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...
Of Cabbages and Kings
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....
Bolton Confirmation Would Shatter Intelligence Analysts’ Morale
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...
Poverty and the Seeds of Terrorism in Our Own Back Yard
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...
The Franklin Affair:
A Spreading Treason
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...
On Left and Right
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...
Iraq Started the Iran/Iraq War?
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...
Battling the Windmills While Iraq Burns
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....
Bringing the Arab Street to Power
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...
Backtalk May 25, 2005
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...