The Desert Fox

In Iraq and elsewhere, all eyes are currently on Najaf. As I had guessed, the battle ended with a whimper, not with a bang, as the Mahdi Army militiamen exfiltrated, and Moqtada al-Sadr turned over the keys to the mosque to Ayatollah al-Sistani. But the real winner is...

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NYC to First Amendment: Keep Off the Grass

On August 25, New York State Supreme Court Justice Jacqueline Silbermann ruled that the activist coalition United For Peace and Justice (UFPJ) cannot rally in New York's Central Park this Sunday, stating that the more than 250,000 demonstrators expected to participate...

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Rage Against the Machine

Beneath the thin plastic veneer of American society, rage roils around the irrationality of life in the Empire, and occasionally it boils over. As it did in Hollywood, Florida, the other day, when Carlos Arredondo "snapped," as the news reports put it: "Melida...

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The Silent Majority Is Ours

The DNC showed that the present path of the organized antiwar movement cannot lead to success. The antiwar movement within the Democratic Party was utterly defeated. It placed its hopes in John Kerry, in spite of Kerry's call for greater military power for the U.S.,...

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A Culture of Improvisation

What I took away from reading the entire James Schlesinger "independent" commission report [.pdf] and the executive summary and a skim of the rest of the Jones-Fay generals' report [.pdf] on the abuses of prisoners at Abu Ghraib was a profound confirmation of what...

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Rumsfeld’s Torture Panel Clears Rumsfeld

A commission of civilian military advisers established by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says that soldiers running Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq deserve most of the blame for acts of torture and abuse committed there, while high-ranking Pentagon officials are guilty...

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Defense Challenges Tribunals’ Legitimacy

The first of four scheduled criminal hearings for Guantanamo Bay detainees went forward today, notwithstanding concerns from human and civil rights groups and a legal challenge in U.S. civilian courts. During the hearing, the defense challenged the military judges'...

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Bush Bashing Done Right

See Chapter One of The Bush Betrayal appearing today on Antiwar.com. Bovard begins his book by defining a new concept: Though Bush continually invokes freedom to sanctify himself and his policies, Bush freedom is based on boundless trust in the righteousness of the...

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Defying Despair

BELGRADE, SERBIA-MONTENEGRO - Anger and incredulity erupted from the crowds gathered around TV screens in Belgrade's outdoor cafes Monday night, as they realized their national team was going to lose to China by just one point. For the once-proud winners of the world...

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Darfur’s War of Definitions

Finally, the conflict in Darfur in western Sudan is a focal point for diplomats and the media. This is the least one could expect after months of murder, rape and, dare I say, ethnic cleansing, starting as early as February 2003. Almost all parties who have recently...

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