It is easy, observing the prospects for peace, let alone an American withdrawal any time soon in Iraq, to be discouraged this Christmas season. "There is no peace on earth, I said," goes the line from the 19th-century Christmas song. And even though that song ends on...
US Seeks to Silence Arab Democracy Activists
CAIRO - It's lunch time in Cairo and two dozen Egyptian activists and intellectuals take break for tea and date bars. They've gathered in a community center near the city's main train station to discuss new efforts to bring democracy to their country, which has been...
Orwellian Balkans
Last week's purge of Bosnian Serb officials by viceroy Ashdown has touched off a political meltdown in the country. Senior Serb officials are resigning left and right, jeopardizing the continued functioning of the current central government, while the general public...
Backtalk, December 23, 2004
The Third IntifadaMr. HaCohen, "Your own poor come first" Talmud I think it is the duty of every Jew to support his fellow Jew before others. You should be more sympathetic of Israel's actions. Israel has good intentions. Would you agree? If you...
Fallujah: Little Stalingrad
According to people who have been there, Fallujah is not a very big city. You can walk across it in half an hour. Yet when the history of this miserable war is written, I suspect it may loom large. Like Stalingrad, it will mark the point where the war turned against...
Fallujah: Little Stalingrad
According to people who have been there, Fallujah is not a very big city. You can walk across it in half an hour. Yet when the history of this miserable war is written, I suspect it may loom large. Like Stalingrad, it will mark the point where the war turned against...
Uncertain Quiet Descends on Syrian Front
HIRI, Syria-Iraq border - There has not been any fighting lately near the desolate border village of Hiri, as there used to be after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, inhabitants here say. Nor have any cars or people crossed the border from Syria into Iraq at the official...
Scapegoating Rumsfeld
Last year, Midge Decter, wife of Norman Podhoretz, who has been howling for "World War IV" against the Arabs, published a mash note titled, Rumsfeld: A Personal Portrait. The University of Houston's James D. Fairbanks began his review thus: "Neoconservative writer...
Now They’re After Rummy
"For the first time," a Washington Post-ABC News poll shows, "most say the Iraq war was a mistake." Not to worry, however, because "a strong majority of Americans, 58 percent, support keeping military forces in Iraq until 'civil order is restored,' even in the face of...
Hawks Plan ‘Peaceful’ Regime Change in Iran
A heavyweight group of mostly neoconservative hawks has published a new proposal for Iran policy that relies heavily on "peaceful" strategies to achieve regime change, such as those used by Washington since the 1980s in Central and Eastern Europe, most recently in...


