Charley Reese

A few reminders: Iraq is not our country. Our invasion and occupation are illegal, being in violation of both international law and our own traditions. We were lied into war. We are still being lied to. Both the Bush administration and the Democrats intend to maintain American troops in Iraq indefinitely. The catchy little phrase … Continue reading “FYI: Iraq Is Not Our Country”

The row over the removal of a statue of a Soviet soldier in Estonia is another bit of evidence why major powers should never ally themselves with small, powerless countries. By the second day, Estonian officials were calling for the European Union to consider the Russian response as an “attack on the EU.” It was, … Continue reading “Folly in the Baltics”

President George Bush’s claims about what will happen if we pull out of Iraq is almost word-for-word identical to Richard Nixon’s speech explaining why we must not pull out of Vietnam. A “precipitate withdrawal” would result in a bloodbath, destabilization of Southeast Asia, would embolden our enemies and result in more war not less, Nixon … Continue reading “George and Richard”

It’s been said often that while everyone is entitled to his own opinion, no one is entitled to his own facts. Today, we hear misstatements all the time. Some of them are deliberate lies. Some of them are just mistakes. A House committee has just exposed the terrible fact that Army officials fabricated a story … Continue reading “Officeholding Liars”

The White House’s huffing and puffing about Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Syria is just a bunch of hooey. Congress is an independent and coequal branch of our government. Its members can go anywhere they wish to go, and that includes the current House speaker, Pelosi. As for the Bush administration’s stated desire to “isolate” Syria, … Continue reading “Pelosi and Syria”

A little more than half of the U.S. population lives in 75 metropolitan areas. Russia has 4,399 nuclear warheads deployed. Except for 624 to be carried by bombers, they are all land-based and submarine missiles. Furthermore, this past week Russia test-fired a land-based missile, the RSM54, and a submarine-launched missile. Both were intercontinental. Both hit … Continue reading “Forget Israel, Befriend Russia”

It’s interesting how much of our language is taken from war. Politicians in particular like to wage “war” on such things as cancer, drugs and terrorism (all of them lost so far). Aspiring politicians who probably haven’t had a real fight since second grade always promise “to fight” for whatever they happen to be promising. … Continue reading “War Talk”

I hope President George Bush will not be so stupid as to allow the Israelis to push him into an attack on Iran. Based on his past performance, however, I’m not sure what he will do. Washington today is so riddled with intellectual dishonesty, you have to take what officials say with a large dose … Continue reading “Fear Stupid Acts”

Credibility is a precious trait, but once it is lost, it’s darned difficult to restore. That’s the main problem of the Bush administration. After the outrageously false claims about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, it has no credibility. Hence, its new claims that the Iranian government is supplying weapons to the insurgents in Iraq are … Continue reading “Credibility, a Precious Trait”

It’s axiomatic, based on history, that no nation can maintain an empire abroad and a democracy at home. We are now about to pay for our empire, and the price is American freedom. This is the message of a new book by Chalmers Johnson, a historian. His latest book is titled Nemesis and is the … Continue reading “Congress’ Two Choices”