Month: October 2008

Constitutional Peril: The Life and Death Struggle for Our Constitution and Democracy Bruce Fein Palgrave/Macmillan, 2008 238 pp. The presidential election is almost upon us, and the candidates have been talking about all sorts of critical issues, such as who wears a flag pin, pays for travel for a candidate’s children, associates with bad people, … Continue reading “Constitutional Peril“

Back 17 years ago, in the winter of 1991–92, when I was contemplating Israel’s future in World Policy Journal, it was supposed to be the dawn of a new age. We were about to enter the roaring globalization years of the 1990s and to be downloaded into a borderless world in which the archaic nation-state … Continue reading “Israel’s Not-So-Future Perfect”

The Roman historian Tacitus famously put the following lines in the mouth of a British chieftain opposed to imperial Rome: “They have plundered the world, stripping naked the land in their hunger? they are driven by greed, if their enemy be rich; by ambition, if poor? They ravage, they slaughter, they seize by false pretenses, … Continue reading “What the Good News from Iraq Really Means”

The US government is sending $1 billion to “rebuild” Georgia – no, not the Georgia located in the southern United States, where home foreclosure rates are double the national average, but the one located in the Caucasus, along Russia’s southern frontier, where the President of the country launched a reckless invasion of a rebellious province, … Continue reading “Bailing Out Georgia”

When Is a Child Not a Child? It may have been worthwhile to mention in the article that Omar Khadr is accused of throwing a grenade that killed an American soldier and injured others; perhaps by doing a little research of their own your readers could come up with the rest of the information that … Continue reading “Backtalk, October 24, 2008”

Updated at 6:49 p.m. EDT, Oct. 23, 2008 Bomb blasts in Baghdad and Baquba left dozens killed or injured. Overall, 23 Iraqis were killed and 43 more were wounded across the country. No Coalition deaths were reported. Also, today marks two years since an Iraqi-born U.S. soldier was kidnapped as he was visiting his wife’s … Continue reading “Thursday: 23 Iraqis Killed, 43 Wounded”

The unlikely political journey of Andrew J. Bacevich has been one of the most potent symbols of the transformation in foreign policy debates wrought by the George W. Bush years. A Vietnam veteran, retired US Army colonel, and Boston University professor, Bacevich came into the public eye in the 1990s as a commentator on military … Continue reading “Is the Sun Setting on US Empire?”

The final draft of the US-Iraq Status of Forces agreement on the US military presence represents an even more crushing defeat for the policy of the George W. Bush administration than previously thought, the final text reveals. The final draft, dated Oct. 13, not only imposes unambiguous deadlines for withdrawal of US combat troops by … Continue reading “Final Text of Iraq Pact Reveals a US Debacle”

“The man of system … seems to imagine that he can arrange the different members of a great society with as much ease as the hand arranges the different pieces upon a chessboard…” – Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments One reason it has taken me so long to write my October column is … Continue reading “Central Planning at Home
and Abroad”

Updated at 6:31 p.m. EDT, Oct. 22, 2008For the fifth day in a row, a mass grave has been discovered. This one contained at least 34 victims. Overall, at least 44 Iraqis were killed and 14 more were wounded in violence across Iraq. No Coaltion deaths were reported. Meanwhile, a Shi’ite cleric has issued a … Continue reading “Wednesday: 44 Iraqis Killed, 14 Wounded; Mass Grave Found”