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There’s that classic line of career advice to the confused young hero of the 1967 film The Graduate: “I want to say one word to you. Just one word… plastics.” With the perspective of a few extra decades under our belts (or beltways), that word probably should have been “arms.” After all, what a couple … Continue reading “If You Build It, They Will Kill”

On Tuesday, March 29, Syria informed the U.N. that it would withdraw all of its troops from Lebanon before that country holds elections later this spring. The neo-Jacobins are celebrating Syria’s eviction from Lebanon as another great victory for democracy and the Rights of Man. But given what the removal of Syrian forces from Lebanon … Continue reading “Lebanon Baloney, Sliced Thin”

The report of the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction begins thusly; “On the brink of war, and in front of the whole world, the United States government asserted that Saddam Hussein had reconstituted his nuclear weapons program, had biological weapons and mobile biological weapon production facilities, … Continue reading “Not Invented Here”

The latest commission looking into intelligence failures on Iraq reports a certain consistency in the performance of the intelligence community. We are informed that we also “know disturbingly little about the weapons programs” of other countries – such as Iran. One might think this would counsel caution for a Pentagon planning to “take out” Iran’s … Continue reading “Honest Intelligence Needed”

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is charging that U.S. Army documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that the mistreatment of detainees in Iraq was much more widespread than the government has admitted. The advocacy group also accused the Army of failing to comply with a court order to release the documents … Continue reading “US Soldiers Told to ‘Beat the F**k Out of’ Detainees”

Listen to Scott’s interview with Tom Barry stream download mp3 George Bush’s nomination of John Bolton to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations has provoked a storm of controversy, setting off cries of “loose cannon!” and “unilateralism!” from the more internationalist of the American interventionists. Currently undersecretary of state for arms control and international … Continue reading “Who’s Afraid of John Bolton?”

The presidential Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction released its findings [.pdf] on March 31, and the jury is no longer undecided. The intelligence community was “dead wrong” in almost all of its pre-war claims leading up to the Iraq invasion. Many of the failures that the … Continue reading “‘Dead Wrong’ and Probably Not for the Last Time”

Events will no doubt present us other crises and opportunities. Lebanon could blow up, something significant might happen in the Palestinian-Israeli situation, the U.S. might bomb Iran, there might be more visible troubles in Colombia, and confrontations over Taiwan or North Korea are certainly possible. But if the antiwar movement is to revive itself after … Continue reading “Getting Withdrawal Done”

So many investigations, so little time – that’s a major problem these days for anyone intent on keeping up with the various scandals that plague this administration’s foreign policy. There’s the recently-released 500-page-plus report [.pdf] on how we were bamboozled into believing that Saddam Hussein had “weapons of mass destruction,” which concluded that the intelligence … Continue reading “‘Dead Wrong’
– or Outright Deception?”

Earlier this month, having long been bothered by the claims of various neocons that we were in “World War IV” (also known as “the Global War on Terrorism”), I wrote a piece, "Which War Is This Again?," considering the idea. I pointed out among other things that whatever the Cold War might have been, it … Continue reading “Why World War IV Can’t Sell”