Alan Bock

I had called Leon Hadar, the libertarian Cato Institute‘s resident expert on the Middle East, to get some comments on the death of Syrian dictator-for-life Hafez-al-Assad, and he gave me plenty of information. But he kept pushing the conversation in a more interesting direction – namely, who is it these days who simply can’t stand … Continue reading “Who Could Deplore Peace Prospects?”

General Barry McCaffrey now has some defenders of the actions during the Persian Gulf war for which Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker had criticized him. The more usual approach has been to ignore the Hersh allegations and act as if they had no credibility or held no interest. However, while Mackubin Thomas Owens, a … Continue reading “Defending General McCaffrey”

The most fascinating (albeit somewhat depressing) aspect of the almost non-ongoing discussion over whether former General Barry McCaffrey ordered a slaughter of retreating Iraqi soldiers two days after the cease-fire in the Persian Gulf undeclared war is the almost complete lack of interest in the matter. The New York Times, to its credit, ran an … Continue reading “McCaffrey Bites Back”

We’ll see if legendary investigative reporter Seymour Hersh’s story suggesting that former Gulf War commander and now "drug czar" Gen. Barry McCaffrey either ordered or condoned actions that would be viewed as those of a war criminal if done by a foreigner turns out to "have legs," as we say in the business. Gen. McCaffrey … Continue reading “McCaffrey a War Criminal?”

Well, well, well. The mainstream press is catching on to the tissue of lies woven by Pentagon and NATO spokesmen to justify the late, lamentable war on Kosovo and Yugoslavia. The question is whether the skepticism they are able to display now, more than a year after the war was begun with near-universal cheerleading from … Continue reading “The mainstream catches up”

Vice President Gore, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, has outlined in some detail his views on foreign policy in a speech Sunday before the International Press Institute in Boston. Not surprisingly, his views differ little from the administration in which he serves. If anything, however, he has a more expansive view of the "global responsibilities" … Continue reading “Gore’s Gory Plans”

Perhaps, alongside thankfulness that against the odds nobody was hurt, one should be almost grateful to the national government for clarifying matters. Political scientists define government as the institution in a given society with a monopoly on the legitimate use of force. That means that government authority, when you get to the heart of the … Continue reading “The State’s True Colors”

One of the pleasures of keeping fat files – sometimes outweighed, sometimes not by the general air of messiness on the desk – is the opportunity to compare what officials said they expected at various times in the past to what has actually occurred. In the case of NATO officialdom’s hopes/expectations/predictions about how things were … Continue reading “NATO’S SHEER INCOMPETENCE: A LARGER MEANING?”

It could well be that as somebody who makes his living manipulating words I have an undue and unjustified faith in the importance and ultimate efficacy of calling phenomena by their proper names to advance understanding and enlightenment. Even granting that such is probably an unwarranted hope, however, I can’t help but be encouraged that … Continue reading “TALKIN’ EMPIRE BLUES”

The House of Representatives did pass a $13 billion supplemental appropriation bill last week that included $2.1 billion for the ill-advised mission in Kosovo and $1.7 billion for military and anti-drug aid to Colombia, by a fairly convincing 289-146 margin. But the votes garnered by several key amendments suggested increasing resistance to the idea that … Continue reading “Doubts about Colombian Intervention”