Month: April 2005

An overstretched military? You bet. Things going terribly in Iraq? No kidding. Why only yesterday, Jill Carroll and Dan Murphy of the Christian Science Monitor reminded us that, with 140,000 troops (and untold numbers of mercenaries) in Iraq, the Americans can’t defend a crucial six-mile stretch of highway between the two lodestars of the American … Continue reading “Letting in the Draft?”

If you’ve been following the news in recent days, you might have concluded that China resides in two parallel universes. First, there is the geo-economic universe in which China, the rising economic power with a huge current account surplus, is being urged by members of the Group of Seven (G-7) leading industrialized nations (whose finance … Continue reading “Needed: A Consistent China Policy”

After years of planning and collaboration, San Francisco’s Traveling Jewish Theatre has brought its new play Blood Relative to the stage. Formed with input from all five performers, along with director Aaron Davidman and dramaturg Naomi Newman, the play centers around a young man living in Israel, but born to a Muslim Palestinian father and … Continue reading “Exploring the Mideast Conflict With an Open Heart”

Jasenovac and the Politics of Genocide On April 22, 1945, a group of surviving inmates broke out of Jasenovac, Nazi-allied Croatia’s main death camp. Sixty years later, their memories – and the grisly history of Jasenovac – have become prey to politics, propaganda, and historical revisionism more concerned with the 1990s Yugoslav wars than with … Continue reading “Whitewashing the Holocaust”

People all across the political spectrum, encompassing all possible views on the Iraq war, stopped for a moment of rueful silence when the news broke that Marla Ruzicka was killed by a suicide bomber the other day. Well, almost everyone, that is, except for one Debbie Schlussel, a right-wing columnist who tries to market herself … Continue reading “In Defense of Marla Ruzicka”

NEW DELHI – India’s plan to resume military assistance to Nepal, suspended after the Feb. 1 "royal coup" has nothing to do with China’s offer of support to the regime of King Gyanendra, beleaguered by a nine-year Maoist insurgency, say security experts. “India and China are no longer competing in Nepal or elsewhere,” C.V. Ranganathan, … Continue reading “Analysts: India’s Resumption of Arms to Nepal Not Due to China”

Memo to: Nicholas Kristof, New York Times Re: Just for the Fun of It Your column today on North Korea and the six nuclear weapons you say it has produced since George W. Bush has been president is probably wrong in assuming it really does have nukes, even though it now says so, but it … Continue reading “Another War With North Korea?”

KATHMANDU – It is perhaps too much to say that Lady Luck had never smiled on Gagan Kumar Thapa, a 28-year-old charismatic Nepali student leader at the forefront of Nepal‘s pro-democracy protests. But luck indeed never seemed to favor him. Charged with sedition for shouting republican slogans and held in prison for more than two … Continue reading “Prominent Student Leader’s Arrest Could Galvanize Nepal Protests”

David Horowitz and gang never cease to amaze. From their crackpot intellectualism to their red-baiting antics, it’s clear the folks over at FrontPageMagazine.com are nothing short of fascist. On April 25, Ann Coulter wannabe and FrontPage darling Debbie Schlussel had this to say about the death of peace activist Marla Ruzicka, who, as I am … Continue reading “Horowitz’s Gang Smears the Dead”

President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney are framing the trials of John Bolton, their nominee for ambassador to the United Nations, as a partisan political squabble. It is much more than that. It is rather a matter of life and death for the endangered species of intelligence analysts determined to "tell it … Continue reading “The War for Intel Independence”