Category: Uncategorized

This Tuesday, the parliament of the last Yugoslavia decided to lay the name and the idea to rest, abolishing the country in favor of a new, ill-defined entity called "Serbia and Montenegro." The new Constitutional Charter and the bill governing its implementation had already been passed by the Serbian parliament on the 28th, and by … Continue reading “Yugoslavia’s End”

Most of the media are trying to make the very difficult case that in boosting defense spending President Bush is starving domestic programs. Unfortunately, too few people are questioning the defense budget itself. We’re at war, after all, and the military probably needs the money, right? We know we’ve dropped a lot of bombs, lost … Continue reading “Military Pork by the Barrel”

The idea that the "allies" – basically, the U.S. and Britain – are two liberal "democracies" that are bound and determined to "liberate" Iraq from the evil repressive Saddam has always been a complete crock. The "rapturists" and the neoconservatives have been demanding Iraq’s scalp for years as the price of their support to the … Continue reading “Free Taki!”

My goodness, but you wouldn\’t want to be French or German. Not, at any rate, if you read what their English speaking friends have to say about them. Popping up in The Times yesterday, Max Boot (he gets about) offered the helpful suggestion that to understand French diplomacy, what one really needed was a \’shrink\’. … Continue reading “You Don\’t Have to Be Brave To Be French”

White House officials have said that the space shuttle disaster will not slow down or alter the president’s plans on war with Iraq. That’s defensible, of course – or it would be if the war itself were defensible. While the loss of the space shuttle and the seven people on it commanded great attention (and … Continue reading “The Case Weakens, the Plot Thickens”

We’ve heard much about the "radicalism" of the antiwar movement, even as it becomes more mainstream. The War Party focuses on the most marginal elements in an effort to characterize the movement as kooky. This is not only a smear, but an effort to divert attention away from the essential craziness of their own movement, … Continue reading “The Kook Factor”

Just a day before United States President George W. Bush delivered a fresh diatribe against Iraq in his State of the Union address, India’s Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee did something unexpected. He appealed to the Great Powers to show "great restraint" and "patience" in dealing with Iraq and make "all efforts" to avoid a … Continue reading “India Should Oppose War on Iraq, But Will It?”

Okay, the jig is up: the New York Daily News has got my number, and I might as well confess. According to the News: "Iraq sent spies from Canada to New York and Washington this month to snoop and stir up anti-war demonstrations, according to a government report obtained by the Daily News." Omigod! We’re … Continue reading “Our Reds and Theirs”

It is now clear – if it wasn’t during the Cold War – that the only way to keep your country free from invaders and despoilers is to maintain a nuclear arsenal and a large army. Missiles and cruisers are important as well, to kill the enemy from afar and threaten his cities. North Korea … Continue reading “Smiles and Nods and Handouts”

The national smallpox vaccination plan rolled out with a whimper last week. Part of the Bush administration’s effort to stave off a bioterrorism attack, the vaccination plan was to begin with a strong start in the state of Connecticut by vaccinating 20 or more first-line medical responders who would then fan out and vaccinate thousands … Continue reading “Bush’s Smallpox Boondoggle”