Closer to Nuclear MADness

As nuclear taboos of various kinds get weakened and violated the world over, India and Pakistan are drawing each other into the vortex of a potentially ruinous nuclear and missile arms race. They are transiting from a posture of demonstrating an assured capability to...

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Listen Up, Soldier

You're an American GI, and you signed up because you love your country, you want to defend it, and you also want to improve the quality of your own life in a dead economy. You're willing to fight anywhere they send you, obey orders like a good soldier, and you think...

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Watch Your Back

I was working out in the gym the other day, when Richard Rodriguez, a friend of mine, came in, greeted me, and remarked: "I told some friends of mine about your book on the Israeli connection to 9/11, and do you know what they told me?" "Uh. Nope."...

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China: Straddling the Fence Just Right

Two important delegations arrived in Beijing this week – both hoping that China can help defuse a crisis. First, US Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly is looking to the Chinese to exert pressure on North Korea and relieve the tension that threatens to...

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Stand Up for Peace

In cities and small towns across the country, on the East Coast and in the West, Americans are standing up to the War Party and standing up for peace. Around the world, January 18 is the big day, with rallies scheduled for Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and dozens...

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Burying Caesar

Burying Caesar, Graham Stewart, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £25.00, pp. 533. Mindful of recent admonitions in the TLS about this sort of thing, I should immediately state an interest: namely friendship with the author. That said this is a splendid, splendid book. And...

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Going Crazy

The evidence that something is causing people to go slightly bonkers – is it something in the water? the air? the stars? – continues to pile up. For starters, check out the "logic" of Rep. Charles Rangel's bright idea to bring back the draft in...

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Slouching into Iraq?

I've been working on pieces on the history of Iraq for the Orange County Register, and had occasion to speak with Robert Rabil, project manager of the Iraq Research and Documentation Project at the Iraq Foundation and author of the new book (I haven't read it yet)...

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Conscription Is Slavery

Two Democratic Congressman introduced legislation last week to revive the military draft, taking a race-baiting shot at the President and his war plans. Their idea is not new, however, as similar proposals were introduced by Republicans in the months following...

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Turning Point

Antiwar sentiment is on the rise, but is the antiwar movement? A steadily increasing number of Americans oppose invading Iraq, and a full two-thirds want to see a "smoking gun" before we set a course for empire. Around the world, opposition is overwhelming,...

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