Close the Door on Escalation

The Bush administration may ratchet up the Iraq war. That might seem unlikely, even farfetched. After all, the president is facing an upsurge of domestic opposition to the war. Under such circumstances, why would he escalate it? A big ongoing factor is that George W....

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US Consul in Belfast Hears Iraq Contract Protest

The massive Iraq security contract awarded to British firm Aegis Defense Services came in for renewed criticism earlier this month, when the family of murdered Belfast man Peter McBride met with the U.S. consul-general in Belfast Howard Dean Pitman. Aegis chief...

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Demand Accountability

What Americans should demand from their governments at all levels is accountability. Accountability is far more important than transparency, which can be easily faked. Accountability is not complicated. It simply means people must take responsibility for their...

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Why Are We In Iraq?

The ugliness of the regime we have installed in Iraq has finally bubbled up to the surface, like the outbreak of an oozing syphilitic sore, and spilled over onto the front page of the Washington Post: "Shi'ite and Kurdish militias, often operating as part of Iraqi...

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The Tide Is Turning, Mr. President

Note: On Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2005, in a radio interview on WFLA in Tampa Bay, Fla., Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld made the following statement: "[I]n my mind, I think of the number of people who are lost to traffic accidents in the United States in a given...

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Backtalk, August 22, 2005

A Young Man's Death in IraqHello Mr. Engelhardt, I read Mr. Christensen's account of the loss of his young friend in the Aug. 14 edition of the San Francisco Chronicle. I was very moved by it, and reread it several times. It provoked a series of issues that I feel are...

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Sharon: Hero and Goat of Gaza

To see Jewish settlers evicted from homes they have lived in for decades, taking weeping wives and children back to Israel, is heart-wrenching. To see Israeli settlers spit in the faces of Israeli soldiers and call them "Nazis" evokes only disgust. Who do these people...

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MoveOn’s Soft Stance on Iraq

The day after Wednesday night's nationwide vigils, the big headline at the top of the MoveOn.org home page said: "Support Cindy Sheehan." But MoveOn does not support Cindy Sheehan's call for swift withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. Many groups were...

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