The New American Militarism

Americans have been betrayed. Sooner or later, Americans will realize that they have been led to defeat in a pointless war by political leaders who they inattentively trusted. They have been misinformed by a sycophantic corporate media too mindful of advertising...

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Does the Future Stand a Chance?

Here's a strange, small tale of our times, as reported from Washington by Guy Dinmore in the sober British Financial Times. According to an anonymous counterinsurgency expert Dinmore evidently interviewed, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has a "brutally accurate"...

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War in Iraq: Was It Worth It?

Our search (or, more precisely, our wild goose chase) for WMD in Iraq is finally over. No, we did not find what we were looking for, but White House press secretary Scott McClellan assured us in a recent briefing that we still have a few people poking around, and "if...

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Backtalk, January 17, 2005

Yes to US Aid, No to USAIDRegarding Ms Mercer's comments about private as opposed to official aid: What she fails to address, and perhaps doesn't know about, is the fact that a significant proportion of USAID aid funds are actually programmed through American NGOs...

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Tragedy or Farce?

Sometimes you don't know whether to laugh or cry. Like when you heard President Bush tell ABC's Barbara Walters, "I felt like we'd find weapons of mass destruction – like many here in the United States, many around the world. The United Nations thought he had...

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The Scapegoat

The show trial of U.S. Army reservist Charles Graner had something for everyone: tragedy, comedy, pathos, and propaganda. The tragic aspect was dominant, with the photos of the disgusting abuse illustrating the theme of senseless arbitrary violence, but there was also...

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The Tsunami of Iraq

The morgues at the hospitals of Baghdad are filling to capacity. At Yarmouk Hospital in central Baghdad, the three freezers reek of decaying bodies, despite the temperature. The smell rushes out at us as the doors are opened. I've smelled the burning bodies on the...

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