Month: April 2007

The Easter pardon by Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of the 15 British sailors and Marines, seized by Iranian Revolutionary Guards in waters off the Iraqi coast two weeks ago, ends the crisis. And as the beaming smile of President Ahmadinejad while he graciously accepted apologies from the sailors and Marines testifies, there is no doubt as … Continue reading “Magnanimous Mahmoud”

The White House’s huffing and puffing about Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Syria is just a bunch of hooey. Congress is an independent and coequal branch of our government. Its members can go anywhere they wish to go, and that includes the current House speaker, Pelosi. As for the Bush administration’s stated desire to “isolate” Syria, … Continue reading “Pelosi and Syria”

The twenty-first century has already had its share of "fuzzy math," and the following are five examples of ideas that do not hold up to logical analysis. 1. You Break It = You Bought It Colin Powell is said to have famously introduced this fatally flawed analogy. This, along with a couple other accomplishments, appears … Continue reading “Trouble at the Pottery Barn”

Updated at 1:00 a.m. EDT, April 7, 2007In an unusually active Friday, 112 Iraqis were killed or found dead and another 80 were wounded. Among the incidents are a chlorine bomb attack in Ramadi and a major security operation in Diwaniya. Also, the U.S. military reported that an American soldier was killed during a small … Continue reading “Friday: 112 Iraqis, 2 GIs Killed; 80 Iraqis Wounded”

A year ago, Donald Vance learned what its like to be falsely accused by the U.S. military of aiding terrorists. He was held without charge for more than three months in a high-security prison in Iraq, and interrogated daily after sleepless nights without legal counsel or even a phone call to his family. On Wednesday, … Continue reading “‘My Name Used to Be 200343’”

When the George W. Bush administration launched a high-profile campaign in January and February accusing Iran of exporting armor-piercing bombs to Shi’ite militias in Iraq, seizing Iranian officials in Iraq, threatening cross-border raids against Iran and sending a second carrier battle group into the Gulf, it seemed that it was entering a much more aggressive … Continue reading “Bush’s Bluster on Iran Was Cover for Direct Talks”

University of California Santa Cruz student Robert Zabala joined the Marine Corps thinking it would be a "place where he could find security" after the death of his grandmother in 2003. But when he began boot camp in June 2003, Zabala said he had an ethical awakening that would not allow him to kill other … Continue reading “Civilian Court Sides With ‘Conscientious Objector’”

The drama surrounding the release of 15 British sailors and marines after 12 days in Iranian captivity was designed to convey two key messages that the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush would do well to heed, say experts here. First, the Britons’ original capture by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard near the entry to … Continue reading “Lessons in Capture, Release of Britons”

The release of the 15 British sailors and marines by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – whose sense of showmanship was really on display here – was widely described as "bizarre" in the Western media, and yet analysts – including those hostile to Iran – are claiming it was a victory for the Iranians, and a … Continue reading “A Provocation Backfires”

Iran’s nuclear ambition continues to dominate U.S.-Iran relations, with little positive movement. The U.S. argues that Iran does not have the right to enrich uranium, that its enrichment program is only a cover for the development of nuclear weapons and that Iran is in violation of the NPT (Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons). … Continue reading “Nuclear Standoff With Iran: The Only Way Out”