Category: Uncategorized

ATHENS – The guns are not pointing at visitors, they do not need to. The men carrying them have visitors to the new Olympics stadium in their sight all the way. The men are carefully positioned to see there is not a moment anyone could be out of sight. A visitor begins to feel like … Continue reading “Athens Goes ‘Rambo’ on Security”

“Under democracy, one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule – and both commonly succeed, and are right.” – H.L. Mencken A few weeks ago, I received a phone call from my sister, a thoughtful and intelligent modern liberal. The discussion turned to politics, … Continue reading “John Kerry’s Pure Wind”

In reading the Abu Ghraib articles Seymour Hersh wrote for the New Yorker in May (here, here, and here), what struck me about the revelations of abuse and torture was the similarity in detail to what I experienced in Vietnam 35 years ago. The one major difference has been the media’s willingness to embrace in … Continue reading “Vietnam’s Shadow Over Abu Ghraib”

NEW YORK – Despite scandals over human rights abuses and war profiteering, private military contractors are expanding their presence overseas, and may even be involved in helping to draft the next U.S. defense budget. Currently more than 20,000 privately contracted employees are at work in Iraq, feeding U.S. troops, providing security, and rebuilding the occupied … Continue reading “Business Booming for Soldiers of Fortune”

PARIS – Four French prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba who were transferred to France earlier this week are likely to be released because the police have no case against them. In this they will follow their British, Danish and Spanish counterparts who were all freed without charge after release from Guantanamo Bay earlier … Continue reading “French Have No Case Against Guantanamo Prisoners”

The most dismaying development at the ongoing Democratic convention so far is the effort to convince Americans that the Democrats would be tougher than the Republicans on the issues of war, peace and national security. This essentially means that those who question the war in Iraq have no place to go if they want to … Continue reading “Out-Toughing the Republicans”

The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced that we’re reliving the last days of the Roman Empire. Of course, that’s not all bad, especially if you like peeled grapes, gladiatorial games, and those cute little tunics on men: but it isn’t all fun and games, either, particularly when you get into the … Continue reading “A Question of Character”

Do We Want a War Criminal as President? Being a left-wing reader of your site can be an interesting experience. I alternate between spasms of absolute joy and absolute outrage – I so passionately agree and disagree with you on a variety of issues, I never know what to expect. It’s never boring reading your … Continue reading “Backtalk July 30, 2004”

When bureaucracies fail, one of their favorite ways to deflect demands for reform is to offer reorganization instead. That appears to be what has happened in the report of the 9/11 commission and Washington’s response to that report. Worse, the reorganization envisioned is to further centralize intelligence by establishing a national intelligence director and creating … Continue reading “The 9/11 Commission Report: Reorganization, Not Reform”

With foreign policy becoming the big issue of the 2004 U.S. elections, predictions that Democrats would invoke the “successes” of Clintonian interventions, particularly in the Balkans, seem to be coming true. But though Bosnia and Kosovo don’t seem to figure prominently in convention speeches just yet, with the assortment of Balkans veterans on John Kerry’s … Continue reading “The Choice: Bush’s Empire or Kerry’s”