Category: Uncategorized

One thing that more than anything else defines the contemporary patchwork of states that used to be Yugoslavia – with the notable exception of Slovenia – are the 1990s Succession Wars. They are the Genesis myth, at the heart of their governments’ source of legitimacy and their leaders’ claim to power. No longer just the … Continue reading “Worshippers of Power and Violence”

The mad dogs of war, unleashed by George W. Bush, are baying and barking up a storm. The War Party isn’t resting on its laurels. The conquest of Iraq had hardly been celebrated by our President, as he landed on an aircraft carrier in a fighter jet and bounded out to meet his cheering Praetorians, … Continue reading “Mad Dogs of War”

With the naming of former ambassador L. Paul Bremer as something of a co-consul proconsul (the news accounts say he will be in charge with former Gen. Jay Garner his subordinate but the real picture at this point is still a little fuzzy, the administration has apparently done its best to put a civilian face … Continue reading “A Civilian Face on Imperialism”

I‘ve been surprised by the number of libertarians who have supported the war against Iraq. The two principal arguments I’ve heard from libertarian war-supporters are: 1. Saddam Hussein is a threat to the U.S. We must remove him from power before he attacks us or gives weapons of mass destruction to terrorists. 2. We libertarians … Continue reading “Libertarians and War”

Somebody hand David Brooks a Kleenex. He’s upset that President Bush’s victory dance last Thursday was interpreted politically. Boy am I in a terrible mood. I watched and listened to the punditry on President Bush’s speech on the USS Lincoln. . . . And what do my fellow pundits say? They sit in the studios … Continue reading “Election 2004: Let the Cynicism Begin!”

An Israeli newspaper, Ha’aretz, is one of the few media outlets worldwide to focus on the Israeli far-right’s effort to undermine the much-touted "road map" that Bush is throwing like a bone after a banquet to the family pet. The administration is touting its peace plan to give the appearance of the U.S. as an … Continue reading “Whose ‘Road Map’?”

A while back I wrote a column about cheating and getting ahead in Chinese Universities – I received a torrent of emails demanding how I could brand an entire nation as a nest of liars and cheats. An article this year in the Asia Times by Gary LaMoshi addressed this "phenomenon" from a different perspective: … Continue reading “Know When to Lie, Know When to Shoot Straight”

For a while there, I didn’t think it was all that big a deal when Dubya told the press that the United States has a definite commitment to the defense of Taiwan against military hostility from the mainland Chinese regime. After all, such a commitment was very close to being U.S. policy for a long … Continue reading “China: Getting Chillier”

How did 19 hijackers manage to decimate the Pentagon, destroy the World Trade Center, and plunge us into a war without end? That is the question we still don’t have an answer to, two years after the worst terrorist attack in American history, and, if the Bush administration has anything to say about it – … Continue reading “The Final Secret of 9/11”

As any survivor of Imperial "liberation" can attest, it is usually followed by the mass conversion to the conquerors’ religion, Democracy. As with most religions, it means different things to different people. Its definition is kept deliberately vague to preclude criticism, and even when offered, frequently changes for the same reason. Because of its asserted … Continue reading “After ‘Liberation,’ Democracy”