Month: May 2005

Of the two superpowers that faced each other down in an almost half-century-long Cold War, one – the United States – emerged victorious, alone in the world, economically powerful, militarily dominant; the other, never the stronger of the two, limped off, its empire shattered and scattered, its people impoverished and desperate, its military a shell … Continue reading “Out of the Superpower Orbit”

http://www.independent.org/tii/antiwar/e050503.html

9-11 Conspiracy Fact & FictionThe appearance on the very same day of Justin Raimondo’s “Waco as Metaphor” and someone else’s “911 Conspiracy: Fact & Fiction” has me puzzled. The two messages seem to clash.By linking the official lies about Waco and Iraq, Raimondo cautions us against trusting Big Brother. By publishing The New American item … Continue reading “Backtalk, May 3, 2005”

In recent years, two best-selling titles have appeared on the subject of honor killing in the Arab world. Norma Khouri’s Forbidden Love (also published under the title Honor Lost) and “Souad’s” Burned Alive were both published in 2003. In that fateful year, while the international media raced us toward the invasion of Iraq, these books … Continue reading “Truth, History, and Honor Killing”

Two years ago Sunday, in a splashy display of his role as commander-in-chief, George W. Bush landed on board the USS Lincoln in the co-pilot’s seat of a Navy S-3B Viking. Standing amid a sea of his Praetorians – against the backdrop of a huge banner proclaiming “Mission Accomplished” – our president had a distinctly … Continue reading “Iraq: ‘Mission Accomplished’?”

“Where is the Palestinian Gandhi?” is a quite popular question, especially abroad. You won’t often hear it asked (with the inevitable self-righteous shrug) here in Israel: after all, the Israeli culture itself worships violence, with the semantic field of “war” being the richest in the modern Hebrew language, with militarism as the state religion, and … Continue reading “The Palestinian Gandhi”

“Where is the Palestinian Gandhi?” is a quite popular question, especially abroad. You won’t often hear it asked (with the inevitable self-righteous shrug) here in Israel: after all, the Israeli culture itself worships violence, with the semantic field of “war” being the richest in the modern Hebrew language, with militarism as the state religion, and … Continue reading “The Palestinian Gandhi”

“Life has changed for the worse,” said Bushra Mahmoud, a mother of three, sitting in the waiting room of the Princess Salon in Baghdad. “There is a creeping zealousness among men and women that is really frightening. You sit on the bus and have abuse heaped on you by the fanatics because you are not … Continue reading “What Does ‘Democracy’ Mean – Over There?”

Evidently, Prime Minister Tony Blair failed to “properly inform” the House of Commons about the legality of the Bush-Blair use of force against Iraq. Indeed, Blair may have deliberately misinformed them. Commons passed on March 19, 2003, the British Government’s Motion on Iraq, which “Notes that in the 130 days since Resolution 1441 was adopted … Continue reading “The Dubious Legality of the Iraq War”