A Story I Never Wanted to Tell

Inter Press Service (IPS) contributor Alaa Hassan was killed on his way to work last Wednesday. He was 35 years old. He is survived by his mother, four brothers, five sisters, and his wife, who is pregnant with their first child. Alaa was not killed for being a...

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Nuking Iran Is Not Off the Table

The (for any rational human being) bizarre possibility of a U.S. nuclear strike against Iran first reached public consciousness in early April 2006, when investigative reporter Seymour Hersh wrote in the New Yorker magazine that it was one of six plans being...

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‘Decent Respect’ Might Help Image Woes Abroad

It was in 1776 that a group of British colonists living along the Atlantic seaboard of North America felt compelled to offer a public justification for their "Declaration of Independence" from their mother country out of "a decent Respect to the...

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Crime and Punishment

The Absurd Case of Naser Oric "Convicted but released" came the news Friday morning, striking the Balkans tinderbox like stray lightning. Naser Oric, the Muslim warlord of Srebrenica, was convicted of war crimes by the Hague Inquisition – and sentenced to less...

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Nationalism: The Last Refuge of the Political Loser

It seems like only yesterday American pundits were writing political obituaries for President George W. Bush and his Republican allies on Capitol Hill. With the anti-American violence in Iraq showing no signs of ending any time soon and helping to force Mr. Bush's...

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Hillary May Be Presidential Material, After All

There really is no way of getting around it. Sen. Hillary Clinton may well be future presidential material. From Manhattan to Hollywood, Hillary Clinton is pocketing enormous amounts of cash for her reelection campaign. Yet, Hillary is facing what seems to be fierce...

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Taking Out Lieberman

The War Party has usually managed to maintain control of American foreign policy through its virtually ironclad grip on the political process. This has been achieved by its mastery of the two-party system that has enshrined the Democrats and the Republicans as the...

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Snow Jobs, Zarqawi, and
Bogus Peace Plans

"My personal opinion is that the only way we will lose this war is if we pull out prematurely," said Col. Jeffrey Snow, who commands a brigade of soldiers in Iraq. Snow, as reported by AFP on June 30, fears losing public support in the U.S. for the ongoing occupation...

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An Independent Republic Still?

Two hundred thirty years have elapsed since Jefferson's document was signed in Philadelphia, declaring the 13 colonies to be independent forever of the England of George III. In his Farewell Address, Washington defined independence in a single sentence: "It is our...

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Pols, Not the Press, Should Exhibit Prior Restraint

Last week the U.S. House of Representatives, on a party-line vote, passed an innocuous-sounding resolution that "expects the cooperation of all news media organizations in protecting the lives of Americans and the capability of the government to identify, disrupt, and...

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