Month: August 2004

BAGHDAD – Seventeen months after the fall of Saddam Hussein, many Iraqi traders say the economy is stagnating. Last year in August the streets of Baghdad were bustling with commercial activity. At almost every corner sat a man exchanging money or selling something, usually an imported commodity. Shops were stacked ceiling high. Many were so … Continue reading “Violence Slows Iraqi Economy”

MONTREAL – Sarah Bardwell did not get the names of the four FBI agents and two police officers who questioned her and her roommates late on the afternoon of July 22 on the front porch of their house in Denver. "We asked them for their names and they said they wouldn’t give us their names … Continue reading “FBI Launches ‘Preemptive’ Investigations”

UNITED NATIONS – With battle-scarred Iraq in shambles, the United States is now trying to showcase war-ravaged Afghanistan as a potentially vibrant multi-party democracy on the road to political success, say UN diplomats and Afghan experts. "[U.S. President George W.] Bush desperately needs an international success story for his reelection in November," a South Asian … Continue reading “Credibility of Afghan Vote Threatened by Violence, Fraud”

Belgrade (Beograd) means “White City” in old Slavic as well as modern Serbian. The city stands on the confluence of two major rivers, the Sava and the Danube, and presently has almost two million residents. With many of them away on vacation in the dog days of early August, the city is as close to … Continue reading “A Letter from Belgrade”

The nation’s top dog of war is frisky again. Donald Rumsfeld has returned to high visibility – after a couple of months in the media doghouse following revelations about torture at the Abu Ghraib prison – now openly romancing the journalistic pack with his inimitable style of tough love as he growls and romps across … Continue reading “How the Media Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Rumsfeld”

The war in Iraq and other foreign affairs are more important to voters in the coming presidential election than the economy, marking the first time since the Vietnam era that U.S. citizens are putting more weight on foreign policy than domestic concerns, according to a poll released Wednesday. Forty-one percent of voting-age adults rated "war, … Continue reading “War Overtakes Economy as US Voters’ Top Concern”

At first it looked fairly interesting, perhaps even modestly promising, from the perspective of somebody who worries about the United States being overcommitted overseas and stretched rather thin militarily to meet some of the challenges that could arise from chronic overcommitment. But the more one looks at President Bush’s ostensibly dramatic announcement that he plans … Continue reading “Repositioning on the Titanic”

GENEVA – The bomb attack on the United Nations offices in Baghdad a year ago Thursday posed "wrenching, fundamental questions" for the world body with respect to security, to which answers have not yet been found. Speaking on the first anniversary of the suicide bombing of the Canal Hotel, where the UN had its offices … Continue reading “‘Wrenching Questions’ Remain a Year After UN Baghdad Bombing”

The case that I have been making in this space – that, from a non-interventionist perspective, John Kerry may be worse than Bush when it comes to foreign policy – was boosted, if not proved, with the Democrats’ denunciation of the President’s plan to withdraw some 70,000 troops from abroad and close some of those … Continue reading “Kerry Is Clueless on Bases”

BANGKOK – By throwing his weight behind the legitimacy of Burma’s opposition party, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has deprived Burmese Prime Minister Khin Nyunt of claiming political progress to mark his first anniversary in office. Annan’s statement on Tuesday goes to the heart of what the Burmese military government has been avoiding – to permit … Continue reading “UN Sees Opportunity to Turn Screws on Burma”