Where Woodrow Wilson was going to make the world safe for democracy, George W. Bush is going him one better. President Bush is going to make the whole world democratic. As he declared in his inaugural address, our "great objective" is "ending tyranny" on earth....
Readers in numbers beyond my ability to reply individually have challenged me whether President Bush's inaugural speech is a statement of his intentions or merely a celebration of himself and American democracy. Surely Bush doesn't believe America has the power to...
Kidnapping has become the crime of choice among Iraqi criminal gangs. With 70 percent unemployment in "liberated" Iraq, crime is running rampant, with organized crime enjoying a free hand amid the terrible security situation. The families of the kidnapped...
IRBIL, Northern Iraq – Irbil is normally a quiet place. Capital of the Kurdish autonomous area in Northern Iraq, the city of 800,000 has largely avoided the bloodshed of 22 months of war and occupation. Kurdish fighters here fought alongside the United States in...
On Jan. 17, the Cryptome Web site posted a remarkable document that affords us a glimpse inside the secret war now taking place all around us. I refer, of course, to the war on terrorism, which, we've all been informed, will be a "generational" struggle, the outcome...
"'It's a finesse to give power to Rumsfeld – giving him the right to act swiftly, decisively, and lethally,' the first Pentagon adviser told me. 'It's a global free-fire zone.'" (Seymour Hersh, "The Coming Wars," the New Yorker magazine) George Bush's...
BAGHDAD - The elections due Jan. 30 appear to have brought more chaos and division amongst Iraqis than unity and hope. And they have brought greater security fears. U.S.-appointed prime minister Iyad Allawi acknowledged last week that full security will be impossible....
Last night, I peered out my hotel room window into the vast darkness of Baghdad. Aside from random lights powered by generators, the blackened capital city seemed to lie dormant under high winds and a cold, driving rain. This morning as we're driving under clear,...
KIRKUK - Iraq's two main Kurdish political parties have put aside their differences for the Jan. 30 election. Like the Shias in the South, they have organized a single, sectarian ticket that they hope all Kurds will vote for. Surprisingly, that list includes some...
As Israeli and Palestinian leaders move to increase security cooperation in Gaza, a major U.S. human rights organization is urging the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to reject proposals to build an anti-smuggling trench along the Gaza-Egyptian border that...
