Month: February 2006

The current flurry of Western diplomacy will probably turn out to be groundwork for launching missiles at Iran. Air attacks on targets in Iran are very likely. Yet many antiwar Americans seem eager to believe that won’t happen. Illusion #1: With the U.S. military bogged down in Iraq, the Pentagon is in no position to … Continue reading “The Iran Crisis: ‘Diplomacy’ as a Launch Pad for Missiles”

The Bizarro World illogic started right off the bat when George W. Bush intoned that what we need more of in public life is “a civil tone.” This from a man who has repeatedly impugned the patriotism of his opponents, and just the previous week declared that critics of the Iraq war are giving “comfort … Continue reading “Prepare for Perpetual War”

For the last two years he has grown no poppy, and his family have begun to feel the pinch. This year, this farmer from Nangahar province in Afghanistan plans to resume poppy cultivation. And not just he but thousands of others, and not just in Nangahar province but beyond. As Britain leads the Western push … Continue reading “Afghan Farmers Feel Pinch of Poppy Eradication”

Hamas won the Palestinian elections. Huge surprise. Years of Israeli policy to crush secular Palestinian nationalism succeeded beyond expectation. Who could predict that in the Middle East, where causes invariably produce unintended effects (oh, those irrational Arabs!), Israel’s policy to weaken Fatah would end up in a landslide victory for Hamas? Israel birthed and nurtured … Continue reading “Hamas and Israel: Rival Twins”

I laughed when Hamas swept the Palestinian elections. After all, President Bush and his gang of neoconservative ideologues have been preaching that democracy in the Middle East will lead to peace. Oops. Now the president will once more have to expose himself as the hypocrite he is. Democracy is good, in Mr. Bush’s view, only … Continue reading “Hamas and Democracy”

I choose to see it as a sign of verging on desperation. The war in Afghanistan is still going on at a certain level all these years after our leaders congratulated themselves on winning it, and Afghan president Hamid Karzai still has trouble setting foot outside Kabul. A majority of Americans now believe, and are … Continue reading “Dreary Old Clichés”

US officials and analysts here are hoping that Haiti’s elections next Tuesday will run smoothly and bring to power a credible government two years after Washington itself helped oust the last elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Unlike recent elections in the two other countries on which the administration of Pres. George W. Bush practiced "regime change" … Continue reading “U.S. Hopes for Smooth Elections in Haiti”

Since the fall of 2002 at the military prison at Guantanamo Bay (GITMO), and during the fall of 2003 and early winter of 2004 at the now infamous U.S. Army detention facility at Abu Ghraib, Iraq, several Iraqi, Afghan, Pakistani and other “enemy combatant” detainees were abused, tortured and in some cases, murdered. No one … Continue reading “Military Medicine on Trial”

Why is President Bush hell-bent on getting Iran’s alleged violations referred to the UN Security Council before March? Perhaps it’s because John Bolton is President of the Security Council this month. Bonkers Bolton has been point man in Bush’s campaign to undermine the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the … Continue reading “President Bonkers Bolton”

DOHA, Qatar – Its foreign bureaus were bombed by U.S. warplanes, it is banned from reporting from four Middle East countries – and al-Jazeera is only growing in popularity. An interesting, and sometimes tragic path has led to the success of al-Jazeera since its launch in November 1996. Its difficulties have also been its success; … Continue reading “Al-Jazeera Succeeding Under Pressure”