Flying the Guarded Skies

I think I’ll leave the big-picture opining for another time. I don’t know how many Americans will be interested in one person’s experience flying domestic airlines this past weekend. But that’s what’s on my mind as I sit in an airport waiting...

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The First Casualty

This first week of the war has produced a rare unity between the Republicans and the Democrats on Capitol Hill. Every war in U.S. history began with something very close to political unity, and each war progressed at different rates toward different degrees of...

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OPERATION INFINITE ARROGANCE

We are, by now, quite used to the practice of pinning our various overseas interventions with some tag line, some felicitous phrase that seems to sum up the official rationale for war. The "new war" – as the networks have unimaginatively dubbed it...

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A Chance for a New Friendship?

For traditional rivals of the US, the tragedy in New York and the ensuing "War on Terrorism" have provided a chance to wipe the slate clean and establish a New World Order. Russia and the various -stans, especially Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have offered up...

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AMERICAN IMPERIUM

Author's note: I am in transit, and so this column – written before the horrific events of September 11 – will have to do. To all of my readers who wrote in, expressing support – and criticism: thanks. I will address the latter in the next installment...

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Dancing in the Streets

One moment before the Sons of Light wage war on the Sons of Darkness, when the former are purported to be "the Judeo-Christian Culture," whereas the latter, "the Arab-Moslem Culture," is identified with suicide bombers as its inherent, constitutive trait, let us...

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THE CASSANDRA COMPLEX

Amazingly, there was one columnist who predicted the World Trade Center attack, a prescient bit of punditry that, if I were the FBI, would immediately cause me to call him in for at least a few questions. It was in the weeks leading up to New Year's Day, 2000 –...

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The Overlooked Flaw in Retaliation

I now have received over a thousand emails in response to my articles on the terrorist attacks. I regret that I can't reply individually to them. Nor is it possible even to reply in print to many of the thoughtful suggestions, complaints, or proposals that readers...

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Impressions Amid the Winds of War

So many impressions crowd against one another as the war clouds gather. Perhaps it is a blessing that the Bush administration seems to be going about the business of planning reprisals or attacks with a fair amount of deliberation. There might be time to sort through...

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