Month: November 2005

The refrain of the Democrats about being misled into supporting the invasion of Iraq has become really tired. And someone other than the White House smearmongers needs to say it: The Democrats cannot be allowed to use faulty intelligence as a crutch to hold up their unforgivable support for the Iraq invasion. What is DNC … Continue reading “This War Cannot Be Stopped By a Loyal Opposition”

On Veterans’ Day, Nov. 11, President Bush told troops gathered at Pennsylvania’s Tobyhanna Army Depot that, "It is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war [in Iraq] began." He said that, "Some Democrats and antiwar critics are now claiming we manipulated the intelligence and misled the American people," even though they knew … Continue reading “The Politics of Pushback”

The Rawda cafe in the center of Damascus is reputed to be an opposition hangout, and not many patrons are given to defending the Syrian government. The increasing international pressure from the UN investigation into the killing of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri has brought widespread dismay among the tea-sipping and backgammon playing crowd. … Continue reading “That Iraq Feeling Comes to Syria”

In a major new blow to President George W. Bush’s determination to "stay the course" in Iraq, an influential Democratic hawk with close ties to the uniformed military has called for Washington to begin withdrawing U.S. troops immediately. In an emotional press conference Thursday morning, Rep. John Murtha, a former officer in the Marines and … Continue reading “More Wheels Spin Off Iraq Policy”

Two presiding deities – and lively ghosts they are – continue to hover over the present administration: Vietnam and Watergate. Though the competition between them is fierce, this week Watergate suddenly surged to the fore as the Washington Post’s Bob Woodward, famed investigative reporter turned imperial “stenographer” for the Bush administration, crashed and burst into … Continue reading “Is Woodward’s Revelation a Bombshell or a Smokescreen?”

In Praise of ‘Virtual States’Might your virtual state concept suggest one human world and many divisions of government because the virtual states place the power of nations at rest?Clearly there is a human right, fully thwarted by the nation-state system, that entitles each individual to travel between nation-states and to take up residence in whatever … Continue reading “Backtalk, November 19, 2005”

U.S. opinion leaders who expressed strong confidence in Washington’s global leadership in the late 1990s have been chastened by the Iraq war, which has also spurred a sharp rise in isolationist sentiment in the general public, according to the latest in a series of surveys released here Tuesday by the Pew Research Center for the … Continue reading “Survey: Americans Reject Globo-Cop Role”

I still maintain that President Bush made a serious tactical mistake, from his perspective, in criticizing congressional Democrats for "rewriting history" about the use of intelligence (and the quality thereof) during the run-up to the Iraq war. The basic mistake is in focusing on the past when what really seems to worry an increasing number … Continue reading “Rehashing the Intelligence”

Last Sunday, a shocked world watched the televised confession of Sajida Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi, wife of one of the Amman suicide bombers. The Iraqi woman, who failed to detonate her explosive belt in the Radisson Hotel on Nov. 9, appeared cold, detached, and unemotional. At a certain stage she stood up and paraded in front … Continue reading “Jihad’s Cheapest Weapons”

In the wake of the Scooter Libby indictment, and the collapse of support for the war – even in the Republican congressional caucus – the bad guys are desperately trying to make a comeback, and what a pathetic sight it is. First off, we have Scooter Libby’s lawyer now saying the revelation that Bob Woodward, … Continue reading “‘A Conspiracy So Vast…’”