With the presidential election coming down to the wire, the possibility of a revived military draft is looming as a potentially decisive factor in the outcome. While President George W. Bush and his fellow Republicans vehemently reject any suggestion that a draft,...
Tragedy and Farce
Seven months after the horrific pogrom that raged across the occupied Serbian province of Kosovo, the occupiers are poised to lead its perpetrators a step close to their coveted ultimate prize. Elections scheduled for Oct. 23 were designed to establish the Albanian...
Backtalk, September 21, 2004
Antiwar Arguments for WarGood, well-reasoned article but no mention of our relationship to Israel as a major cause of anti-Americanism in the Middle East!~ Tim McCormickAnthony Gregory replies:Thanks for the kind words. I don't think the Israel factor needs to be...
Disengagement Turns Israeli Politics Upside Down
JERUSALEM - Israel has been gripped by disengagement fever since the opening of the winter session of Parliament, the Knesset, last week. In a few days lawmakers will have to vote on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's proposal to withdraw the army from the Gaza Strip and...
A GI’s Mother Looks at Iraq
A month ago I wrote a dispatch, "Incident on Haifa Street," considering news reports about a bloody set of encounters in downtown Baghdad, only a few hundred yards from the heavily fortified, American-occupied Green Zone. A day or two later, I visited the...
13 Years On, No Solution in Sight for Refugees in Nepali Camps
GENEVA - More than 100,000 refugees from the small Himalayan nation of Bhutan continue to languish in camps in Nepal, while neither talks between the governments of the two South Asian kingdoms nor the international community have come up with any plan to put an end...
Mideast Reformers Call for Change From Within
A landmark reform plan prepared by 40 civil society groups from 15 Middle East and North African (MENA) countries for a recent G8 meeting in New York is at risk of "a false start," according to one of its signatories. The meeting to discuss the seven-point...
The Empire Exposed
Thirteen colonies fought off one of the most powerful, expansive and brutal empires in the history of the world in the late 18th century, creating a new nation based on anti-imperial principles and the notion that people have a right to self-determination. For about a...
Burmese Democracy Off Radar Screen With Hardliners in Control
BANGKOK - By dismissing the country's prime minister in an unprecedented manner, Burma's military leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe has affirmed that the junta's hardliners will stop at nothing to retain their grip on power. Few Burma watchers expected Gen. Khin Nyunt's...
The Collapse of Saddam’s Secret Subway
Before Operation Iraqi Freedom, one of the most compelling symbols of the depravity and danger of Saddam Hussein was the uncompleted Baghdad Metro. Saddam was believed to have launched the multi-billion-dollar subway project in 1983 to alleviate traffic congestion in...


