Month: January 2006

TEHRAN – By allowing inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to visit and verify its nuclear program this week, Iran has indicated its readiness to work with the United Nations watchdog, while continuing to limit the role of the Western powers. Ali Larijani, Iran’s topmost security official, told the state-run Islamic Republic News … Continue reading “Iran’s Approach: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back”

Vietnam was, for the United States, the war that never ended. Administration after administration has tried, with remarkable lack of success, to wipe it from memory or turn it, at least, into a curable medical condition (“the Vietnam syndrome”). After that war, a shattered military based on a national draft was rebuilt as an all-volunteer … Continue reading “The Devastation We Inflict”

President Bush will soon, once again, "take a few minutes to discuss a grave threat to peace, and America’s determination to lead the world in confronting that threat." Here are selected points Bush made in such a discussion back in 2002: "The threat comes from Iraq. It arises directly from the Iraqi regime’s own actions … Continue reading “‘Disarming’ Tehran”

Currency WarI read at the IAEA Web site (“Safeguards Statement for 2004“): “As of the end of 2004, 40 non-nuclear-weapon States party to the NPT had not yet brought comprehensive safeguards agreements with the Agency into force as required by Article III of that Treaty. For these States, the Agency could not draw any safeguards … Continue reading “Backtalk, January 24, 2006”

As the war in Iraq metastasizes into what General William E. Odom calls "the greatest strategic disaster in United States history," and the cost in lives and treasure continues to escalate, we are already being set up for Act II of the neocons‘ Middle East war scenario – with the Democrats taking up where the … Continue reading “Hillary Clinton, War Goddess”

At the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., I teach economics to military officers. In general, I love my job and my students. With a median age of about 31, they have much more curiosity than the typical undergrad. That makes sense because, as military officers, they have traveled widely and noticed many things. So, … Continue reading “Conversation with a US Military Officer”

Gore Channels Taft Raimondo,This is why you’re my favorite political writer. No one can accuse you of being a Gore fan (I’m certainly not) but you take the time to commend his honesty when he acknowledges the Democrats’ share of the blame for today’s sorry state of affairs.It may be a small thing, but given … Continue reading “Backtalk, January 22, 2006”

A funny thing happened to the Europeans on their way to get the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors to refer Iranian nuclear fuel-cycle programs – all Safeguarded and certified by the IAEA to be for peaceful purposes – to the UN Security Council by March. They were on their way – reluctantly – … Continue reading “Currency War”

The mainstream media’s lionizing and exalting of the fatally ill Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon could only be compared to that of great men and women of past years. The hundreds of endearing commentaries, venerating news reports and glorifying television programs – massively sprung in the wake of his unexpected stroke on Wednesday, January 4 … Continue reading “Exalting Sharon: A Dire Case of Collective Amnesia”

(with Arkan Hamed) SINIYAH, Iraq – The People of Siniyah town 200 km north of Baghdad are angry over a six-mile long sand wall constructed by the U.S. military to check attacks by rebels. "Our city has become a battlefield," 35 year-old engineer Fuad Al-Mohandis told IPS at a checkpoint on the outskirts of the … Continue reading “A Town Becomes a Prison”