Not Quite Goodbye

Having refrained from writing in the first person here before – except in one or two instances that I can recall – I beg my readers for an indulgence to do so now. For you see, this is a special, quasi-column: a not-quite-goodbye.

Some of you may have noticed a couple of articles in the past two months have been different, and saw an odd note at the end: "This originally appeared on Russia Today." After fourteen years of writing for Antiwar.com, last fall I also started writing columns for RT. Then, a couple of weeks ago, they officially welcomed me on board as a writer. Because of company policies, journalist ethics and potential conflicts of interest, that means my exclusives for Antiwar.com have come to an end.

My articles should still appear here from time to time, when I address some issue of war and peace or another that Antiwar.com’s editors find pertinent. I have neither forgotten nor forsaken my roots or my audience. I haven’t changed my opinions, beliefs, or principles. This is but the next logical step in the journey I began back in October 2000, when Antiwar.com invited me to be their Balkans (and later Europe and Russia) columnist. It has been an honor and privilege to share that journey with you for all these fourteen-plus years.

I would like to thank my long-suffering editors for their infinite patience and understanding, and all who have ever read "Balkan Express" and "Moments of Transition." From the first day to the present, I have endeavored not to snipe or sneer, but to criticize and correct, hoping to in some fashion contribute to the struggle for the soul of the Republic against the demon of Empire that at some point possessed it. To set the record straight, so that the war I lived through would not be visited upon my children, or theirs. To what measure I may have succeeded, or failed, is not for me to judge.

I will say, however, that if I could do it – a penniless, accidental immigrant, who had everything to lose and nothing to gain from speaking truth to power – so can you.