Ivan Eland

Like JFK’s assassination in 1963 and the moon landing in 1969, people remember where they were and what they were doing on Sept. 11, 2001. In my case, just a few hours before the attack, I was walking down one of the corridors of the Pentagon that was later obliterated by the hijacked aircraft. After … Continue reading “Fear Mongering on the Anniversary of 9/11”

The outspoken President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran has challenged President Bush to debate U.S.-Iran relations. Bush has dismissed the offer and declined. Debate is not good-faith negotiation between the opposing parties, but it is better than nothing. And it might not be as one-sided as most Americans think. We could certainly fantasize about how such … Continue reading “Bush vs. Ahmadinejad:
A Mock Debate”

In Saddam Hussein’s war crimes trial for the 1988 Iraqi “Anfal” campaign that gassed Kurdish villages, his defense lawyers have argued that Iraqi forces were really attempting to strike Iranian forces and the Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga militias that were in and supported by the hamlets. In other words, the lawyers are asserting that the innocent … Continue reading “Selective Prosecution of
War Crimes”

Although this weekend’s Israeli commando raid into Lebanon was billed by the Israeli government as an effort to prevent the rearming of Hezbollah, many suspect it was designed to grab a high-level Hezbollah leader to exchange for the Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah. Why then, wasn’t this type of raid Israel’s initial response to the … Continue reading “The Cult of the Offensive”

In the frenzy surrounding the exposed plot to simultaneously blow up 10 airliners flying from Britain to the United States, one line of inquiry being pursued by investigators should make the Bush administration very nervous. British and Pakistani law enforcement officials are examining whether the British plotters of Pakistani descent received money from an Islamic … Continue reading “Don’t We Have Enough Enemies Already?”

As both the Bush administration and its client government in Israel, with their invasions of Arab states in Iraq and Lebanon respectively, make the United States ever more hated in the Islamic world, a new book by the chairmen of the 9/11 Commission admits that the commission whitewashed the root cause of the 9/11 attacks … Continue reading “9/11 Commission Chairmen Admit to Whitewash”

Despite growing world outrage, the Bush administration’s continued backing of Israel’s over-the-top military action in Lebanon can only help Hezbollah and its patron Iran. The administration’s foreign policy could not be more pro-Iranian if the White House had become infested with Iranian agents. Even after the carnage in the Lebanese town of Qana, the administration … Continue reading “Empowering Iran”

Conservatives, especially neoconservatives, and even some pro-Israeli moderates and liberals admire Israel’s use of muscular tactics to safeguard its security. Many conservatives also admire Robert E. Lee’s aggressive, offense-oriented tactical victories in the U.S. Civil War. But like Lee, who ultimately lost the war, the Israelis are exhibiting enormous strategic ineptitude. Lee, using the Napoleonic … Continue reading “Israel Is Winning the Battle, but Not the War”

By declaring that "Israel has the right to defend itself," the Bush administration is tacitly approving Israel’s pounding Lebanon into rubble and re-invading Gaza. Since 9/11, the administration has tried to cast its "war on terror" as broadly as possible, including an invasion of Iraq and the labeling of groups that focus their attacks only … Continue reading “Israeli-Arab War: Terrorism on Both Sides”

Although George W. Bush is probably not the worst president in U.S. history (Woodrow Wilson may have that dubious honor), the president may be in contention for that title in the post-World War II era. Although he still has two and a half years to go in his term and could conceivably orchestrate a late-inning … Continue reading “The Worst Post-World War II President?”