Liberal Wimps for War

Liberal columnist Mark Brown, writing in the Chicago Sun-Times, is a typical liberal: he opposed the war – but "not to the point of joining any peace protests," heaven forfend. Content to wave from the nearest Starbucks, where he was nursing his...

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Iraq Election: Sistani’s Triumph

The man most responsible for Iraq's election didn't vote because he wasn't eligible. No, not George W. Bush – I mean the Grand Ayatollah Ali al Husseini al-Sistani, the man who single-handedly faced down the Americans, demanded direct elections rather than the...

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Payola Pundits for War?

How pervasive is the practice of pundit payola? First it was black conservative Armstrong Williams found sucking on the federal teat to the tune of $240,000 to promote the Bush administration's "No Child Left Behind" legislation. Armstrong, in his own defense,...

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The Shadow War

On Jan. 17, the Cryptome Web site posted a remarkable document that affords us a glimpse inside the secret war now taking place all around us. I refer, of course, to the war on terrorism, which, we've all been informed, will be a "generational" struggle, the outcome...

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This Plastic Moment

"When the soul of a nation finally speaks, the institutions that arise may reflect customs and traditions very different from our own. America will not impose our own style of government on the unwilling. Our goal, instead, is to help others find their own voice,...

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W and Dostoevsky

Midway through his inaugural address, when the president proclaimed "the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world," I wondered if Bush or his speechwriters knew or cared how alien this ultra-revolutionary rhetoric would seem to conservatives of the old...

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Exporting Democracy
– or Terrorism?

Iran's defense minister was pretty cocky the other day: "'We are able to say that we have strength such that no country can attack us because they do not have precise information about our military capabilities due to our ability to implement flexible strategies,'...

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The Scapegoat

The show trial of U.S. Army reservist Charles Graner had something for everyone: tragedy, comedy, pathos, and propaganda. The tragic aspect was dominant, with the photos of the disgusting abuse illustrating the theme of senseless arbitrary violence, but there was also...

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Iraq and the El Salvador ‘Option’

Panic is setting in at the Pentagon. Ever bolder and ever widening, the Iraqi insurgency grows in firepower and tactical sophistication, as well as in sheer numbers, while the architects of what appears to be a looming stalemate are scrambling to snatch victory from...

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Heading for the Exits

Forget the "good news" from Iraq that Glenn Reynolds, Arthur Chrenkoff, and the Pollyanna Brigade keep pushing, because this is the real news: "Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican, recently returned from his second fact-finding mission to Iraq, this latest with a small...

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