If U.S. President George W. Bush was counting on Sunday's "Freedom Walk" and country music festival at the Pentagon to revive the patriotic spirit (and rally his sagging approval ratings) that followed the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on their fourth anniversary,...
Katrina and 9/11: Criminal Incompetence
What has been obvious to many of us for some time should be obvious to almost everybody in the wake of the botch government – city, state, and local, there's plenty of incompetence to go around – has made of Hurricane Katrina. The empire has no clothes....
The Symbolic Power of Fallujah
On Sept. 6-7, 2005, the New America Foundation hosted "Terrorism, Security & America's Purpose," a policy forum featuring scholars, elected officials, intelligence experts, and journalists. A full list of speakers is available here. Freelance journalist Nir Rosen has...
Despite Growing Scandal, UN Chief Refuses to Yield
UNITED NATIONS - A beleaguered UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan Thursday stood his ground despite charges of corruption, inefficiency, and mismanagement of the $34 billion now-defunct Iraqi oil-for-food program run by the UN secretariat, which he administers. Asked if...
Pakistan Apologetic but Firm on Israel Ties
ISLAMABAD - The Pakistani government has begun to appear apologetic about its plans to open diplomatic links with Israel, as criticism builds up against a budding liaison between two nations founded in the late 1940s in the name of religion. Waves of condemnation,...
That Sinking Feeling
Of Omnipotent Government More than lives and property was drowned by the fetid waters that deluged New Orleans and the media-forsaken coastlines of Mississippi and Alabama in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Any credibility that the Imperial government may have had...
The Terrorists’ Suicide Solution
On Sept. 6-7, 2005, the New America Foundation hosted "Terrorism, Security & America's Purpose," a policy forum featuring scholars, elected officials, intelligence experts, and journalists. A full list of speakers is available here. In his presentation, Professor...
Gas Subsidies for Iraqis, Gas Taxes for Americans
My constituents in the Texas gulf coast are very concerned about the price of gasoline, especially in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Katrina has left nine gulf coast refineries inoperable, and reduced capacity at four. This will mean the loss of 20 to 40 million...
Katrina and the End of Illusions
You have to give the neocons credit – through rain, through sleet, and through the stormiest of hurricanes, even so debilitating a one as Katrina, they keep their powder and their talking points dry. And their main talking point, in the wake of what David Brooks...
India Outfoxed as Pakistan Plays the Israel Card
Pakistan has stunned the world – and its subcontinental neighbor and rival India – by making an overture to Israel, which it long shunned and condemned as a Zionist state. On Thursday, Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri met his Israeli counterpart...