New Orleans, of course, showed up Washington's unpreparedness for emergency response. But there's an even far greater threat on the horizon: government radiation limits and the true risks from a "dirty bomb." Realistic radiation health limits need to be...
Calls Mount for Prisoner Abuse Commission
New allegations of prisoner torture in Iraq are likely to add urgency to pending legislation that would create a 9/11-type commission to investigate detainee treatment and ensure that the U.S. operates within the law on interrogations. The charges are the subject of a...
Iraq Withdrawal Debate Gathers Momentum
The growing specter of a full-scale civil war in Iraq – and the likelihood that such a conflict will draw in neighboring states – has intensified a summer-long debate here over whether and how to withdraw U.S. troops. Some analysts believe that an immediate...
A Torturous Silence
Where do American religious leaders stand on torture? Their deafening silence evokes memories of the unconscionable behavior of German church leaders in the 1930s and early 1940s. Despite the hate whipped up by administration propagandists against those it brands...
US Must Resign Itself to ‘Rogue’ State Nukes
http://www.independent.org/tii/antiwar/e050927.html
Case Closed, Condi
Ever since Condi Rice became secretary of state, she and her lackeys have been running around in circles of diminishing radius, muttering something about the "necessity" of referring Iran to the UN Security Council for "action." What necessity?...
Democracy Won’t Stop Terrorism
Most of the debate surrounding the Iraqi occupation concerns tactical questions. How many soldiers are needed, how many schools have opened, how many terrorists have been killed? In Donald Rumsfeld's famous formula, American success is ultimately to be determined by...
Top Democrats Flee Peace Protests
I have been thinking for a while now that the Democrats really should sit down and consider changing their mascot from a donkey to a marmot. A rodent really is more emblematic of their provincial habits than a donkey could ever be. Think about it. Just this past...
Backtalk, September 27, 2005
The Tragedy of a Complicit MediaExcellent, if very depressing, column.I've been worried for many years now about the sorry state of our primary and secondary school systems. I do believe that, beginning with Reagan, Republicans have made a conscious effort to "dumb...
Sharon Appears the Struggling Dove
JERUSALEM - In the last two weeks, they have become the most courted, the most polled, and the best-fed group of people in Israel. For good reason: they hold the fate of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the ruling Likud party, and possibly even that of the state of...