TWO WARS AT ONCE

Rememberthe post-cold war military doctrine that we had to be able to fight two and a half wars at once? Two major conflicts – one in, say, the Middle East, and the other in Korea or somesuch outpost of Empire – and, perhaps, a guerrilla insurgency in some...

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ANTHRAX ON MY MIND

At great pains to come up with a column today [November 1], I thought I'd better have lunch first, so I went to the corner store for a sandwich and a fresh pack of cigarettes. Perhaps, I thought, a little walk will give me some ideas. Back in ten minutes, I dumped the...

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Preventing Future Terrorism

How can we prevent future terrorist attacks? The first step is a foreign policy that rests on a simple principle: We're prepared to defend ourselves, but we threaten no one. Such a foreign policy should have four elements. 1. Noninterference Our government should...

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ATTACK OF THE McCAINIACS

War is hell – and, thanks to Senator John McCain, it has just gotten a little more hellish. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, this angry embittered man has launched an effort to undermine the war effort, one that will no doubt be far more effective than the...

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Nagging Questions About the War

After what is seen in the United Kingdom and parts of Europe as the worst weekend of the bombing campaign in Afghanistan (I'm still reluctant to call it a war, though it is in almost every aspect except that it hasn't been declared as such by Congress) for the...

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OSAMA IN THE BALKANS

It was left to Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica to comment on the bitter irony of the US "war on terrorism" from his own particular vantage point as the leader of a nation that was the recent victim of a US-sponsored Muslim terrorist campaign. Asking the US...

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China’s Afghan Agenda

One thing I've learned here is to trust absolutely no one and to not believe anything anyone tells me. I have friends here with whom I often go out and drink. These friends of mine never tell anyone their real name. I don't know their real names. When I ask why, they...

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THE ANTHRAX CONUNDRUM

As news of the first anthrax cases began to come out of Florida, most were too horrified and numbed by the specter of bio-terrorism to draw out the implications all that clearly. But it didn't take long for the ghouls of war to start speculating – and, yes,...

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Collateral Damage

Poor Victoria (Torie) Clarke, a Pentagon spokesperson, got the tough job yesterday, that of flak-catcher. When the subject is bombs that seem to be destroying or disabling the Taliban and al-Qaida infrastructure, Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld usually takes the...

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DON’T THEY KNOW THERE’S A WAR ON?

The strategy of the War Party has been consistent from day one of the post-9/11 era: pit the US and Israel against most of the rest of the world, and finally embark on a course of empire. In pursuit of this goal, they have taken to demonizing Islam, per se, and...

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