Month: August 2006

It feels like déjà vu all over again. A U.S. official leaves for a conference in East Asia where he or she is supposed to discuss issues that affect the interests of the governments and economies in the region. Instead, the American representative ends up investing most of his or her time and energy in … Continue reading “The US Can’t Run the Show in the Middle East”

The major internal conflict for the strangest alliance in history is about what will happen to Jews who don’t convert to evangelical Christianity. The Armageddonites, those 30 million Americans who happily see Mideast chaos as hastening their one-way trip to paradise, are being increasingly questioned about the fate of Jews whom they urge to help … Continue reading “‘Dual Covenant’ Christians”

Some of the Republican Party’s most venerable foreign policy strategists are calling urgently for a major course change in U.S. policy in the Middle East, but neither the administration of President George W. Bush nor Republicans in Congress appear inclined to pay much heed. Whether their view may change as a result of Sunday’s devastating … Continue reading “Republican Realists Call for Major Course Change”

Kurdish officials toured the United States last week to launch a massive advertising and public relations campaign thanking the United States for overthrowing Saddam Hussein and urging U.S. companies to invest in the region. The campaign looks suspicious to some observers, however, since it is run by an A-list Republican public relations firm that refuses … Continue reading “Kurdish ‘Thank You’ a Republican Stunt?”

“Everyone in southern Lebanon is a terrorist and is connected to Hezbollah,” roared Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon on July 27. “Every village from which a Katyusha is fired must be destroyed,” bellowed an Israeli general in a quote bannered by the nation’s largest newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth. The Israeli paper then summarized what the justice … Continue reading “The Moral Culpability for Qana”

Despite growing world outrage, the Bush administration’s continued backing of Israel’s over-the-top military action in Lebanon can only help Hezbollah and its patron Iran. The administration’s foreign policy could not be more pro-Iranian if the White House had become infested with Iranian agents. Even after the carnage in the Lebanese town of Qana, the administration … Continue reading “Empowering Iran”

The U.S.-India Nuclear Cooperation Promotion Act [.pdf], just overwhelmingly passed by the House, perversely begins by declaring that “it is the sense of Congress” that “sustaining” the Treaty on Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and “strengthening its implementation, particularly its verification and compliance” is the “keystone of United States nonproliferation policy." Furthermore,”the NPT has been … Continue reading “NSG Consensus – or Not?”

The crowds in Beirut last year demanding a Cedar Revolution, “the first shoots of democracy” supposedly planted by the United States, are a distant memory. Yesterday we saw in their place the fury of Lebanon directed against the capital’s United Nations building – an early “birth pang” in Condoleezza Rice’s new Middle East. If Israel … Continue reading “Why Do They Hate Us?
Listen to Qana (Again)”

It is the old story about the losing gambler: he cannot stop. He continues to play, in order to win his losses back. He continues to lose and continues to gamble, until he has lost everything: his ranch, his wife, his shirt. The same thing happens in the biggest gamble of all: war. The leaders … Continue reading “A Nice Little War Gets Out of Hand”

One of the most useful devices of general semantics is the use of numbers and dates to remind ourselves of individuality and change. Cow-1 is not the same as cow-2, and Israel-1967 is not the same as Israel-2006. In 1967, Israel launched a blitzkrieg attack against Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, and in less than a … Continue reading “One Is Not the Other”