"See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda." - George Bush, "President Participates in Social Security Conversation in New York," May 24, 2005 Forced from his...
Does Anyone Know What We Are Doing in Iraq?
President Bush is out of touch with the American people, the U.S. military, and international political reality. With every poll showing smaller and smaller minorities approving of Bush and his war in Iraq, with top U.S. generals sending signals that they want to...
The War Party Unhinged
Washington's hawks are in a dither over the Iraqi constitution, as Eli Lake reports in the New York Sun, and the divisions illustrate the character and motives of the War Party, separating the everyday scoundrels from the truly villainous. Gauging the various...
Aluminum Tubes Déjà Vu
In a recent column entitled "Powerless Non-Experts," syndicated columnist Charley Reese allowed as how "journalists" had no power. We journalists are mere observers. Like the fans in the bleachers, we watch the game, and some of us report it and...
Backtalk, August 29, 2005
Why Are We In Iraq? Justin's takedown of the horrid Michael Young (WSJ op-ed, Aug. 19) was spot on. That piece is the poster child for the incoherence of the libertarian imperialists. While it is difficult to decipher exactly what Young is saying for most of his...
What Are We Fighting For?
Over the last four years, the message sent by neoconservatives to the rest of the nation has been clear: Get behind the Bush administration's "war on terror" or be prepared to face the consequences. But when the grieving mother of a fallen U.S. soldier tops the...
A Six-Party Mess
According to the New York Times; "Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, confirmed Tuesday for the first time that a Pakistani nuclear scientist had provided North Korea with centrifuge machines that could be used to make fuel for an atomic bomb, a Japanese news...
Iraq and the Cardboard Democrats
Memo To: Gary Hart From: Jude Wanniski Re: The Leadership Vacuum. As you know, Gary, I did publicly announce my vote for Sen. John Kerry in last year's presidential election, even though I had earlier in the year characterized him as a "cardboard candidate."...
The Achilles Heel of Torture
Extraordinary renditions, torture, abuse, humiliation, detention without charge or end, an obsession with protecting American officials (and military men) from future foreign or domestic criminal charges for their acts – these are the cornerstones of foreign...
A United Iraq Is a Western Joke
Iraq has always been ruled by a strong central authority, whether the rulers were the Turks, the British or the Ba'athists. The reason is that the differences are too wide and too deep to be bridged by political compromise. Compromise requires that all the parties...