Anthrax I could put up with, an "emergency alert" every 24 hours now seems like normal everyday life, but there is one aspect of the new era that is utterly intolerable: Alan Dershowitz in wartime. The man who was once so vaingloriously solicitous of our "civil...
Defending Peacetime
You might not think that peace and prosperity would need defending against the pervasive sacrifice and death that characterize war and conflict. To assume that most people, especially public intellectuals, would prefer peace to widespread devastation, however, would...
Standing Aloof?
The major newspapers have been crowing about the negative impacts the 9/11 attacks and the ensuing War on Terrorism will have on the US economy and therefore the world economy as a whole. Already we are seeing these effects in the US: airlines have been bailed out by...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...


