With a strong majority of US citizens favoring withdrawal from Iraq within a year and presidential elections set for 2008, Democrats and moderate Republicans continue to face an uphill struggle to force President George W. Bush to change course. But as many Washington...
Two Knights and a Dragon
There are books that change people's consciousness and change history. Some tell a story, like Harriet Beech Stowe's 1851 Uncle Tom's Cabin, which gave a huge impetus to the campaign for the abolition of slavery. Others take the form of a political treatise, like...
So Who’s Afraid of the Israel Lobby?
Who's afraid of the Israel Lobby? Virtually everyone: Republican, Democrat Conservative, Liberal. The fear factor is non-partisan, you might say, and palpable. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) brags that it is the most influential foreign...
Machiavelli’s Real Transgression
I was planning to write about Blackwater and a growing distaste for contracting-out, privatizing or outsourcing various operations in wartime to "mercenaries," and I will a bit. But the topic of mercenaries got me to thinking about Machiavelli, who famously...
Saturday: 2 GIs, 33 Iraqis Killed; 28 Iraqis Wounded
Updated at 12:03 p.m. EDT, Oct. 6, 2007At least 33 Iraqis were killed or found dead and another 28 were wounded in the latest round of attacks, which included bombings in Kirkuk and Khalis. Also, two GIs were killed and three were wounded in separate events. Three...
Sputnik, 50 Years Later: The Launch of Techno-Power
This is an excerpt from Norman Solomon's new book Made Love, Got War: Close Encounters with America's Warfare State. A story could start almost anywhere. This one begins at a moment startled by a rocket. In the autumn of 1957, America was not at war ... or at peace....
Saving the Military from Itself
When, in mid-September, General David Petraeus testified before Congress on "progress" in Iraq, he appeared in full dress uniform with quite a stunning chestful of medals. The general is undoubtedly a tough bird. He was shot in the chest during a training-exercise...
The Blackwater Massacre
On September 16, as a car approached Nisour Square, all the folly and tragedy of the Iraq war was enacted on a Baghdad street. In the vehicle were two Iraqis: Ahmed Haithem was driving his mother, Mohassin, to the local hospital, where her husband worked as a...
The Price of Promiscuous Intervention
The Republican Party once professed to promote fiscal responsibility. It sought to limit government growth, expected program benefits to exceed costs, and refused to give any agency a blank check. No longer. If there is a Republican Party consensus ...
Friday: 4 GIs, 62 Iraqis Killed; 62 Iraqis Wounded
Updated at 11:50 p.m. EDT, Oct. 5, 2007In an unusually active Friday, 62 Iraqis were killed or found dead and 62 more were wounded. Two incidents involving U.S. forces are the focus of controversy today as innocent civilians may have been killed. Police sources in...


