The Doomsday Doctrine

If ever there was any doubt about the moral depravity of our leaders, then the news that the Bush administration has ordered the US military to "prepare contingency plans to use nuclear weapons against at least seven countries" should put the question to...

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Zimbabwe: Whose Problem Is It Anyway?

Although, according to The Daily Telegraph, those considered disloyal to Robert Mugabe are today in Zimbabwe being, 'subjected to terror on a scale that bears comparison with the Khmer Rouge', it would be dishonest if I claimed that that was what bothered me the most....

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1.3 Billion Problems For China

Along with the long term and painful solutions of economic (and political?) reform and personal sacrifice, Zhu also provided a short-term solution to the problem: a 17.6 percent hike in defense spending to combat "hostile forces inside and outside of China."...

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9/11: The Truth Comes Out

In late November, the Washington Post ran a story that stopped me dead in my tracks: "60 Israelis on Tourist Visas Detained Since Sept. 11," but it was the subhead that really got my attention: "Government Calls Several Cases 'of Special Interest,' Meaning Related to...

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The War Comes Home

I could be imagining it, but I thought I detected some notes of bitterness as Charles Gibson of ABC-TV's "Good Morning America" interviewed the wife and twin brother of Chief Warrant Officer Stanley Harriman of North Carolina, one of seven or eight Americans...

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Victimology and Foreign Policy

In our victimological culture, where every official minority group under the sun lays claim to special rights and privileges, the impact of political correctness on foreign policy is substantial, and increasing. During the Kosovo war, for example, the fact that the...

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How To Say No?

Does it matter if you win an important political battle with bad arguments? The natural Tory reaction, honing straight in on that evasive little word, 'bad', is to reply: not a bit, winning's the thing. After all, who's to say what being bad in this context amounts...

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The Tide Turns

After five months of unthinking unanimity, deluded triumphalism, and self-righteous posturing, some in Congress appear to be awakening from the war trance that gripped the nation after 9/11 – and not a moment too soon. Republicans went ballistic when Senator Tom...

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Third World Kaplan and the Empire of Gloom

March 2, 2002 Third World Kaplan and the Empire of Gloom A TRACT FOR OUR TIMES Robert D. Kaplan has made a name for himself writing politically tinged travelogues from various Third World pest-holes and global hot spots for the Atlantic Monthly. Now, in his new book,...

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