Category: Uncategorized

Results of the Serbian presidential vote this past weekend were entirely predictable, and Vojislav Kostunica is likely to win come the October 13 runoff. And while any outcome of the vote will make little difference in the grand scheme of things – for the future of Serbia is not decided at the ballot box, but … Continue reading “The Unbearable Futility of Voting”

The following article by Oliver Schrom is over a year old, but it certainly has relevance in light of the revelations about the U.S. government’s pre-9/11 perception of the threat posed by Al Qaeda. Schrom’s piece is a chronology of failure – our government’s failure to carry out its only legitimate function, which is protecting … Continue reading “Deadly Mistakes: A Chronology of Failure”

There was Colette Avital, a Labor Party member of the Israeli Knesset, on a trip to Capitol Hill, worried about the prospect of war in the Middle East. Rep. Tom Lantos, the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on International Affairs, took her by the hand, and, according to Ha’aretz, tried to reassure her with … Continue reading “WHY JIM McDERMOTT IS A HERO”

A new Israeli web-site, supported by two major settlers’ sites from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, is dedicated to the holy cause of "encouraging and supporting the employment of Jews only". It is already listing dozens of Israeli firms that do not employ "Gentiles". In the first months of the Intifada, Israeli racists initiated … Continue reading “Looking Behind Ha’aretz’s Liberal Image”

All right, it was San Francisco, which is not exactly the heartland. But the reception last Tuesday for Harper’s magazine editor Lewis Lapham and a panel of four other journalists (including yours truly) willing to criticize the new permanent condition of war was heartening and heartwarming. It was as if most of those people (there … Continue reading “A Hunger For War Criticism?”

The lovely and personable Peggy Noonan wants us to have an "epochal" debate over going to war with Iraq, and disdains the personal attacks that have characterized the discussion so far: "In the past 48 hours we have witnessed Bush vs. Daschle, Hitchens vs. Cockburn, Democrats vs. Republicans, The American Conservative vs. The Weekly Standard … Continue reading “THE LIE MACHINE”

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle is shocked – shocked! – that President Bush and the Republicans are playing politics with the onrushing war. In a emotional speech on the Senate floor, Daschle demanded an apology from the White House for remarks cited in a Washington Post story that accused the (Democratic-controlled) Senate of not caring … Continue reading “POLITICIZE THE WAR!”

As the beat of America’s war-drums against Iraq gets louder, the Indian government finds itself in an untenably contradictory situation: should it support a United Nations-endorsed attack against Iraq’s "terrorist" Saddam Hussein regime, as part of US President George W. Bush’s "global war against terrorism", which it zealously and unconditionally welcomed a year ago? Or … Continue reading “India In a Trap on Iraq”

When the New York Times published the current government’s "National Security Strategy of the United States" last week, the American Empire – already a painful reality – became official. According to one review, "the 31-page document asserts American dominance as the lone superpower – a status no rival power will be allowed to challenge. And … Continue reading “A Global Balkans”

A casual analysis of the world economy shows it rapidly deteriorating into recession, with a possible depression on the horizon. Unemployment is sharply rising with price inflation rampant, despite official government inflationary reports. The world’s stock markets continue to collapse, even after trillions of dollars in losses have been recorded in the past 2 years. … Continue reading “Can We Afford This War?”