Month: July 2008

My previous article on Antiwar.com, "Fisking Feith’s Faulty Case for War," led to an unusually high number of thoughtful criticisms. The feedback I typically get to my articles on Antiwar.com falls into one of two categories: (1) agreement with me on pretty much everything I wrote or (2) disagreement, with a barb or two thrown … Continue reading “‘Fisking’ or ‘Hendersoning’?”

Updated at 8:34 p.m. EDT, July 21, 2008At least 24 Iraqis were killed and 32 more were wounded in the latest violence. No Coalition deaths were reported. A home belonging to the family of a pro-U.S. MP was blown up in Baghdad, but no one was hurt. Also, bombs targeted homes belonging to Fallujah police … Continue reading “Monday: 24 Iraqis Killed, 32 Wounded”

Wake up, America! On July 15, the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled by 5 votes to 4 in the case of Al-Marri v. Pucciarelli [.pdf] that the president can arrest U.S. citizens and legal residents inside the United States and imprison them indefinitely, without charge or trial, based solely on his assertion … Continue reading “Court Confirms President’s Dictatorial Powers”

Evil usually hides its face, because the sight of it repulses all but the depraved. However, in the case of Benny Morris, writing in Friday’s New York Times, we see something new: a proud evil, glorying in pure malevolence. His piece is a cold, calculated attempt to simultaneously shock and intimidate, one that succeeds at … Continue reading “A Brazen Evil”

There seem to be two possibilities, according to several experts and sources I talked to last week, to explain the fact that the United States decided to have Undersecretary of State William Burns, the third-ranking person in the State Department, sit in the same room with Iranian nuclear envoy Saeed Jalili and high-ranking diplomats from … Continue reading “An Opening to Iran?”

Updated at 8:55 p.m. EDT, July 20, 2008At least 24 Iraqis were killed and 34 more were wounded during numerous but small attacks. No Coalition deaths were reported, but U.S. troops killed two relatives of a provincial governor in northern Iraq. Also, two foreign contractors were killed in Ninevah.U.S. forces killed the 17-year-old son and … Continue reading “Sunday: 24 Iraqis Killed, 34 Wounded”

Updated at 11:06 p.m. July 19, 2008At least 13 Iraqis were killed and five more were wounded in the latest attacks. No Coalition deaths were reported, but a British hostage may have killed himself.A militant group holding five British hostages has released a video in which they claim that one of their hostages killed himself … Continue reading “Saturday: 13 Iraqis Killed, 5 Wounded”

The US decision to send the State Department’s third-ranking official to sit in on the meeting between European Union foreign affairs chief Javier Solana and Iran’s nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili Saturday has been hailed as a major diplomatic breakthrough, but it is too soon to pop the champagne cork. The caveats associated with decision and … Continue reading “Seismic Shift or Non-Decision by Bush on Iran?”

After having begun a series of investigative stories criticizing the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in May 2008, CNN reporter Drew Griffin reports being placed with more than a million other names on TSA’s swollen terrorism watch list. Although TSA insists Griffin’s name is not on the list and pooh-poohs any possibility of retaliation for Griffin’s … Continue reading “Are 400,000 Terrorists Trying to Attack the United States?”

Teddy Roosevelt was the first president to leave the continental U.S. It’s too bad he wasn’t also the last. Politicians and celebrities with an urge to see poverty only need to visit the Mississippi Delta or some of the neighborhoods in American cities. If they yearn for more exotic poverty, all they have to do … Continue reading “America First”