"Politicians hide themselves away. They only started the war. Why should they go out to fight? They leave that role to the poor, yeah. "Time will tell on their power minds, making war just for fun. Treating people just like pawns in chess, wait till their judgment day...
Look Who’s Joined the Antiwar Chorus
While Cindy Sheehan has deservedly gotten a lot of attention for reawakening the antiwar movement with her allies from veteran and military family organizations, the most interesting thing about the opposition to the Iraq war is that it includes former military...
Backtalk, November 9, 2005
My Weekend With the Wonks Leon Hadar's well-written article on his meetings with the Washington policy wonks, "My Weekend with the Wonks," is another bad omen of comparison between the Iraq war and Vietnam. Hadar says the wonks today have no clear answers to Iraq or...
A Viceroy Departs
The Tyrant of Bosnia Goes Home After over three years of holding near-absolute power, the tenure of Jeremy "Paddy" Ashdown as the Imperial viceroy of Bosnia-Herzegovina is coming to an end. He told the press he intended to be home for Christmas....
Silvio Says Arrivederci
Anyone following Italian newspapers lately has discovered new meaning in the words "shock and awe." In an article in La Repubblica, an unnamed SISMI (Italian secret service) agent affirms the prewar meeting in Rome among high level U.S./Italian officials and...
A Politically Deflated Bush Faces a Resistant World
In case you haven't noticed, it's been a while since a top U.S. official delivered one of those wordy sermons to China or Russia about their responsibility to fix their governments, fight political corruption, and protect human rights. With President George W. Bush...
The Return of Chalabi
As blowback from the lies that duped us into war plunges Washington into a maelstrom of investigations and counter-investigations, Ahmed Chalabi adds insult to injury by making a return trip to the Imperial City. He's staying at the ritzy-glitzy Ritz-Carlton, where...
Talking Points Propaganda
It seems that liberals will go to any lengths in order to protect the sanctity of President Clinton's legacy, and it is getting downright aggravating. Take Joshua Micah Marshall, the Ivy-league liberal who publishes Talking Points Memo, an enormously popular online...
Deficits at Home, Welfare Abroad
In the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and with an ongoing war in Iraq that costs more than $1 billion per week, taxpayers might think Congress has better things to do with $21 billion than send it overseas. Yet that's exactly what Congress did last Friday,...
The Wall of Shame
[Three weeks ago, Nick Turse wrote a dispatch, "Casualties of the Bush Administration," about government officials who resigned or retired in protest, or were forced over a cliff by this administration. It was, in essence, a proposal for a Wall of Honor. At the...


