U.S. Public Diplomacy

In politics, the name of the game is often zero sum. At times one country may have a positive advantage in reputation and influence while others like North Korea, China and Cuba may be on the negative side. At the end of World War II, no country could compete with the...

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Ghazi al-Yawar on Iraqi Politics

Some flavor of the new president can be gathered from this recent FNS interview. Federal News Service May 27, 2004 (Note: The following was translated from Arabic) QUESTION: Would you be willing to intervene personally in trying to stop the fighting at Annajaf al...

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The United States of Boeing

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...

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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...

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Getting Yugoslavia Wrong – Again

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...

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‘It Is Getting Worse by the Day Here’

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...

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Has Bush Become a Realist?

America may be heading home from Iraq sooner than many of us realize. For the implied message of the president's address at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pa., is that America wants out of Iraq. Rereading that speech, one finds in it little of Churchill's...

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C’est la Guerre

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...

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On Their Way to Abu Ghraib

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...

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