Charley Reese

Iraq has always been ruled by a strong central authority, whether the rulers were the Turks, the British or the Ba’athists. The reason is that the differences are too wide and too deep to be bridged by political compromise. Compromise requires that all the parties agree to the same basic premise. The easiest example is … Continue reading “A United Iraq Is a Western Joke”

What Americans should demand from their governments at all levels is accountability. Accountability is far more important than transparency, which can be easily faked. Accountability is not complicated. It simply means people must take responsibility for their actions. If the actions are successful, take responsibility; if they are a failure, take responsibility. This principle applies … Continue reading “Demand Accountability”

As I watched the extensive, plainly sympathetic coverage of Jewish settlers being evicted from their Gaza homes, I couldn’t help but take note once again of the striking double standard applied by American news media as well as the U.S. government. I cannot recall any sympathetic coverage of Palestinians being evicted from their homes. No … Continue reading “Gaza Evacuation Should Be Americans’ Last Straw”

I heard a lecture by an Army psychologist who contended that after 90 days of combat, the casualty rate was 98 percent. Those not wounded physically were wounded psychologically. The other 2 percent were psychopaths. His passing remark about the psychopaths was interesting. A psychopath is a defective human being, almost a bionic robot. Psychopaths … Continue reading “No-Win War”

As of this writing, more than 1,800 young Americans have died in Iraq. The combined cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is $340 billion. This is what happens when we elect people who refuse to accept the limits set by the United States Constitution. The Constitution gave us a government to govern America, … Continue reading “The Neocons’ Childish Theory”

We now have, just as my Confederate forefathers predicted, an imperial government in Washington. We are the only country in the world that has military forces permanently stationed all over the Earth. All imperialism, even the American form, is ultimately based on social Darwinism, a belief not openly stated these days that we are a … Continue reading “Survival of the Fittest, Indeed”

The underlying theme of most Western politicians can be summed up in the phrase “It’s not my fault.” This is the motto of the Age of Irresponsibility. Have you ever wondered how, if all the problems we face are nobody’s fault, they became problems in the first place? It’s been my personal experience that when … Continue reading “Nobody’s Fault”

The state of Israel – which, the last time I checked, was both a foreign and a sovereign nation – wants the American taxpayers to cough up $2.2 billion in addition to our regular $3 billion-or-so annual subsidy to pay for the withdrawal from Gaza. Unless the American people raise hell about this, it’s a … Continue reading “A Quarter of a Million Dollars Per Settler”

British Prime Minister Tony Blair and President George W. Bush went into their standard routine after the London bombings. This was an attack against civilization and all civilized nations, they said. That’s bosh and hokum, and it does a disservice to the people. The first step always in solving any problem is to define the … Continue reading “Nobody Attacks Civilization”

Once upon a time in a mountainous land far away, a superpower came to the aid of a government that shared its political philosophy. No one dreamed that an insurgency made up of Muslims could possibly prevail against the military superpower. Yet that’s what happened in Afghanistan, and it produced several results: It created a … Continue reading “Playing the Soviet Part”