While we've been seeing a lot of analyses lately regarding the divine-emperor, theocratic identity of George W. Bush, what we now need to understand is how Bush strategists have changed Americans by fashioning a new identity for the Bush/war supporter:...
Hopes for Indo-Pak Peace in ’05
NEW DELHI – A year after India and Pakistan launched their first serious attempt at a bilateral dialogue after their 1998 nuclear blasts and two major military crises, the prospect of success looks tantalizingly close and yet uphill in the last stretch. Both...
Restoring Christmas
It is easy, observing the prospects for peace, let alone an American withdrawal any time soon in Iraq, to be discouraged this Christmas season. "There is no peace on earth, I said," goes the line from the 19th-century Christmas song. And even though that song ends on...
Mother Pleads to Pentagon Over Spicer Contract
The mother of a man murdered by two British soldiers in Belfast has asked the U.S. Department of Defense to cancel a $293 million Iraq security contract awarded to their commanding officer. Irish human rights group the Pat Finucane Center has filed a detailed...
Never Smile at a Crocodile
"Doc, we had a huge blowout at Thanksgiving and now the family is split between pro-war, pro-Bush and antiwar, anti-Bush factions. Some people are no longer on speaking terms. Everybody's acting like this is some kind of civil war. Write about that – how can...
The Devil’s Christmas
I don't believe in God, but the Devil is another matter entirely. Proof of the Malevolent One's existence is all around us, and he's been pretty busy lately – filling the military hospitals with the wounded (30,000-plus so far), torturing and otherwise abusing...
Orwellian Balkans
Last week's purge of Bosnian Serb officials by viceroy Ashdown has touched off a political meltdown in the country. Senior Serb officials are resigning left and right, jeopardizing the continued functioning of the current central government, while the general public...
US Seeks to Silence Arab Democracy Activists
CAIRO - It's lunch time in Cairo and two dozen Egyptian activists and intellectuals take break for tea and date bars. They've gathered in a community center near the city's main train station to discuss new efforts to bring democracy to their country, which has been...
Backtalk, December 23, 2004
The Third IntifadaMr. HaCohen, "Your own poor come first" – Talmud I think it is the duty of every Jew to support his fellow Jew before others. You should be more sympathetic of Israel's actions. Israel has good intentions. Would you agree? If you...
Fallujah: Little Stalingrad
According to people who have been there, Fallujah is not a very big city. You can walk across it in half an hour. Yet when the history of this miserable war is written, I suspect it may loom large. Like Stalingrad, it will mark the point where the war turned against...