Month: June 2005

Who is the Gene McCarthy of this generation? For those too young to recall, in late 1967, Gen. Westmoreland came home to ask LBJ for 200,000 more troops for Vietnam, in addition to the 500,000 already committed. LBJ told him no. Vietnam was the issue of the day. And as no other Democrat dared challenge … Continue reading “Upheaval Ahead”

Imagine that the Pentagon Papers or the Watergate scandal had broken out all over the press – no, not in the New York Times or the Washington Post, but in newspapers in Australia or Canada. And that, facing their own terrible record of reportage, of years of being cowed by the Nixon administration, major American … Continue reading “Smoking Signposts to Nowhere”

A familiar clutch of hardline U.S. hawks who led the march to war against Iraq have tried to carry out yet another preemptive strike. But this time it wasn’t military. As millions of Iranians prepared to vote for the successor to President Mohammed Khatami Friday, the group, helped along by a strong denunciation by Bush … Continue reading “US Hawks Try Preemptive Strike on Iran Vote”

By now, all members of the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction ought to have fallen on their swords. Why? Here is the way the commissioners began their report [.pdf] made to President Bush just a month before the London Sunday Times published the so-called Downing Street … Continue reading “The WMD Commission’s Shame”

Indictment Shows Washington Is ‘Israeli-Occupied Territory’ As an aging veteran and avid reader, I’d like to nominate Justin Raimondo for a Pulitzer Prize. About time someone from the Last Bastion of a Free Press – the Internet – won the award. And what better columnist than Justin, with the tenacity of a pit bull and … Continue reading “Backtalk, June 20, 2005”

Pax Americana has got problems – not just in the Middle East and East Asia, but in the imperium’s own backyard. Latin America’s turn to center-left politicians and the rise of what the U.S. Southern Command calls “radical populism” have sent Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice scurrying to the region … Continue reading “Southcom Generals Fret Over New Domino Effect”

Now that Sunni Arabs have been included, Iraq’s parliamentary committee that is drafting the new constitution is the closest to an elected, representative body that the country has ever seen. In the two months that the committee now has to come up with the draft and in the referendum that will follow in October, it … Continue reading “Iraq’s Democratic Engine Not Turning Over”

Keep them behind the war curve. While some Americans are exposing the deception for the latest war, steadily lay the groundwork for the next one. Focus plenty of news reports on alienated youth in Iran, spotlighting despair that borders on nihilism. Meanwhile, give scant media attention to the growth of civil society, with many thousands … Continue reading “Behind the War Curve”

No thanks to the domestic and international neo-crazy media sycophants, you probably now know about the "Downing Street memo." The memo is actually the minutes – stamped “Secret and Strictly Personal – UK Eyes Only" – of a meeting between British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his senior national security team. The meeting was held … Continue reading “The Damning Downing Street Memo”

While the violence in Iraq continues unabated, the situation in Haiti, where the George W. Bush administration also played a key role in engineering regime change, is going from bad to desperate, according to increasingly worried analysts here. The UN Security Council, which will decide the terms for extending its peacekeeping operation (MINUSTAH) in the … Continue reading “Haiti: Another Regime Change in Trouble”