With just over 18 months left in office, the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush appears once again to be moving in a more "realist" direction in its dealings with the rest of the world, including the Middle East. The most obvious sign came...
Updated at 11:50 p.m. EDT, May 5, 2007At least 81 Iraqis were killed or found dead today and another 61 were wounded during violence. The most significant attack took place in western Baghdad when a suicide bomber detonated his cargo among a group of police recruits....
The death of Boris Yeltsin, who might be described as the first and apparently the last relatively democratic leader of Russia, makes one wonder whether Russia will ever have anything approaching decent governance. (I'm not sure there is any such thing as good...
The Iraq war and the inquiry into its origins has provoked interest in a number of subjects formerly considered obscure, the discussion of which was once limited to the rarified aeries of academia and specialty journals. Some examples are neoconservatism, just war...
The war which resulted in the ouster of a dangerous despot ended and the US troops, who had fought in a bloody conflict overseas, were returning home. But the human and financial costs of the war were very high and its promise of helping to spread democracy in regions...
Twenty stark years ago, on May 17, 1987, a double act of Exocet missiles skimmed through the air and slammed into the American Perry-class frigate the USS Stark. The first Exocet antiship missile punched into the warship "at 600 miles per hour and exploded in the...
All week, young toughs in Moscow have besieged the Estonian embassy to harass Ambassador Marina Kaljurand. Her bodyguards had to use a mace-like spray to drive back the thugs, who call Estonia a "fascist country." Estonian diplomats and their families are being pulled...
Updated at 12:45 a.m. EDT, May 5, 2007Violent activity was elevated for a Friday. At least 71 Iraqis were killed or found dead and 89 Iraqis were wounded. One foreign fighter identified as an al-Qaeda leader was killed as well. Also, the U.S. military today reported...
Victor Gold, Invasion of the Party Snatchers: How the Holy-Rollers and the Neo-Cons Destroyed the GOP (Naperville, Ill.: Sourcebooks, 2007), 246 pp., $26.95. The Republican party, nicknamed the "Grand Old Party," isn't looking so grand these days. Pompous paladins and...
Updated at 12:59 a.m EDT, May 34, 2007Although very few reports of violence came out of Iraq today, at least one high-profile militant leader was killed and perhaps a second one as well. Overall, 43 Iraqis and four Filipinos were killed and 30 Iraqis were injured. In...
