Doug Bandow

President George W. Bush held an hour-long video conference with Iraqi leaders on Monday and pronounced himself “impressed and reassured,” announced White House Press Secretary Tony Snow. The president believes that Iraqi “leaders are working together” on important issues. Yes, President Bush has seen light at the end of the tunnel. He believes that we … Continue reading “Deluded Presidential Promises of Progress in Iraq”

Overblown: How Politicians and the Terrorism Industry Inflate National Security Threats, and Why We Believe Them John Mueller Free Press, 2006 259 pp.   Sept. 11 changed everything, it is said, and nowhere has its effect been more significant than on U.S. foreign policy. In 2000, George W. Bush campaigned on behalf of a “humble” … Continue reading “Overblown Confronts Consensus of Fear”

Rather like the Hotel California in the famous Eagles song, the U.S. will be able to check out of Iraq but never leave if President George W. Bush has his way. He says he hopes Iraq will become like Korea – where U.S. combat forces remain today, 57 years after they arrived. White House presidential … Continue reading “The Bush Escalation: Occupying Iraq, Forever”

The United States dominates the globe, but analysts who make a living proclaiming America to be the essential nation, the unipower, the global rulemaker and policeman, are nervous. China refuses to remain supine and is increasingly investing in its military. U.S. policymakers who believe in inevitable and unending American global hegemony can glimpse the emergence … Continue reading “A New Peril from the East?”

Ali A. Allawi, The Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War, Losing the Peace (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007), 518 pp., $28.00. Much has been and will continue to be written about the Bush administration’s disastrous adventure in Iraq. Irresponsible, ignorant, arrogant, incompetent – President George W. Bush and his aides bear the blame for … Continue reading “Winning the War, Losing the Peace”

Religion, not patriotism, truly is the last refuge of the scoundrel. While most believers want to worship God and serve their fellow human beings, a few people twist the sacred for personal and political profit. Indeed, claiming that “God is on my side” plays the ultimate trump in any dispute. Yet ambitious fraudsters are usually … Continue reading “Who Would Jesus Kill?”

The year 1989 showcased one of history’s great moments of human liberation. The Soviet Union loosed its grip on its European satellites. Communist dominoes toppled. The Berlin Wall fell. So ended some of the most odious regimes in human history. A variety of barbarous, collectivist regimes were swept away, and with surprisingly little violence. Hundreds … Continue reading “Get Out of Europe; Avoid a New Cold War”

Victor Gold, Invasion of the Party Snatchers: How the Holy-Rollers and the Neo-Cons Destroyed the GOP (Naperville, Ill.: Sourcebooks, 2007), 246 pp., $26.95. The Republican party, nicknamed the “Grand Old Party,” isn’t looking so grand these days. Pompous paladins and frenetic activists alike remain shell-shocked over the GOP’s congressional losses last November. Discord is growing … Continue reading “Invasion of the Party Snatchers”

As the conflict in Iraq has worsened, a majority of Americans has come to believe that the war was a mistake. There were no WMDs to seize. There was no operational relationship with al-Qaeda to disrupt. There was no cohesive, democratic Iraqi nation to reclaim. In short, the war was a terrible mistake. In desperation, … Continue reading “Fight Terrorism: Get Out of Iraq”

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a piece of work, an anti-Semitic demagogue with a penchant for the unpredictable. The Iranians can do better, declares U.S. President George W. Bush. As President Bush put it: “My message to the Iranian people is: You can do better than to have somebody try to rewrite history. You can … Continue reading “America to George W. Bush: We Can Do Better”