Month: July 2005

In the 16th century, Europe was devastated by wars of religion, a fact that gives that unhappy time some relevance to our own. The foremost soldier and commander in 16th-century Europe was the duke of Alba. An excellent new biography of the duke by Henry Kamen offers some less than encouraging lessons. In the 1560s, … Continue reading “Discouraging Lessons From Imperial Spain”

As Washington prepares to resume military trials of "war on terror" detainees, a debate over their status is heating up in the U.S. Congress, with even some prominent Republicans demanding higher standards for interrogations and a ban on "cruel, degrading, and inhumane treatment." Brian J. Foley is a professor at Florida Coastal School of Law … Continue reading “Navigating Gitmo’s Legal Labyrinth”

June 30, 2005, was the peak of neocon delusion. On that day American Enterprise Institute neocon Karl Zinsmeister posted his article on the AEI online site titled: "The War Is Over, and We Won." No sooner than Zinsmeister put delusion to paper than U.S. military commanders reported escalating and more sophisticated insurgency attacks. Casualties exploded … Continue reading “The War Is Over, and We…”

The Media’s Roving Eye by Tom Engelhardt Oh what a tangled web we weave When we first practice to deceive… I‘ve written regularly about the media’s inability to connect the dots. The other day a reporter out in the far-flung reaches of our imperium wrote in to TomDispatch pointing to a front-paged dot that no … Continue reading “Unraveling the Plame Case”

Bombers struck again with utmost viciousness at the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheik last Saturday. The pattern remains relatively consistent: hitting soft targets, killing innocent civilians, attacking countries whose policies are supposed to be close to Washington’s. There are also some differences compared with past attacks. Last October, bomb attacks on the Egyptian resort of … Continue reading “The Meaning of Sharm el-Sheik”

The acclaimed New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman has often voiced enthusiasm for violent destruction by the U.S. government. Hidden in plain sight, his glee about such carnage is worth pondering. Many people view Friedman as notably articulate, while others find him overly glib, but there’s no doubt that he is an influential commentator with … Continue reading “Thomas Friedman, Liberal Sadist?”

It’s almost tempting to breathe a sigh of relief. Raw, heads-in-the-sand stupidity is not limited to those who prop up the Bush agenda here in the land of polarized red and blue. Last week the Royal Institute of International Affairs (RIIA) issued a report [.pdf] suggesting that Britain’s backing for the war in Iraq had … Continue reading “Another Skunk at the Garden Party”

Imperial Policy in Action Judging by news coming from the Balkans this past week, the usually languid days of summer were anything but. Bosnia underwent another major centralization effort, while Serbia-Montenegro signed a treaty giving free passage through the country to the alliance that bombed it just six years ago. There is talk of fresh … Continue reading “Footprints”

G. Federsel’s BacktalkAfter reading Paul Roberts’ reply to my letter posted on July 19, I felt compelled to register my rebuttal. It seems to me that I touched a raw nerve.I have been called all kinds of names, but this is the first time I have been called an ignorant, brainwashed brownshirt. It was quite … Continue reading “Backtalk, July 28, 2005”

In an eye-opening interview with Aaron Glantz, a Pacifica Radio reporter and author of How America Lost Iraq, Iraqi Minister of Civil Affairs Ala’a al-Safi echoes the demand that many in Congress, and certainly those of us who opposed this war from the beginning, have been advancing for quite some time: “Now we are asking … Continue reading “Blowback in Iraq”