Month: March 2008

According to the Washington Times, a "former senior Defense official" (SecDef Cheney?) knows "for a fact" that Adm. William J. Fallon – commander of all U.S. armed forces in the MidEast and Persian Gulf regions – "was fired" last week because Iran and Syria were allegedly allowing "foreign fighters" to cross into Iraq and "kill … Continue reading “Unwilling to Nuke?”

Readers of these screeds will have noticed that we have been maintaining a discreet silence of late. The news, such as it is, has concentrated heavily on the presidential horse race: who, when the day after the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November dawns, will occupy the glittering alabaster throne of the American … Continue reading “Cuckoo in the Nest”

Updated at 11:17 p.m. EDT, March 14, 2008At least 20 Iraqis were killed and 42 were wounded in the latest round of violence. Attack reports are usually lighter on Fridays as many reporters in Iraq take the day off. No Coalition deaths were reported. Clashes between Mahdi Army members and Iraqi police continued in Kut. … Continue reading “Friday: 20 Iraqis Killed, 42 Wounded”

Please don’t write in with a correction. I know just as well as you do that we’re approaching the fifth, not the sixth, anniversary of the moment when, on March 19, 2003, George W. Bush told the American people: “My fellow citizens, at this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of … Continue reading “The First Sixth-Anniversary- of-the-Iraq-War Article”

As Colombia invaded Ecuador and bombed an encampment of the rebel FARC guerrilla group, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe was waging the war for hearts and minds in the international media: at a dramatic press conference, he unveiled a captured laptop computer that had somehow survived the intensive bombing raid, in which 22 FARC fighters were … Continue reading “Pure Fantasy: Colombia’s Laptop Revelations”

Nasty presidential campaigns are not new. The 1800 election, which brought Thomas Jefferson to power, was venomous. So was the 1828 contest, in which populist Andrew Jackson defeated patrician John Quincy Adams. The reasons for Adams’ defeat were many, and went back to the 1824 election in which many people believed that Adams and Henry … Continue reading “Mr. Adams’s Last Crusade“

On Wednesday, March 13, Rep. Ron Paul addressed the House of Representatives on the costs of intervening around the world. I am pleased to address the House tonight about the budget because there has been a lot of concern expressed here today on both sides of the aisle about the kind of financial trouble we’re … Continue reading “Intervening Our Way to Economic Ruin”

After close to eight years during which the relationship between the United States and much of the international community has been dominated by tensions over foreign policy, many wonder what a new administration will hold. Some hope there will be a new U.S. approach to the rest of the world – especially to the Middle … Continue reading “The Pitfalls of Forecasting Foreign Policy”

It is obvious by now that this January’s presidential elections in Serbia were called with the specific purpose of entrenching Boris Tadic and his Democratic Party in power before the planned declaration of dependence by the terrorist KLA regime in the occupied province of Kosovo. The same "diplomats" and "reliable sources" that whispered to reporters … Continue reading “Not So Fast”

Confessions of an Obama Cultist Dear Mr. Raimondo, I just read your most recent piece on Obama and wanted to thank you for it. I myself am a leftist (far leftist) and most likely have very little in common with many of your political stances; however, I wholeheartedly agree with your position that there are … Continue reading “Backtalk, March 14, 2008”