Month: September 2005

On Sept. 6-7, 2005, the New America Foundation hosted "Terrorism, Security & America’s Purpose," a policy forum featuring scholars, elected officials, intelligence experts, and journalists. A full list of speakers is available here. Ivan Eland is senior fellow and director of the Center on Peace & Liberty at The Independent Institute in Oakland, Calif. Eland’s … Continue reading “Whence Anti-American Terrorism?”

The most important casualties of Sept. 11 are respect for truth and American liberty. Propaganda has replaced deliberation based on objective assessment of fact. The resurrection of the Star Chamber has made moot the legal protections of liberty. The U.S. invasion of Iraq was based on the deliberate suppression of fact. The invasion was not … Continue reading “America Has Fallen to a Jacobin Coup”

Katrina and 9/11: Criminal IncompetenceThe incompetence was more learned behavior than criminal. Katrina exposed in New Orleans the effects of the evolution of the American mindset from rugged independence by local communities to a sense of dependency entitlement on others. Contrast that to our early history when everyone knew they were on their own to … Continue reading “Backtalk, September 16, 2005”

I was a captain with the 2nd Battalion 4th Field Artillery during the invasion of Iraq. My active duty commitment to the military ended in May 2004. In January 2003, I requested a transfer to this battalion to fill an officer vacancy because it was the first battalion from Fort Sill to mobilize during the … Continue reading “Why This Soldier Can’t Support This War”

On the whole, I’ve been surprised and disappointed by the lack of well-known musicians stepping up to the microphone and singing out for peace lately, especially considering the resurgence of folk and Americana styles and artists (the traditional harbingers of “music with a message”) in recent years. Perhaps it’s the atmosphere of fear and blind … Continue reading “Covers for Peace”

Glimpse through the commentary pages of American newspapers and you are bound to run into a headline comparing the mess in American-occupied Iraq to the chaos in hurricane-devastated Louisiana. In fact, forget about the op-eds bashing the Bush administration and watch for a few minutes the 24/7 coverage on one of the cable news networks. … Continue reading “The United Gates of America”

It was Jim Hoagland, the Washington Post‘s liberal hawk par excellence, who first pondered the possible foreign policy consequences of Hurricane Katrina and the destruction of New Orleans. "Will post-Katrina America," he asked in his regular column, "be humbler, more cooperative, and more understanding of other nations’ problems and failures? "Or will the United States … Continue reading “Will Katrina Bring an Isolationist Revival?”

In a recent speech at Fort Bragg, a major U.S. military base, president Bush declared, “There is no higher calling than service in our armed forces.” It seems fewer and fewer young Americans and their parents agree with him. The U.S. military is finding it increasingly difficult to sustain itself. This is despite what at … Continue reading “The Unraveling of the US Military”

Try this for freedom. Iraqi police backed by American forces with Humvees and armored personnel carriers set up hundreds of checkpoints around Baghdad last week – with the goal of checking every driver’s license plate. Because of an acute gas shortage and constant traffic jams, Baghdadis are now only allowed to drive every other day. … Continue reading “Baghdad Traffic Jam”

"The specter of Vietnam has been buried forever in the desert sands of the Arabian peninsula," President George H. W. Bush said of the Gulf War victory in early 1991. He told a gathering of state legislators, "It’s a proud day for America – and, by God, we’ve kicked the Vietnam syndrome once and for … Continue reading “Beyond the ‘Vietnam Syndrome’”