Month: May 2005

SANTIAGO -The loss of more than 40 young soldiers in a snowstorm in southern Chile late last week has sparked a fierce debate on the country’s compulsory military service. Twenty-one bodies have been found so far, and the search for the remaining 19 continued Tuesday in the foothills of the Antuco volcano, where more than … Continue reading “Tragedy Fuels Calls for End to Chile’s Compulsory Military Service”

Two weeks ago, a small, single-engine plane inadvertently strayed into the closed air space above Washington. The result was panic. Both the White House and the Capitol were evacuated, with police shouting "Run! Run!" at fleeing staffers and visitors. Senators and congressmen abandoned in haste the floors of their respective Houses. Various RIPs (Really Important … Continue reading “Of Cabbages and Kings”

Few have more at stake in the expected Senate approval of John Bolton to be U.S. representative at the UN than the remnant of demoralized intelligence analysts trained and still willing to speak truth to power. What would be the point in continuing, they ask, when – like so many other policymakers – Bolton reserves … Continue reading “Bolton Confirmation Would Shatter Intelligence Analysts’ Morale”

In 2001, I spent several weeks trekking through remote villages in the highlands and rainforests of Ecuador. It was the same summer that the Bush administration announced the Andean Regional Initiative (ARI), an expansion of policies started under the Clinton administration and the latest effort in the War on Drugs. (Remember that war?) The ARI … Continue reading “Poverty and the Seeds of Terrorism in Our Own Back Yard”

The vagaries of U.S. involvement in the Middle East were surely brought home to First Lady Laura Bush on her recent trip to Israel, on a tour of Jerusalem’s holiest sites. At the Wailing Wall, where she placed a note in the Western Wall – as is the custom – she faced surly throngs of … Continue reading “The Franklin Affair:
A Spreading Treason”

Some while ago, a fellow leftie put me on to Antiwar.com. I took a look at the site, bookmarked it, and have ever since been a regular visitor, sometimes clicking on it two or three times in a day. I have even on occasion donated money to keep it afloat. I find there a broad … Continue reading “On Left and Right”

If you continue to wonder why the "insurgents" in Iraq continue to blow themselves up to prevent the interim government from gaining credibility among the populace, please note the report that the new "interim government" has confessed that Saddam Hussein started the eight-year war with Iran in 1980. All these years, the people of Iraq … Continue reading “Iraq Started the Iran/Iraq War?”

Cast aside the nonsensical rhetoric about U.S. President George W. Bush’s ostensibly successful efforts to bolster democratic tendencies “sweeping” the Middle East, and you’ll discover that the facts are not so rosy, with Iraq remaining the most horrific reminder. Bush seems to preside over an entirely different world reality when he adamantly presents himself as … Continue reading “Battling the Windmills While Iraq Burns”

With no weapons of mass destruction found and nothing to tie Saddam to Sept. 11, the White House has justified the war as America’s way to democratize Iraq and, through it, the Arab world. Exhibit A in the White House case is the January elections. Kurds and Shi’ites courageously voted for an assembly to write … Continue reading “Bringing the Arab Street to Power”

Parents: The Anti-Recruiter Teresa Whitehurst does some nice deconstructing of military sales propaganda, but I believe her advice at the end (“Parents and teachers who care about kids should study each of these appeals and inoculate naïve, trusting teens against their seductive powers”) does not go far enough. Inoculating students who are exposed every day … Continue reading “Backtalk May 25, 2005”