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THE JOYS OF UNIVERSALISM Universalism is said to be a wonderful thing. It brings to mind Alexander the Great, widely praised by historians earlier in this – I mean the late – century, as a heroic founder of ‘universalism.’ The praise came because he made his officers take Persian brides, as did he, to cement … Continue reading “Janus-Faced Universalism and Rosy-Fingered Dawn”

The media’s biased war against the Serbs has been a major factor in the dismemberment of the former Yugoslavia and the demonizing of an entire nation. One of the best examples of such bias can be found in the Washington Times, both in its reporting of events in the Balkans and its editorial policy. I … Continue reading “The Media’s War Against the Serbs”

Ten years ago, George Herbert Walker Bush unleashed the mightiest military machine on earth against a poor, Third World country whose only “crime” consisted of redrawing the map of the Middle East as originally drawn by the British Foreign Office. Iraq has always claimed Kuwait as its “nineteenth province,” an assertion that history in the … Continue reading “The Gulf War In Retrospect: the “Isolationists” Were Right”

I hate to disappoint my Republican readers who fell for Condolezza Rice’s jive talk about the US getting out of the Balkans, but you’ve been had. Senator Carl Levin (D-Michigan), fresh from Dubya’s meeting with congressional leaders on defense issues, said the President-elect was a bit more cautious about the prospect of pulling out than … Continue reading “Our War Criminals and Theirs”

I know that the Middle East is a bigger ongoing problem, though others (excepting, as usual, most of the establishment media) are covering it reasonably well. And it won ‘t be long before it becomes essential to raise the interest level in Colombia, perhaps before Dubya’s team makes a hard-and-fast decision about what to do … Continue reading “Mixed peace prospects in Northern Ireland”

Tony Blair, the pompous martinet who thinks he’s a left-wing version of Maggie Thatcher, was smacked with a ripe tomato yesterday. No matter what the reason, I thought as I read the headline, he deserved it. As it turned out, the perpetrators of this act of justice were a group protesting the UN sanctions imposed … Continue reading “The American Dracula”

The consequences of the Kosovo war continue to rain down on the heads of US policymakers – and those charged with carrying out those policies, namely US troops in the field. With the KLA’s UN-backed reign of terror in Kosovo, heightened tensions spreading outward to Macedonia, and US/NATO troops increasingly caught in the crossfire between … Continue reading “NATO’s Poisoned Arrow”

In some ways it is a mistake for a journalist to meet politicians. They are in the business of being charming and ingratiating, and most of them who have had even modest political success, of whatever stripe, are pretty good at it. It is easy to be swayed by some of them, to be flattered … Continue reading “Remembering Alan Cranston”

In looking ahead to the new year, and considering the events of the year 2000, I am reminded of what the late Murray N. Rothbard said in assessing the political terrain of a decade ago: he was addressing libertarians and their sympathizers, but Rothbard’s advice applies equally to advocates of a peaceful, noninterventionist foreign policy, … Continue reading “Know Thy Enemy”

Let me get the bemusedly angry sidebar out of the way first. The most egregious offender in the media I saw was Tom Raum of the Associated Press, who began his story, "Carrying through on a promise to bring diversity to his administration, President-elect Bush on Sunday named a second black to his foreign-policy team … Continue reading “Scoping out Condoleezza Rice”