Alan Bock

White House officials have said that the space shuttle disaster will not slow down or alter the president’s plans on war with Iraq. That’s defensible, of course – or it would be if the war itself were defensible. While the loss of the space shuttle and the seven people on it commanded great attention (and … Continue reading “The Case Weakens, the Plot Thickens”

Hans Blix, head of the UN inspection team, has delivered a somewhat ambivalent report on Iraqi compliance with the UN inspection regime. There is undoubtedly enough there to satisfy many elements within the Bush administration, and perhaps the president himself, that Saddam Hussein has once again shown himself nasty enough to deserve a military attack … Continue reading “Criteria for War”

The troop deployments, the tough talk about President Bush getting impatient (the hardly-hidden assumption being that by virtue of occupying the Oval Office he has the right and perhaps the duty to tell Saddam Hussein or any other titular leader in the world what to do and when and how to do it), the sudden … Continue reading “On the Eve of War?”

I‘ve been working on pieces on the history of Iraq for the Orange County Register, and had occasion to speak with Robert Rabil, project manager of the Iraq Research and Documentation Project at the Iraq Foundation and author of the new book (I haven’t read it yet) Embattled Neighbors: Syria, Israel, and Lebanon. He had … Continue reading “Slouching into Iraq?”

We’ve been getting all these trial balloons, so maybe there’s a serious effort underway. (Or maybe not.) A December 29 Associated Press story that ran in numerous newspapers and Web sites around the world, says that Arab leaders "are considering the possibility of pressing Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to step down and go into exile. … Continue reading “Can Exile Solve the Saddam Problem?”

Perhaps it’s the time of the year. I’m not over Christmas yet – I spent much of the season singing with a quasi-professional (people actually paid us!) caroling group – and some songs stay in my head. The third verse of "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" seems especially poignant to me just now: … Continue reading “In Search of a Peace Culture”

I try not to sound too preachy in these columns, but having just celebrated Christmas with more of my extended family than we have been accustomed to in recent years I had to wonder in print. Jesus talked about turning the other cheek, about never returning evil for evil, about humbling oneself, about taking care … Continue reading “The Empire Ruminates”

Perhaps it’s the season, and a not entirely rational desire to have the birthday of the Prince of Peace be something other than a harbinger of all-out war this year. But a phone conversation with Jessica Mathews, president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, gave me a few brief moments of hope last week. … Continue reading “A Ray of Hope?”

Interesting. I got more nasty comments about last week’s piece about the un-American way the government has wanted to treat accused terrorists like Jose Padillla or whatever it is that he wants to call himself. I started to do a collective response, but it grew, so here’s more than you might want to digest on … Continue reading “Pacifist, Passive or Realistic?”

It is rare that we get anything even resembling good news on the ongoing effects on American liberties of the undeclared and amorphous but still useful (to some) war on terror. And in fact this is not unalloyed good news. Still, it’s worth noting and issuing a modest cheer or two. Last week U.S. District … Continue reading “A Slight Detour on the Road to a Police State”