Words in a Time of War

A few weeks ago, I offered Tomdispatch readers, "Close Your Eyes," my fantasy graduation speech for the class of 2007, given from the podium of some university of my mind. Mark Danner, however, recently stood at an actual podium at the University of California,...

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Dying for Nothing

I didn't watch any of the Memorial Day events on television. Memorial Day, it seems to me, should be only for the families of the dead. It's really impossible to remember someone we never knew. Of course, these days Memorial Day gets larded with politics and...

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To the Shores of Tripoli

The bloody battles that have erupted around the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp near Tripoli in Lebanon remind us that the refugee problem has not disappeared. On the contrary, 60 years after the "Nakba," the Palestinian catastrophe of 1948, it is again the center of...

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A New Peril from the East?

The United States dominates the globe, but analysts who make a living proclaiming America to be the essential nation, the unipower, the global rulemaker and policeman, are nervous. China refuses to remain supine and is increasingly investing in its military. U.S....

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Carpet-bombing the Clichés

A few Hannitized dittobots are not worth the effort in debating the Iraq war. I've come to reply in kind to those who scream "treason" or rudely tell me that I don't "support the troops." Usually, my drippingly sarcastic reply to the irreconcilably rude goes something...

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Surge Dirge

Despite President George W. Bush's victory last week in his protracted battle with Congressional Democrats for unconditional funding for the Iraq war at least through September, his administration appears to have given up hope that it can maintain his...

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UN Peacekeeping Budget Soars Sky High

UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations is commemorating its annual "International Day of UN Peacekeepers" to mixed reviews, its successes being tainted by increasing accusations of sexual abuse and misconduct by its troops, and more recently, charges of illegal...

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Bosnia’s Straitjacket

Even though the 1995 Dayton Accords stopped more than three years of brutal interethnic warfare, the conflict between communities in Bosnia-Herzegovina has continued ever since, through politics and media. Despite the near-dictatorial oversight of the...

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