Month: September 2005

(Photos by Tam Turse) George was out of town, of course, in the “battle cab” at the U.S. Northern Command’s headquarters in Colorado Springs, checking out the latest in homeland-security technology and picking up photo-ops; while White House aides, as the Washington Post wrote that morning, were attempting “to reestablish Bush’s swagger.” The Democrats had … Continue reading “Voices From the Frontlines of Protest”

The massive antiwar demonstration in Washington, D.C., over the weekend – with attendance estimates ranging from 100,000 to 200,000 – dramatized what the pollsters already know: the Iraq war is hugely unpopular, and public opposition is increasing by leaps and bounds. The significance of the Sept. 24 march is that the antiwar majority is finally … Continue reading “The Antiwar Majority”

“As if a cavern was suddenly hollowed; And the Piper advanced and the children followed, And when all were in to the very last, The door in the mountain-side shut fast.” – Robert Browning, “The Pied Piper of Hamelin“ With the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan generating far more American dead and wounded than planned … Continue reading “No Child Left Alive”

“The website has become a stomach-churning showcase for the pornography of war – close-up shots of Iraqi insurgents and civilians with heads blown off, or with intestines spilling from open wounds. Sometimes photographs of mangled body parts are displayed: Part of the game is for users to guess what appendage or organ is on display. … Continue reading “The Heart of Darkness”

As a military jury in Texas considers the fate of Lynndie England, the low-ranking reservist pictured in the notorious photos of the abuse of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in late 2003, two sergeants and a captain in one of the U.S. Army’s most decorated combat units have come forward with accounts of routine, … Continue reading “Whistleblowers Describe Routine, Severe Abuse”

Georgie Ann Geyer, who may be America’s most perceptive international affairs columnist, wrote in the Saturday, September 17 Washington Times about a recent Washington conference concerning the mess in the Middle East. That could, of course, have been a conference topic back as far as the First Triumvirate, when an earlier Crassus lost his head … Continue reading “Important Distinctions”

Colin Powell recently confessed that his presentation of US "intelligence" – which turned out to be all wrong – to the UN Security Council to justify Bush’s unprovoked and unsanctioned war of aggression against Iraq was a "blot" on his record, and he "feels terrible" about it. Don’t we all? However, his successor, Condi Rice, … Continue reading “Such a Blot”

The closer we look at what happened in Basra the other day, the murkier and more suspicious the picture gets. Two British undercover operatives fired at the Iraqi police, killing one and injuring another, and were taken into custody, then “rescued” as British tanks laid siege to police headquarters. The incident culminated in a pitched … Continue reading “Bizarro Basra”

At the height of the Cold War in the 1950s and 1960s, the United States and the former Soviet Union jealously safeguarded their own global political and military interests by vetoing each other’s resolutions in the most powerful body at the United Nations: the Security Council. "We will soon see the same cat-and-mouse game," predicts … Continue reading “Iran’s Nuclear Dispute Sparks East-West Rivalry”

Not long after Baghdad fell to American troops, it was already apparent that the United States was part of the problem, not part of the solution, in Iraq; and that, as long as the American military occupied the country, matters would just get worse. Every passing month has only predictably confirmed that reality. There’s no … Continue reading “Why Immediate Withdrawal Makes Sense”