The U.S. has, slowly, since the beginning of the twentieth century, become a giant weapons factory. A partnership between massive private firms and government exists, all funded by the U.S. taxpayer. One of the largest such firms is Boeing. Boeing’s history mirrors that of the U.S. at large. Begun as a manufacturer of civilian aircraft, …
Continue reading “The United States of Boeing”
Memorial Day Makes a Vet Wonder: What Ever Happened to ‘the Buck Stops Here’? As we celebrate Memorial Day and the opening of the W.W.II Memorial, I am distressed at the lack of character of our recent presidents who fail to take responsibility for their actions. We all know the sad tale of Bill Clinton …
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It is always fascinating to watch the eagerness with which so-called progressives unquestioningly accept an official history full of virtuous U.S. officials and villainous savages trying the patience of the peaceful, law-abiding Great Powers. Case in point: the wars in the former Yugoslavia, and Stacy Sullivan’s recent account of them in Foreign Policy In Focus. …
Continue reading “Getting Yugoslavia Wrong – Again”
Late night writing due to the sweat alarm that has gone off, shortly after the electricity has cut out yet again. The electricity seems to have gotten worse lately, which is not surprising, in that this coincides with the gas shortage – also growing more severe by the day. So many things leave imprints on …
Continue reading “‘It Is Getting Worse by the Day Here’”
http://www.independent.org/tii/antiwar/e040601.html
BAGHDAD, (IPS) – Largely lost amidst the horrors of the graphic torture photographs that continue to emerge out of Abu Ghraib is a leaked report from the International Committee of the Red Cross published a few weeks ago by the Wall Street Journal. In its report, the ICRC, the only organization besides the United States …
Continue reading “They Should Never Have Been in Prison”
Throughout the six hours of testimony on Abu Ghraib by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld et al. before the Senate and House Armed Services Committees on May 7, a recurring question was why the various command levels seemed to be in a “business as usual” mode given the explosive nature of the investigation on prisoner …
Continue reading “The Defense of ‘Command Influence’”
When President Bush declared War on Terrorism, he pledged to prevent regimes – such as North Korea, Iran and Iraq – from providing chemical, biological or nuclear weapons to terrorists. Of course, Iran and Iraq had both developed chem-bio weapons and had used them against each other in the Iran-Iraq War. And, in the aftermath …
Continue reading “C’est la Guerre”
ABU SIFFA, IRAQ—“How could this happen?” nearly everyone asks these days. But as the U.S. now releases hundreds of men from Abu Ghraib prison, another question, “Why were so many Iraqis locked up there in the first place?” is likely to become part of the debate. The story of this farming hamlet 30 miles north …
Continue reading “On Their Way to Abu Ghraib”
NEW DELHI, (IPS) – India’s ousted right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has not been looking kindly at moves by the new Congress party-led government to undo its policies, warning against plans to repeal anti-terrorist laws introduced after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. The Common Minimum Program of the ruling United Progressive …
Continue reading “India Seeks to Repeal Its PATRIOT Act” 
