Month: August 2005

Cheney’s Man Slated to Replace Feith

A career diplomat and foreign policy operative, Eric S. Edelman has just replaced the controversial Douglas Feith at the Pentagon as the new undersecretary of defense for policy, having been appointed by President Bush during a congressional recess. Many observers had wrongly assumed that Edelman would become Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s top deputy. Instead … Continue reading “Cheney’s Man Slated to Replace Feith”

Rage Against the Killing of the Light

Mid-August 2005 may be remembered as a moment in U.S. history when the president could no longer get away with the media trick of solemnly patting death on its head. Unreality is a hallmark of media coverage for war. Yet – most of all – war is about death and suffering. Warmakers thrive on abstractions. … Continue reading “Rage Against the Killing of the Light”

Presidential Aggressor

Mitchell B. Lerner, editor, Looking Back at LBJ: White House Politics in a New Light (University Press of Kansas, 2005). In Mitchell Lerner’s informative and worthwhile collection of essays by a group of historians scrutinizing LBJ’s domestic and foreign policies (Lerner teaches history at Ohio State University in Newark, Ohio and is the author of … Continue reading “Presidential Aggressor”

Iranian Ironies

We have now reached another of those recurring tinderbox moments relating to Iran. Yesterday, the Iranians officially relaunched their nuclear program, beginning a suspended process of uranium conversion at a facility near Isfahan. In this, Iran’s emboldened clerical regime defies the European troika – France, Germany, England – with which it has been in negotiations, … Continue reading “Iranian Ironies”

No Sympathy for the Neocons

The news that the Rolling Stones are coming out with a song called “Sweet Neocon” that takes the administration to task for its Iraq war policy is … music to my ears: “You call yourself a Christian, I call you a hypocrite/ You call yourself a patriot. Well, I think your are full of sh*t!… … Continue reading “No Sympathy for the Neocons”

Angry Mothers and Trembling Grizzlies: The Sheehan Effect

"Sheehan has been involved in protests against Bush since last year. She founded Gold Star Families for Peace…She said she decided to seek another audience with Bush when she heard his comments about the war last week, after a spike in American deaths. The fallen men and women "died in a noble cause," Bush said … Continue reading “Angry Mothers and Trembling Grizzlies: The Sheehan Effect”

Presence of US Troops Upsets Paraguay’s Partners

BUENOS AIRES – Although Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay have formally accepted the fact that Paraguay has allowed U.S. troops to enter the country and granted them immunity from prosecution, the decision has become a thorn in the flesh of South America’s Mercosur trade bloc. "The position taken by Paraguay has marked a difference" with the … Continue reading “Presence of US Troops Upsets Paraguay’s Partners”

Peasants on the March to King George

This morning I sit at my keyboard in awe of the events of this past weekend. Cindy Sheehan’s trip to Crawford to talk to President Bush started out as just a small idea Wednesday evening. None of us thought for even a minute that it would snowball into the media and historic event that it … Continue reading “Peasants on the March to King George”