Ivan Eland

In the wake of the recent crushing Democratic election victory, most pundits in Washington have been expecting the Bush administration to change course in Iraq. For those people, last week’s testimony by Gen. John Abizaid, the U.S. commander ultimately in charge of the Iraq war, was disappointing. Abizaid rejected all alternative policies for Iraq that … Continue reading “‘Cutting and Running’ Preferable to ‘Staying and Praying’”

Most of official Washington has long believed that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld needed to be sacked. Unfortunately, it took a major Republican loss at the polls to finally prompt George W. Bush to cut loose a key player from his inner circle. The removal of Rumsfeld signals that Bush is listening to the voters … Continue reading “Iran-Contra Revisited”

In the run-up to the midterm elections, Vice President Dick Cheney’s recent remarks about U.S. national security policy once again point out the Bush administration’s haughtiness and disdain for checks on executive power. "You cannot make national security policy on the basis of that [election outcomes]," declared Cheney. "It may not be popular with the … Continue reading “Disregarding Democracy”

President Bush and Karl Rove realize they are losing the pre-election public relations battle with the Democrats over the war in Iraq. Rove, the president’s political ace, didn’t think the American people could intellectually process more than three words. So he cleverly tried to define the president’s position on the war as "stay the course" … Continue reading “Filling the Spin Vacuum”

In the run-up to the Nov. 7 elections, U.S. politicians from both parties are telling Iraqis that they are not doing enough to improve their own security. Democrats are disparaging Iraqi security efforts and criticizing the Bush administration for not pressuring Iraqis to do more. In response, the Bush administration is said to be creating … Continue reading “Imperial Arrogance in Iraq”

As the violence in Iraq mounts and the U.S. military experiences a spike in deaths and casualties, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shia, has refused to begin disarming Shi’ite militias, which have infiltrated the government security forces. Maliki has also resisted allowing the U.S. military to conduct large-scale operations in Sadr City against the … Continue reading “Stop Training Iraqis
for Civil War”

President Bush has so badly lied himself into a corner that he now needs the bipartisan "Iraq Study Group" – headed by the Bush family’s fix-it man, former Secretary of State James Baker – to tell the American public that things are rapidly going south in Iraq. According to the New York Times, one commission … Continue reading “Partition: The Way Out of Iraq”

The bellwether of the cautious establishment press, Bob Woodward, has finally unloaded both barrels on the Bush administration’s Iraq policy, in his new book, State of Denial. The media hoopla surrounding the book has focused mainly on the administration’s deceptions surrounding the sorry state of affairs in Iraq and Andrew Card’s attempts, with the apparent … Continue reading “Kissinger Still Giving Bad Advice”

John D. Negroponte, President Bush’s director of national intelligence, is now busy undermining a National Intelligence Estimate that concluded that the U.S. invasion of Iraq has worsened radical Islamic terrorism around the world. He previously had approved the document. According to the New York Times, the highly classified estimate, a consensus view of the 16 … Continue reading “Negroponte Tries to Cloud Terror Report”

In June, the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and China offered to provide goodies if Iran ended its nuclear program and threatened economic sanctions if it did not. Negotiations would not start until Iran suspended its enrichment of uranium. Although this was a bold take-it-or-leave-it deal by the six powers, Iran left it. The … Continue reading “What to Do About Iranian Nukes”