Corruption Adds to Baquba’s Problems

BAQUBA - Facing violence, unemployment and poverty, the capital city of Iraq's volatile Diyala province now finds itself confronting corruption. This follows the failed promises of reform, reconstruction and rehabilitation at the beginning of the US occupation of...

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The War and the Wimp Factor

I had to laugh, albeit bitterly, when I saw the headline: "Democrats vow not to be bullied by Bush on Iraq." Oh, the poor dears, are those dastardly Republicans kicking sand in their faces? That wimpishness just about sums up the style and spirit of the...

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Are You With Us… or Against Us?

Before I met Jonathan Schell, I already knew him in the best way possible: on the page. Even in his days as a neophyte journalist in Vietnam, he committed a writer's greatest act of generosity. First in the pages of The New Yorker, and then in his books, he took...

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Entangling Alliances

In the name of clamping down on "terrorist uprisings" in Pakistan, General Musharraf has declared a state of emergency and imposed martial law. The true motivations behind this action however, are astonishingly transparent, as the reports come in that mainly...

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Fred Thompson and the Kitchen Sink

Based on a speech given at The Citadel, we now know that Fred Thompson believes we need to spend the equivalent of 4.5 percent of our gross domestic product (GDP) on the military (exclusive of ongoing military operations) and expand the size of our armed forces to...

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What Does Iraq’s ‘Good News’ Really Mean?

More than seven weeks ago, US media attention on Iraq peaked as Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador to Iraq Ray Crocker delivered their much anticipated evaluation of the George W. Bush administration's "surge strategy" before Congress. By most official and...

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