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I call my colleagues’ attention to a recent article by Scott Ritter, former chief UN weapons inspector in Iraq, published in the Los Angeles Times. In this article, Mr. Ritter makes a salient point that deserves careful and serious consideration in this body: how will it be possible to achieve the stated administration goal of … Continue reading “Inspection or Invasion in Iraq?”

Before I fell ill, I had last week meant to write about how what Britain leaving the EU would entail. I would like to be able to tell you that whilst lying on a bed of pain, a series of hallucinatory visions about the nature of foreign policy occurred to me, and hence why, again, … Continue reading “Getting Bogged Down”

It was eerie to actually see the scene of a story I have written about on more than one occasion, to see and hear the people I had only read about and, vaguely, imagined. On Friday night, the ABC News program 20/20 broadcast “The White Van,” which told the story of 5 young Israeli men … Continue reading “BABA WAWA’S WHITEWASH”

By choosing to nominate APJ Abdul Kalam as its candidate for Presidential elections next month, the Vajpayee government has sent out an unambiguous message: It has no compunctions in making an appeal to crass militarism to advance its narrow parochial interests. And by going along with the nomination or co-sponsoring it, the bulk of India’s … Continue reading “‘Missile Man’ as India’s President”

After the visits of Richard Armitage and Donald Rumsfeld, which formalised the commitments made by Islamabad and New Delhi to their American mediators or “facilitators”, the threat of overt war has diminished in South Asia – although it has by no means disappeared. A new triumphalism is now discernible in parts of political India, and … Continue reading “The Relevance of Détente”

RETRACTION In the following column, I wrote about Sibel Edmonds, a wiretap translator formerly employed by the FBI who has stepped forward with allegations about infiltration of the FBI by a mysterious "Middle Eastern country." Citing "a trusted source," I wrote: "According to his Justice Department sources, the mysterious “Middle Eastern country” the [Washington] Post … Continue reading “TREASON IS THE REASON”

Here in the Twin Cities Governor Jesse Ventura has just announced that he will not run next term, to everybody’s surprise. His was a reign of frustration and entertainment and I am one of the few who will miss him. His replacement will surely be boring and bursting with platitudes. One of the last great … Continue reading “Ties That Bind”

It’s been a fact for at least a year now, ever since the Treaty of Ohrid was signed, that the Balkans was fully conquered. Perhaps the final, unnecessary confirmation came in March, when the last remnant of the last Yugoslav federation was officially dismantled. Those who inherited the rubble of what used to be Yugoslavia … Continue reading “Balkans Leaders Chose Servitude”

P>I couldn’t help but notice the number of hits coming from an ezboard site, where people post messages and a kind of conversation in cyberspace ensues. Our hit report enables me to click on the url and find out the source of the hits – and, in this case, I was in for a surprise. … Continue reading “PUNDITRY IN THE AGE OF TERRORISM”

You can catch a few items in the newspapers – usually stories about raids or massacres – about Colombia, but not much that puts the latest incident in anything resembling a context. So I was pleased that the Orange County World Affairs Council last week hosted an enlightening (if not especially encouraging) discussion on Colombia. … Continue reading “Colombia: Mapping a Quagmire”