June 28, the day in 2004 that the Americans transferred sovereignty to Iraqis and proconsul Paul Bremer hastily departed Baghdad, is a day freighted with historic significance. On June 28, 1914, 90 years before, Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip fired the shots that...
Negotiations Now!
It's summer vacation time! Yeah, one whole weekend of it. Oh well, it's better than nothing. I was going to write about how the Green Party's vice presidential candidate isn't even sure she's going to vote for herself, but, suddenly, a wave of ennui swept over me, and...
The Curse of Oil
The Bush Administration has made much of Iraq's oil reserves. It wants to use the proceeds from the sale of petroleum to pay off the country's debts, cover the costs of reconstruction and government expenses. It has been hectoring European governments and the Russian...
Supreme Court: Foreign Victims of Abuse May Sue in US
In a new rebuff to the administration of Pres. George W. Bush, a 6-3 majority of the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a 215-year-old anti-piracy law can continue to be used by foreign victims of serious human rights abuses access to U.S. courts for redress....
Don’t Call it a Wall
A year ago, I urged readers to forget about President Bush's "Road Map to Peace" on which so much attention was wasted at the time, by now a dead letter and concentrate on the real map of Palestine, radically changed by the construction of Israel's...
The Revolving Door Spins Away
Hundreds of U.S. military and government officials routinely leave their posts for jobs with private contractors who deal with the government, a process that has eroded the lines between government and the private sector, according to a report released by a watchdog...
US Increases Colombian Involvement
BOGOTA - Shrouded in silence in Colombia, the Plan Patriot has begun to emerge as the most ambitious military offensive to date against the leftist guerrillas, in which the U.S. military is providing tactical and logistical support. Taking part in the operation, which...
US Hawks Owe More to the French Than They Realize
PARIS The kind of torture inflicted upon Iraqi prisoners by the U.S. army followed methods France used during the Algerian war of independence in the late 1950s, several French historians and journalists say. Both the U.S. and the French armies had obviously...
Why Didn’t They Speak Out Earlier?
The book has an apt title: Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror. And the author spells out "why." We are losing because of the misguided war on Iraq and the upsurge in terrorism it has engendered. Sadly, that conclusion was validated last week by...
Mother of Slain Korean: ‘The Govt Killed My Son’
SEOUL The failed attempt to rescue a South Korean hostage in Iraq, before he was beheaded, has prompted lawmakers in South Korea to launch an investigation into government agencies for their alleged inaction after first hearing news of the abduction. This...


