Category: Uncategorized

Ah, the fruits of victory. Uncle Sam promised the Iraqis democracy, and now they actually want it – long enough to elect an ayatollah, anyway. The Iranians, far from being discouraged, now cast an acquisitive eye on their western suburbs. The liberated Kurds are busy emulating Saddam. Instead of becoming Amway salesmen, the Taliban have … Continue reading “Oh, Shi’ite!”

We’re all supposed to be oh-so-exercised over Senator Rick Santorum’s apparent distaste for homosexuality, but pardon me if I yawn. Who really cares – surely not a single self-respecting homo of my acquaintance – especially when, on another front, Santorum is spearheading the most direct assault on free thought since … oh, I don’t know. … Continue reading “Santorum’s Sins”

North Korea could nuke California – but do we really have to cite recent polls showing the increasing popularity of the GOP in the Golden State to deter the President from writing us off? The North Korean challenge to this administration far surpasses anything we have faced in the post-cold war era. The widely hailed … Continue reading “The Real Crisis”

Now that the war\’s over and wrapped up well within the 6 weeks some of us (ahem) predicted, and rapidly rushing off the front pages, what, before it becomes sooo mid-March, is there for us all to agree on? Very simply this: the neoconservatives were behind it. They like to boast this, their antiwar opponents … Continue reading “Know Thine Enemy”

The trail leading to Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction may have grown cold, but the search for Saddam Hussein’s gay porno flick is getting pretty hot. (In answer to numerous reader inquiries: Yes, yes, I fully realize that this story is from the Weekly World News. But it has already seeped out and gone … Continue reading “Screw the U.N.”

From the conflicting news stories, suggesting that different factions leak to different media outlets or different writers, it is almost impossible for a mere citizen to get anything resembling a clear idea of U.S. intentions in postwar Iraq. Is the United States there for the long haul, or will a noticeable presence be a matter … Continue reading “Postwar Blues”

Last week, in an essay titled "Iraq’s Cultural Catastrophe – and Ours," Christopher Deliso wrote, "Having almost no history of its own, America is ignorant, almost contemptuous of that of other peoples." While ignorance and envy certainly played a role in the destruction, larger motives were at work, motives that go to the heart of … Continue reading “Dada Conservatives”

The Iraqi morality play grinds on, now well into its second Act. Will the Shi’ites clash with the Sunnis, or will they unite and drive us back from whence we came? Will the long drama of the Kurds end in subjugation, or independence? And what of the Israelis – can they be accommodated without a … Continue reading “Putting America First”

One of the noteworthy features of the very late 20th and very early 21st centuries is the way in which everything that was once an historical accusation has become a defense. Thus, if on the evidence, FDR had a really good idea where the Japanese fleet was and where it was going in early December … Continue reading “Truman, Treaties, and the Bricker Amendment”

It all started when the Peace Corps quietly slipped out of China two weeks ago. There was a small, muted gathering at the local watering hole in Chengdu, and then they were gone, SARS being the culprit. Chengdu is a focal point for the Peace Corps in southwest China, they taught in the schools, ate … Continue reading “Rumors and Leavetakings”