Month: March 2008

It does not take much expertise to understand that the current tightness of the oil market is in large part due to the situation in Iran and Iraq. As is well-known, Iran and Iraq have the highest proven oil reserves in the world after Saudi Arabia. Iran also has the highest proven natural gas reserves … Continue reading “The West vs. Iran:
A Simple Story of Good vs. Evil?”

Imagine, for a moment, that you live in a small town somewhere near the Southern California coast. You’re going about your daily life, trying to scrape by in hard times, when the missile hits. It might have come from the Iranian unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) – its pilot at a base on the outskirts of … Continue reading “Philip K. Dick, Meet
George W. Bush”

The smear machine is taking out after Barack Obama, and with a vengeance. Not that this is surprising, or even anything new: they’ve been conducting a low-level hate campaign ever since he attained front-runner status, and now they’re going into overdrive with a commentary by Ron Kessler in the Wall Street Journal that uses the … Continue reading “Smearing Obama”

Updated at 8:52 p.m., EDT, Mar. 16, 2008As U.S. presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain visited Iraq, another 21 people were killed and 29 were wounded in a new round of violence. No Coalition casualties were reported. In Baghdad, one person was killed and two more were wounded when a car bomb was detonated in the … Continue reading “Sunday: 21 Iraqis Killed, 29 Wounded”

For decades, it has been generally accepted that the My Lai massacre of as many as 400 Vietnamese civilians by U.S. Army troops on Mar. 16, 1968 was a violation of official policy directives on the treatment of civilians in South Vietnam. That was the conclusion reached in the most definitive official account of why … Continue reading “My Lai Probe Hid Policy that Led to Massacre”

Updated at 8:41 p.m. EDT, Mar. 15, 2008At least 20 Iraqis were killed and 55 more were wounded in the latest violence. One American soldier was killed today in Baghdad during a small arms attack. Also, clashing and other attacks continue in and around the city of Kut where the Mahdi Army and security forces … Continue reading “Saturday: 1 US Soldier, 20 Iraqis Killed, 55 Wounded”

The rather sudden resignation of Adm. William Fallon, chief of the Central Command (Centcom), has any number of people worrying that war with Iran will surely follow. Adm. Fallon had famously said, about war with Iran, that it would happen "not on my watch," and he worked assiduously to make sure that would happen. Some … Continue reading “Fallon Leaves: Will Iran War Follow?”

Undermined by recent violence, the US-brokered Palestinian-Israeli peace process laid out in Annapolis, Maryland is in critical condition. And bringing the militant Islamic group Hamas into the fold could be the only way to save the faltering plan – an idea that even the George W. Bush administration may be reluctantly conceding is a necessary … Continue reading “Opening the Door to Hamas”

Here are some rules for being a good citizen. They date back to the American Revolution, but most Americans today have forgotten them. Rule No. 1 is that people given power will tend to abuse it. This applies to everyone from local government to national government. It applies to Democrats and to Republicans. The reason … Continue reading “Rules of Citizenship”

It has been said that "he who lives by the sword shall die by the sword." And in the case of Eliot Spitzer this couldn’t be more true. In his case it’s the political sword, as his enemies rejoice in his downfall. Most people, it seems, believe he got exactly what he deserved. The illegal … Continue reading “Living by the Sword”