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President George W. Bush has long assured the world that his intentions in Iraq are strictly honorable – to set the country on a clear and stable path toward democracy and withdraw U.S. troops as soon as Iraqi forces can take control, “and not one day more.” But more recent statements by top U.S. officials, … Continue reading “Are US Intentions More ‘Base’ Than Honorable?”

U.S. military intervention in Iraq was supposed to result in the Great Transformation: the neoconservatives who howled for war reassured us with their own version of a reverse domino theory, in which, when Iraq fell to the American "liberators," the rest of the region would soon follow. Not only would repressive Arab regimes be changed, … Continue reading “What Has America Wrought?”

So have we learned anything after three years in Iraq and two years and 10 months after the White House created a "Mission Accomplished" sign for an aircraft carrier on which President Bush spoke? Well, we learned, or were reminded, early on in the Iraq war, that the U.S. military long ago sloughed off the … Continue reading “Iraq Three Years On”

American officials, lawmakers, and pundits have been analyzing – over-analyzing is probably the right term – U.S. President George W. Bush’s new National Security Strategy (NSS), leading one to conclude that the document that was issued last week has major significance in terms of gaining insights into what kind of approach to world affairs the … Continue reading “Muddling Through”

In Part 1 of his interview, Chalmers Johnson suggested what that fall-of-the-Berlin-Wall, end-of-the-Cold-War moment meant to him; explored how deeply empire and militarism have entered the American bloodstream; and began to consider what it means to live in an unacknowledged state of military Keynesianism, garrisoning the planet, and with an imperial budget – a real … Continue reading “What Ever Happened to Congress?”

Wednesday, Sibel Edmonds, former FBI language specialist and a whistleblower, filed a motion in a Washington, D.C., federal court asking for the recusal of Judge Reggie Walton from Edmonds’ pending case filed under the Federal Tort Claim Act. Walton is also currently hearing the perjury case involving I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the former chief of … Continue reading “FBI Whistleblower Files Motion for Judge’s Recusal”

In his provocative documentary Why We Fight, director Eugene Jarecki asks whether Washington’s foreign policy is overly preoccupied with the idea of military supremacy, and if the military has become too important in U.S. life. Jarecki interviews subjects from across the political spectrum, including Wilton Sekzer, a retired New York police officer whose son died … Continue reading “Is War America’s Real National Pastime?”

Imagine knocking on America’s door and being told, “Americans don’t live here any longer. They have gone away.” But isn’t that what we are hearing, that Americans have gone away? Alan Shore told us so on ABC’s Boston Legal on March 14: “When the weapons of mass destruction thing turned out not to be true, … Continue reading “What’s Become of Americans?”

Savoring the triumph of poking a stick in the eye of an upstart Arab country, U.S. lawmakers are girding for a face-off with a much larger opponent. With the rescue of the American seaboard from a shadowy sheikdom now a mission accomplished, they are steadying their aim at the second largest economy in the world … Continue reading “Those Zany Xenophobes”

The agreement last week between Washington and Iran to hold direct talks on Iraq has forged a new linkage between the Iraq and Iran crises. Hardliners in the George W. Bush administration are resisting any linkage between the two crises, because they want to avoid pressure for a broader settlement with Iran. But they have … Continue reading “Iran, Iraq Crises Converge Despite US Hardliners”