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It seems like only yesterday that U.S. government officials, and their media amen corner, were hailing the “turning point” in the Iraq war. The election changed everything, the insurgency is winding down, and victory is at hand – or so the conventional wisdom of the moment assured us. That was then, however – and this … Continue reading “Prime Minister Chalabi?”

When the parties to the Treaty on Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons meet next month for the 2005 NPT Review Conference, you can be sure that John "Bonkers" Bolton will be there. Why? Well, Bolton is the “point man” in the Bush administration’s campaign to sabotage and/or supersede the existing nuke proliferation-prevention regime. At the 2000 … Continue reading “Hiroshima or Wheat Smut?”

An Iranian technician called Jalal-a-Din Taheri, who had been working at the nuclear reactor at Bushehr, managed to defect to Europe, where he disclosed the ayatollahs’ plans for producing nuclear bombs. Taheri was acclaimed a hero throughout the world. A number of organizations nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize. President Bush praised his courage. … Continue reading “For Whom the Bells Toll”

Recently, Jackie Sanders, Special Representative of the President for the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons has been asking herself this question – How should "we" deal with noncompliance with the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons? The problem is; nowhere in the NPT is "noncompliance" defined. The term "noncompliance" doesn’t even appear. It is a little … Continue reading “NPT in Trouble?”

At the end of last month, the U.S. Selective Service System issued a report assuring President George W. Bush that it would be ready to implement a draft within 75 days. While stirring up a storm of speculation, this report may actually be the least compelling harbinger of a draft. Far more dire is the … Continue reading “An Army of the Unwilling”

There are no conspiracies to dissect, no hidden agendas to sort through and no oblique language to skillfully decode: the Bush administration’s position on illegal Jewish colonies in the occupied Palestinian territories is crystal clear. President George W. Bush did all of us a great favour when he once more articulated his stance on the … Continue reading “US Middle East Policy: Heedless But Unequivocal”

When Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon visited President George Bush at the White House on 11-12 April, the news coming out of the meetings should have been dominated by the president’s displeasure with Sharon permitting the expansion of settlements in the West Bank. Instead, the New York Times headline on 13 April was Sharon Asks … Continue reading “Israel Guns for Iran”

On Wednesday, I posted The Normalization of War, the first of two excerpts from a remarkable new book – Andrew J. Bacevich’s The New American Militarism, How Americans Are Seduced by War. In the second excerpt, Bacevich takes up the subject of neoconservatism, which he terms “a singularly inapt label that suggests an ideological rigor … Continue reading “New Boys in Town: The Neocon Revolution and American Militarism”

A humanitarian aid worker’s death in Iraq last week is spurring calls for a public accounting of civilian casualties by the United States government and more attention to the issue by the US media. Marla Ruzicka, 28, who fought to obtain recognition and compensation for Iraqis injured in US military attacks, did not live to … Continue reading “Balancing the Iraq Equation”

“[America] goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. She will commend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example. She well knows that by … Continue reading “Blame Wilson”