Don’t Start a War With Iran

Statement on H. Con. Res. 398: Expressing the concern of Congress over Iran's development of the means to produce nuclear weapons, 6 May 2004. I rise in strong opposition to this ill-conceived and ill-timed legislation. Let's not fool ourselves: this concurrent...

read more

Former NSA Director: War Weariness Growing

I asked retired Gen. William E. Odom if he agreed with me that the Bush administration would be well-advised to release all the Abu Ghraib photos immediately, even the most disgusting ones. PR gurus routinely advise corporation and other organizations facing a brewing...

read more

Evidence Grows of More Widespread Abuse

The Bush administration's contention that the sexual humiliation and physical abuse of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison as depicted in photographs first disclosed two weeks ago were the work of just a "few bad apples" from a poorly trained military police unit is...

read more

Abu Ghraib and the Pornography of Power

When lawmakers emerged from their private viewing of the Abu Ghraib photos – a screening arranged under conditions of high security on Capitol Hill – they were at great pains to come up with synonyms for "Ewwwwwwwww!" "Appalling," said Senate majority leader...

read more

Rumsfeld, Sanchez ‘Pow-Wow’ in Iraq

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld quietly left Washington yesterday, flying first to Kuwait, and then on to Baghdad. Rumsfeld was accompanied by only a few reporters, Pentagon lawyers, and Richard Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. After arriving in...

read more

The Coming Backlash Against Outrage

Looking at visual images from U.S.-run prisons in Iraq, news watchers now find themselves in the midst of a jolting experience that roughly resembles a process described by Donald Rumsfeld: "It is the photographs that gives one the vivid realization of what actually...

read more

Parallels, Contrasts and Questions

As revolting images of torture and degradation of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib flooded the media, it was only a matter of time before someone would invoke the comparison with atrocities (allegedly) committed in the Balkans. But unlike the lurid Balkans stories...

read more

Work For the Grossgeneralstab

In 1914, Kaiser Wilhelm II, whom history has underrated, told his Chief of the General Staff, von Moltke the Less, that he wanted to remain on the defensive in the West and take the offensive in the East, against Russia. Such a reversal of the Schlieffen Plan would...

read more