It’s Baaack!

Polls have consistently shown that, being the macho folks we apparently are, Americans don't care if the U.S. government listens in on our phone conversations, spies on our e-mails, and/or secretly black-bags our domiciles, frames some of us, and now, peeks over our...

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A Story Left Incomplete

Alaa Hassan never lived to see publication of the last story he had filed. It got caught for a while, as stories sometimes are, in that no-man's land between what a correspondent could reasonably get, and what an editor would really like. The two do not often converge...

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What Does North Korea Want?

As of this writing, North Korea continues to fire test missiles in a barrage of defiance aimed at the U.S. and its regional allies, belligerently declaring its right to do so and threatening anyone who stands in its way with unspecified "physical" harm....

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Requiem for Bush’s Unipolar Dream?

A week before the Group of Eight (G8) summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, U.S. President George W. Bush finds his power and authority – both at home and abroad – at their lowest ebb. With his approval ratings falling back into the cellar after a brief bounce...

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Can’t We Drop Even One Alliance?

Evidence that the American republic long ago ceased to be a republic in anything but name is the reluctance of policymakers – any policymaker in any administration – to drop even one military alliance, international commitment, security guarantee, or troop...

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Will Missile Tests Lead to New Talks?

Although it may raise regional tensions in the short run, Wednesday's test-firing by North Korea of at least seven missiles, including its multi-stage, inter-continental Taepodong-2 rocket, could speed resumption of long-stalled diplomatic efforts to curb Pyongyang's...

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Wile E. Coyote’s Fourth of July

As Americans celebrated the Fourth of July, North Korea shot off some of their own fireworks by test-firing four short-range missiles (that could reach South Korea and Japan) and a long-range missile that some analysts believe could reach parts of the United States...

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What a Mess

When forced to confront the mess she has made of our foreign policy, do you suppose Condi Rice views the interrelated messes individually or collectively? Take the U.S.-India-Iran-Pakistan-Russia mess. Last year, Condi whizzed down to New Delhi to prevent India from...

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To Be or Not To Be a State?

When Hamas won the Palestinian elections, a highly successful Fourth Generation entity became a state. No doubt that was one of Hamas' highest aspirations. But by becoming a state, it became far more vulnerable to other states than it was as a non-state entity. How...

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Israel Fears High Price for US Strike on Iran

Israel has seldom been as quiet on Iran as in the last three months. Though Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has pursued a policy of reducing Israel's visible involvement in the Western campaign to rein in Iran's nuclear ambitions – "work hard and say less,"...

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