if he were in Baghdad, Fallujah or Tikrit instead of lolling about on his ranch or at Camp David in between fund-raising trips and photo ops. He ought to go to Iraq to see what his policy has wrought. Dwight Eisenhower went to Korea … Continue reading “Phooey on Tough Talk”

In what the White House billed as a major address, President George W. Bush Thursday announced the United States has adopted a new policy he called "a forward strategy of freedom in the Middle East." The speech, which comes amid growing public and congressional unease about the costs and duration of the US occupation of … Continue reading “Bush Vision Advances Mission-Creep in Mideast”

I guess it was inevitable. Someone has compared President George Bush to "Baghdad Bob," the inadvertently comical Iraqi information minister who kept insisting Iraq was winning the war even as American tanks gathered outside his office. This came after the president’s latest press conference, when he said attacks were increasing in Iraq because the occupation … Continue reading “Baghdad George”