Putting Lipstick on a Pig

Some things never change. In a continuation of the Bush administration's Orwellian doublespeak on the Iraq War, President Bush recently gave an upbeat speech in Dayton, Ohio, extolling the progress in Iraq and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's military offensive...

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For the Iraq War’s Birthday, Slice the Cake

As the fifth anniversary of the United States' second longest (next to Vietnam) and second costliest (next to World War II) war passes, the good news is that the counterinsurgency strategy of Gen. David Petraeus and Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno seems to be working. The...

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Happy Birthday, DHS!

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) just turned five years old. It seems like it was born just yesterday. The department's growing pains have made it a slow learner and a downright ugly child. Born in an atmosphere of tension and fear, and cobbled together from...

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Bush ‘Triples Down’ in Pakistan

History will probably show George W. Bush to have been a bold president, ready to gamble his legacy at a moment's notice. Some risk-taking has paid off for him, and other rolls of the dice haven't. Even in instances where Bush's chutzpah got results, the policy goals...

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Threats of Our Own Making

The Pentagon has long had a conflict of interest. The Department of Defense builds the weapons of war (albeit in a grossly inefficient manner using a captive defense industry that is a ward of the state). Yet the department also supervises and funds 85 percent of the...

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A Direct Descendant of the Founders

As the nation's major media outlets crown John McCain (George W. Bush on steroids) as the Republican nominee for president, their nearly criminal neglect of Ron Paul's candidacy in the 2008 presidential campaign is nearly complete. "Big media" have never deemed Paul a...

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What to Do About Pakistan

With the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, one of Pakistan's foremost opposition leaders, the bottom fell out of the Bush administration's already creaky policy toward that South Asian nation. The administration had hoped that Bhutto would return to a country in...

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A Cynical Effort to Save Bush’s Legacy

It seemed a strange gamble when President George W. Bush doubled his bet on a messy war in Iraq and opted to dramatically increase the number of U.S. military forces in that country instead of reducing them as American popular opinion demanded. In a republic,...

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