Month: March 2005

Bush Keeps Fueling the Fire I really respect Eric Margolis and his views, but he is just plain wrong when he says that the one true election to occur in the Arab world was that in Algeria in 1991. It needs to be hammered home repeatedly and at every opportunity that Lebanon already IS a … Continue reading “Backtalk March 6, 2004”

Al-Jazeera’s correspondent Taysir Alouni is in a Madrid jail for no other reason than challenging the Western and distinctively the American narrative of the Third World. Alouni is not a terrorist, and Spanish High Court judge Baltasar Garzon knows this very well. In fact, it appears that Alouni was arrested – first in September 2003 … Continue reading “Taysir Doesn’t Deserve This”

Feeling vindicated by dramatic events in the Middle East since the Iraqi elections Jan. 30, especially the growing international clamor for Syria to withdraw from Lebanon, neoconservatives are calling on President George W. Bush to seize the moment by pressing for "regime change" in Damascus and Iran, as well. Despite its own missionary rhetoric, the … Continue reading “Democratization or Disintegration?”

Well, the media elite report that President Bush was dismayed by the reaction he got from the E3 [United Kingdom, France and Germany] of the European Union to his opposition to their agreement with Iran of 15 November, 2004, wherein: The E3/EU recognize Iran’s rights under the NPT, exercised in conformity with its obligations under … Continue reading “Sandbagging the EU”

Senate skids have been greased for John Negroponte to be confirmed as the first director of national intelligence. Never mind that he deliberately misled Congress about serious human rights abuses in Honduras where he was ambassador from 1981 to 1985. That dissembling enabled the White House to circumvent the congressional restrictions that would have denied … Continue reading “Who Now Will Read to the President in the Morning?”

UNITED NATIONS – Saudi Arabia, a traditionally authoritarian regime that recently held the first Western-style local elections in its 73-year history, is trying to break new ground by turning to Russia for arms purchases. As one of the world’s biggest single weapons buyers, the family-run kingdom has militarily depended on the United States, which has … Continue reading “Saudis Break New Ground Eyeing Russian Weapons”

Western rhetoric about the prospect of an Iranian nuclear bomb is typically full of references to "security," "destabilization" and "a terrorist regime" that sound compelling and alarming. But because such terms are closely examined only rarely, they not only deflect from any meaningful assessment of the Iranian issue but also readily disguise the true motives … Continue reading “Why Israel Really Fears Iranian Nukes, Part Three”

For Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon all the current euphoria about the rising New Lebanon, marking the start of a revolutionary change in the Middle East, must have the feel of déjà vu all over again. After all, when Israeli troops under the order of then Defense Minister Sharon invaded Lebanon in 1982 as part … Continue reading “From Lebanon to Iraq and Back”

The idea that America is turning fascist has been popular on the Left for as long as I can remember: in the 1960s, when antiwar radicals raged against the Machine, this kind of hyperbole dominated campus political discourse and even made its way into the mainstream. When the radical Symbionese Liberation Army went into ultra-Left … Continue reading “A Fascist America”

U.S. President George W. Bush must be prepared to make major compromises if he wants a tougher nonproliferation regime to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons to countries that do not now have them, according to a new report released here Thursday by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP). At the very least, he … Continue reading “Nuclear Threat Dwarfs Existing Treaties”