Romney is fond of invoking Ronald Reagan and Harry Truman — and now George Marshall — as though their 20th century foreign policy legacies could lend his own cobbled-together worldview some indomitable burnish. But he seems loath to even utter the name of the American President his views are most like — George W. Bush. …
Continue reading “Romney’s Pretty Little War Speech”
CAIRO — Civilians in the town of Bani Walid, 170 km southeast of Tripoli, are facing a humanitarian crisis as Libyan security forces lay siege to the stronghold of Moammar Gadhafi supporters, cutting off water, food, and medical supplies. Local doctors told Amnesty International that on Oct. 4, three vehicles carrying medical supplies, oxygen, and …
Continue reading “Shadow Fighting Erupts Over Gadhafi”
In diplomacy, always leave your adversary an honorable avenue of retreat. Fifty years ago this October, to resolve a Cuban missile crisis that had brought us to the brink of nuclear war, JFK did that. He conveyed to Nikita Khrushchev, secretly, that if the Soviet Union pulled its nuclear missiles out of Cuba, the United …
Continue reading “Is a Nuclear Deal With Iran Possible?”
Ignoring calls to end capital punishment, Iraq executed six more convicts today. Fortunately, no other deaths were reported, but three people were wounded in Falluja. Also, Turkish warplanes staged strikes on suspected P.K.K. sites in northern Iraq.
My first reaction to Benjamin Netanyahu’s exhibition of comics at the U.N. General Assembly was shame. Shame that the supreme elected representative of my country would stoop to such a primitive rhetorical device, bordering on the childish. (One Israeli commentator suggested putting him on a rug with a lot of paper and Indian ink and …
Continue reading “Of Bombs and Comics”
Samuel Johnson said, “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.” H.L. Mencken expanded that definition when he said, “Patriotism, in truth, is the great nursery of scoundrels.… Its chief glories are the demagogue, the military bully, and the spreaders of libels and false history.” I think of this definition every time I hear the …
Continue reading “Support Our Troops — Bring Them All Home Now”
On the front page of a prominent newspaper the news is grim: a Middle Eastern country run by a ruthless dictatorial regime has been secretly developing “weapons of mass destruction.” While in public they deny it, in their underground labs their scientists are busy, cooking up a radioactive horror that will soon be visited upon …
Continue reading “Why Target Iran?”
Iraq conducted a mass execution in which eleven people were put to death. Ten of the individuals were Iraqi, but the last one was from Algeria. Another Iraqi was killed in an attack south of Baghdad. At least eight people were also wounded.
New attacks left at least 10 dead and 24 injured across Iraq.
Plenty of monikers have been attached to Omar Khadr, one of the most famous Guantanamo Bay detainees – child soldier, terrorist, war criminal, Al-Qaeda family member, security threat. One thing is certain: Khadr’s release last weekend to Canadian custody after 10 years has proven highly provocative. His return to Canadian soil has triggered passionate debate …
Continue reading “Coming of Age in a Guantanamo Jumpsuit” 
