Four years ago, the United States invaded Iraq. It's the anniversary few want to remember; and yet, for all the disillusionment in this country, getting out of Iraq doesn't exactly seem to be on the agenda either. Not really. Here's a little tip, when you want to...
A Journalist Writes Bloody Murder and No One Notices
Let me see if I've got this straight. Perhaps two years ago, an "informal" meeting of "veterans" of the 1980s Iran-Contra scandal holding positions in the Bush administration was convened by Deputy National Security Adviser Elliott Abrams. Discussed were...
Iraq as a Cauldron of State Terrorism
When it comes to surging in Iraq, it's "encouraging" out there. So the president tells us ("Yet even at this early hour, there are some encouraging signs "); so Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, the surge commander in Baghdad, tells us ("[It's] too early to discern...
Guantánamo Is Not a Prison
Once upon a time, our offshore prison at Guantánamo was the sort of place where even an American National Guardsman, only pretending to be a recalcitrant prisoner "extracted" from a cell for training purposes, could be beaten almost senseless. This actually...
The Last Hot-Button Issue for the Bush Administration
Let's start with the obvious waste. We know that hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have lost their lives since the Bush administration invaded their country in March 2003, that almost 2 million may have fled to other countries, and that possibly millions more have been...
Will Iraq Become the Democrats’ War?
Nothing reminds us more of how much the American constitutional system has been transformed, of just how extreme the "imperial presidency" has become, than Congress' generally woeful record in the second half of the last century and in the first years of this one to...
Will We Suffer from the Iraq Syndrome?
In recent days, we've have two reports on timing, when it comes to the future of the president's "surge" plan for Baghdad. According to Richard A. Oppel of the New York Times, "The plan, which calls for 17,000 additional troops in Baghdad, will continue until at least...
Talking Points for the Next War
At 10:16 p.m. on March 19, 2003, after copious military preparations in the Persian Gulf region and beyond, after months of diplomatic maneuvers at the United Nations, after a drumbeat of leaked intelligence warnings and hair-raising statements by top U.S. officials...
Surging Into
Catastrophe in Iraq
U.S. casualties, which are at a post-invasion high: According to an Associated Press analysis, more American troops were "killed in combat in Iraq over the past four months at least 334 through Jan. 31 than in any comparable stretch since the war began";...
Thelma and Louise Imperialism: Over the Cliff with George and Dick?
Let me make an argument about Bush administration Iran policy about the possibility that a regime-change-style, shock-and-awe air assault might someday be launched on Iranian nuclear facilities and associated targets based on no insider knowledge, just...


