Category: Uncategorized

A cornered rat will fight to the death, squealing and clawing and baring its yellowed fangs – just like Max Boot in today’s (Thursday’s) Los Angeles Times, who lashes out at war opponents with rat-like ferocity. He doesn’t say they’re wrong, he doesn’t dispute the facts: instead, he employs a time-honored device straight out of … Continue reading “Inside the War Party”

The U.S.-backed government in Kabul is facing large-scale desertions by western-trained local security forces as it tries to establish a safe environment in the run-up to scheduled June elections. The success of the upcoming vote has been predicated primarily on the creation of a 10,000-strong Afghan National Army (ANA) and a 20,000-strong police force, both … Continue reading “Army Desertions Complicate Afghan Election Plans”

As I was finishing a piece for the Orange County Register on Iraq a year after hostilities began (if you’re interested it should be available on the Register web site) on Sunday morning, or maybe even on Saturday if they post earlier) I got to thinking about some of the more fundamental problems that make … Continue reading “Middle East: More Fundamental Problems”

From its very beginning, the Yugoslav crisis has vexed both the people of the western Balkans and the world powers intervening in the region. Almost 14 years of efforts by all to reach some sort of solution, all the self-congratulatory and optimistic rhetoric aside, have resulted in repeated failures, often of catastrophic magnitude. That is … Continue reading “A Mockery of Reason”

Khalid al-Zabin, a 59-year-old Palestinian journalist was ambushed outside his office in Gaza, on Tuesday, March 2. His body was riddled with bullets. All that is known about his executioners is that they wore masks. No faction has claimed responsibility for his murder and the Palestinian Authority has no suspects. The disturbing episode is likely … Continue reading “Gazans Must Spurn Internal Strife and Egyptian Rule”

Was Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director George Tenet really the last person in Washington to find out that both the president and vice president were being fed phony or “sexed up” intelligence about prewar Iraq by a Pentagon office staffed by ideologically driven neoconservatives? It is highly doubtful, but in his desperate attempt to walk … Continue reading “CIA Chief Clueless on Neocon Intelligence Channel”

With threats of a Venezuelan oil blockade helping to push petroleum prices higher, neo-conservative politicians and analysts continue to insist the biggest threat to U.S. energy supplies is Washington’s reliance on Middle East oil. President Hugo Chavez on Sunday vowed to halt oil exports to the United States and launch a “100-year war” if Washington … Continue reading “Neoconservatives Use Oil to Keep Heat on Mideast”

I’m paying the price for being prolific with a major case of writer’s cramp – which, in the computer age, takes on a whole new and (quite painful) meaning. The other night I felt a twinge in my right forearm, and, by morning, it had turned into a constant aching. My fingers are now curled … Continue reading “Time Out”

Getting out of the political quicksand of Iraq, or at least burying the bloody occupation as an embarrassing daily news item, is mission number one for the Bush campaign. Extricating U.S. troops and political capital from the mess the Bush administration created in Iraq may be mission impossible. But the president’s political and ideological handlers … Continue reading “Neocons’ Iraq Strategy Now Focused on Syria”

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which leads India’s ruling coalition, has launched a new stratagem in its high-pitched election campaign to rake up its trademark issue of religious and ethnic identities. Starting Mar. 10, Lal Krishna Advani, the part’s best-known hawkish leader and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s deputy, will begin a month-long tour covering … Continue reading “Hindu Warrior Back in His ‘Chariot’”