Month: October 2004

BANGKOK – It may have one of the most vibrant media environments in Asia – with journalists having freedom to write just about anything – yet the Philippines ranks after Iraq as one of the deadliest places for reporters. Eight journalists have been killed in that Southeast Asian archipelago this year, one more than the … Continue reading “Asia Still Dangerous for Journalists”

U.S. President George W. Bush is fortunate indeed that so much of the electorate has already made up its mind on its vote next Tuesday, because this week’s news from the "war on terrorism" has been unrelentingly bad. While the apparent looting – apparently right after last year’s U.S.-led invasion – of nearly 400 tons … Continue reading “Halloween Tidings From the ‘War on Terror’”

QUETTA – A rocket attack on a main power transmission line linking two districts of Balochistan with the national power grid last week was not an isolated incident but part of a low intensity insurgency in the natural-resource-rich, yet least developed, southwestern province of Pakistan sandwiched between Iran and Afghanistan. Many militancy problems in Balochistan … Continue reading “Struggle for Resources Linked to Balochistan Unrest”

America received a frightening jolt when the International Atomic Energy Agency announced that heavy-duty explosives perfectly suited for terrorist bombing attacks had gone missing from critical sites in Iraq. But a far more terrifying revelation was made in the Central Intelligence Agency’s publicly released Duelfer Report on Oct. 6. It took some effort, but anyone … Continue reading “For a Scary Halloween, Read the Duelfer Report”

"An uptick in airstrikes and other military moves points to an imminent showdown between U.S. forces and Sunni Muslim insurgents west of Baghdad – a decisive battle that could determine whether the campaign to bring democracy and stability to Iraq can succeed." The above quotation is the lead paragraph of an Associated Press dispatch. Note … Continue reading “A War We Can’t Win”

On the eve of the election, our media elite are belatedly deluging us with important information. However, much of it is being delivered with neo-crazy ‘spin’. For example, the Washington Post tells us: “In the tumultuous first year after Sept. 11, 2001, President Bush confronted a deluge of classified threat reports about the spread of … Continue reading “Endorsing Neo-Craziness?”

“If Bush loses, his conversion to neoconservatism, the Arian heresy of the American Right, will have killed his presidency. Yet, in the contest between Bush and Kerry, I am compelled to endorse the president of the United States. Why? Because, while Bush and Kerry are both wrong on Iraq, Sharon, NAFTA, the WTO, open borders, … Continue reading “Et Tu, Pat?”

As befits the week before one of the most bitterly-contested and emotional elections in recent memory – one in which the committed partisans on each side, many of whom seem more motivated by dislike of the other guy than by affection for their chosen champion, seem to think victory by the other side will mean … Continue reading “Lost Weapons – and Minds?”

It was a beautiful day in downtown Baghdad last week as I happily strolled to spend an afternoon at my favorite spot on the Tigris. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and marvelous foreign tanks were driving Iraqi kids to school and taking sick people to hospitals. Those tanks had come from the … Continue reading “It’s True Love!”

The collapse and seemingly imminent demise of Yasser Arafat once again draws our attention to the plight of the Palestinian people at the hands of their Israeli occupiers: just as the Jewish state keeps an entire people captive in the twin concentration camps of Gaza and the West Bank, so Arafat was himself incarcerated, physically … Continue reading “Appeasing Israel”