The war which resulted in the ouster of a dangerous despot ended and the US troops, who had fought in a bloody conflict overseas, were returning home. But the human and financial costs of the war were very high and its promise of helping to spread democracy in regions...
America’s Coming Dictatorship
The Iraq war and the inquiry into its origins has provoked interest in a number of subjects formerly considered obscure, the discussion of which was once limited to the rarified aeries of academia and specialty journals. Some examples are neoconservatism, just war...
Tragic Russia
The death of Boris Yeltsin, who might be described as the first and apparently the last relatively democratic leader of Russia, makes one wonder whether Russia will ever have anything approaching decent governance. (I'm not sure there is any such thing as good...
Invasion of the Party Snatchers
Victor Gold, Invasion of the Party Snatchers: How the Holy-Rollers and the Neo-Cons Destroyed the GOP (Naperville, Ill.: Sourcebooks, 2007), 246 pp., $26.95. The Republican party, nicknamed the "Grand Old Party," isn't looking so grand these days. Pompous paladins and...
Thursday: 2, GIs, 43 Iraqis, 4 Filipino Contractors Killed; 30 Iraqis Wounded
Updated at 12:59 a.m EDT, May 34, 2007Although very few reports of violence came out of Iraq today, at least one high-profile militant leader was killed and perhaps a second one as well. Overall, 43 Iraqis and four Filipinos were killed and 30 Iraqis were injured. In...
Lebanon’s Palestinian Refugees Learn to Substitute Government
BEIRUT - The influx of refugees from Palestinian areas and the inability of the government to do much for them has strengthened a unique NGO providing essential services. The Popular Aid for Relief and Development (PARD), which began working in the early 1980s before...
Back in the EUSSR
Historians still argue over the reasons why one particular geographical region managed to achieve such overwhelming military, economic and cultural power as to subordinate the rest of the planet, but the fact remains that as late as 1914, Europe dominated the world in...
Divide and Rule: US Blocks Israel-Syria Talks
Even as American officials reluctantly agreed last month to include Syrian representatives in multiparty talks on Iraqi security issues, the Bush administration continues to block Israel from resuming negotiations with Syria over its security concerns. In 2003,...
Wednesday: 3 GIs, 117 Iraqis Killed; 81 Iraqis Wounded
Updated at 1:07 a.m. EDT, May 3, 2007The U.S. military announced that about 4000 fresh troops arrived in the capital as part of a security crackdown that began several weeks ago. Throughout the country today, 117 Iraqis were killed or found dead and 81 were injured in...
In Defense of George Tenet
Former CIA director George Tenet is being lashed by both the pro-war neoconized Right and the antiwar Left, taking so many of the slings and arrows of a truly outrageous fortune that he's beginning to resemble a portrait of Saint Sebastian. Indeed, there is something...