Month: August 2005

Free the Diplomats

In Monday’s meeting between top U.S. and Chinese officials – touted as an unprecedented inaugural – the U.S., as usual when facing China across the negotiating table, is at a distinct disadvantage. At this very moment, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Chris Hill is pounding his head against a wall after another round of negotiations … Continue reading “Free the Diplomats”

A Young Man’s Death in Iraq

I‘m too old for the typical Web site with lots of posted back-and-forth commentary. So the TomDispatch e-mail box is – and often I regret this – normally my own private adventure. I’m regularly amazed by the letters that come in, many encouraging, some stunningly thoughtful (often with striking turns of phrase), and every now … Continue reading “A Young Man’s Death in Iraq”

Armageddon Gets No Press

What has become of the print and TV media watchdogs who hounded President Nixon from office because he lied about when he learned of a minor burglary of no consequence in itself? What became of the watchdog media that bayed after President Reagan because some low-level neoconservative officials sold arms to Iran and diverted the … Continue reading “Armageddon Gets No Press”

Gitmo’s Kangaroo Court

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) obtained two leaked e-mails from former military prosecutors at Guantanamo Bay over the weekend. The e-mails both claim that the military committees set up to try detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba are "rigged, fraudulent, and thin on evidence against the accused." In the first e-mail obtained by the Australian … Continue reading “Gitmo’s Kangaroo Court”

Dating Cheney’s Nuclear Drumbeat

In a recent piece, "The Media’s Roving Eye," trying to establish a timeline that would offer context for the Plame case, I wrote the following: “Vice President Cheney started the administration’s atomic drumbeat to war in Iraq with a series of speeches on Saddam’s supposed nuclear capabilities and desires beginning in August of 2002. (The … Continue reading “Dating Cheney’s Nuclear Drumbeat”

Operation Withdrawal Scam

A few days ago, the White House launched a new phase of its propaganda siege for the Iraq war. The opening salvo came on July 27, when the commander of American forces in Iraq said that continuation of recent trends would make possible "some fairly substantial reductions" of U.S. troop levels in the spring and … Continue reading “Operation Withdrawal Scam”

Individualism vs. War

Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize-winning veteran foreign correspondent, having covered foreign conflicts in Argentina, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Columbia, Guatemala, Bosnia, Iraq, Sudan, Algeria, India, Israel/Palestine, Turkey, and Kosovo for the New York Times, Dallas Morning News, Christian Science Monitor, and National Public Radio. Based on this experience, he authored the books War is a … Continue reading “Individualism vs. War”

Taking Down the Neocons

The War Party is facing disaster on a number of fronts, both foreign and domestic: in Iraq, the stubborn defiance of the insurgency and squabbling political factions underscores the failure of the occupation and its unraveling into an all-out civil war. Under the guise of “federalism,” the split-up of Iraq into three separate states – … Continue reading “Taking Down the Neocons”