Month: June 2006

For about the last 15 years, I’ve been an on-again, off-again member of Amnesty International (AI) – mainly on. When I’ve let my membership lapse, it’s been due to my financial circumstances. But a letter I received from AI last month has persuaded me not to rejoin. What is happening at AI is a tragic … Continue reading “Why I Won’t Renew With Amnesty International”

Fourth-Generation HellWriting at a time when we’re trying to sort out what happened at Haditha and why, Mr. Lind writes, “Blood Stripes does not paint a picture of an easy war. As a Marine officer said to me many years ago, ‘If your unit is the one getting ambushed, it’s not low-intensity war.’ The Marines … Continue reading “Backtalk, June 19, 2006”

As the United States and India held yet another round of intensive talks this week to flesh out the landmark nuclear deal they signed in July, it became clear that they will both explore how far they can push each other for concessions that would ease Congressional approval. Both sides are bargaining hard as they … Continue reading “Testing Times for Indo-US Nuclear Deal”

The Neo-Crazies, in cahoots with the Anti-Nuclear-Whatever crazies, have managed to get Western politicians from across the political spectrum to view-with-alarm the Iranian nuclear weapons “threat.” Of course, as those politicians know, there is no evidence whatsoever that Iran is now a nuke threat. Know, because until March of this year Iran had voluntarily cooperated … Continue reading “Nuke-Free Zone”

Ann Coulter, to use one of her favorite words, is an over-40 smart “broad” who makes a ton of money out of being controversial. She laughs all the way from her Palm Beach, Fla., mansion to the bank when Democrats and liberals get outraged by something she says or writes. A former corporate lawyer, she’s … Continue reading “Meaningful Lives”

For a day or two after the killing of terrorist gang leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, I was fantasizing that US President George W. Bush and his aides were finally getting smart when it came to Iraq. A few hours after the Jordanian-born head of al-Qaeda in Iraq was killed in a US air strike, a … Continue reading “The Ever Elusive ‘Tipping Point’ in Iraq”

with Alaa Hassan BAGHDAD – Basra in the south of Iraq is beginning to splinter under increasing violence and sectarian divisions. Smuggling of oil on a large scale coupled with increasing violence and the lack of basic services like water and electricity has caused increasing tensions in the city, 570km south of Baghdad. More than … Continue reading “Basra Begins to Fall Apart”

To buttress crumbling support for his interventionist policy, President Bush played his ace of trumps, sending his most popular champion, Condi Rice, to the Southern Baptist Convention. If seven standing ovations and 20,000 Christians bursting forth into a spontaneous signing of “God Bless America” at the close is any measure, the secretary succeeded splendidly in … Continue reading “Condi and the Isolationists”

The Republican offensive in support of the Iraq war should have crashed shortly after launching: unfortunately, they had some essential allies who helped fuel their shaky effort – the Democrats. As one news report about the House debate put it: "In both the House and Senate, Democrats appear to be divided into three camps. Some … Continue reading “‘Debating’ the Iraq War”

Hussein Soyan was formerly a candidate for president of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia. He attended the May 2003 Somali National Peace and Reconstruction Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, where debates on reconciliation and mediation between warlords helped lead to the present Transitional Federal Government of Somalia. However, the still-forming Transitional Federal Government of Somalia … Continue reading “Back in Somalia: An Interview With Hussein Soyan”