"'We had to stop some operations until the [U.S.] elections were over,' said a senior Iraqi Defense Ministry official who requested anonymity because he's not an authorized spokesman. 'The Iraqi government requested support from the American side in the past, but the...
Abolish the CIA!
No longer will Dick Cheney have to pay visits to Langley, Virginia and lean on CIA analysts to produce the kind of intelligence a Veep might need; not now that the President has his man, Republican loyalist Porter J. Goss, heading up the Agency, and a second term in...
Osama bin Laden, Shock Jock
Looked at realistically, Osama bin Laden's intervention in our presidential election was undoubtedly an act of immediate organizational weakness, not strength. Had he had been capable of orchestrating the bringing down of another American tower or its equivalent, he...
Letters From the Home Front
Last week, at this site, Teri Wills Allison, a mother from Texas whose soldier son is now in Iraq, wrote an up-close and personal piece on "the costs of war" – for her and us. It was a brave essay in which she discussed, among other things, how it feels...
Bin Laden’s Illusions – and Ours
Quotes of the day: "In the summer of 2002, after I had written an article in Esquire that the White House didn't like about Bush's former communications director, Karen Hughes, I had a meeting with a senior adviser to Bush. He expressed the White House's displeasure,...
A GI’s Mother Looks at Iraq
A month ago I wrote a dispatch, "Incident on Haifa Street," considering news reports about a bloody set of encounters in downtown Baghdad, only a few hundred yards from the heavily fortified, American-occupied Green Zone. A day or two later, I visited the...
Sci-Fi Superwarriors
The year is 2030 and President Pierce Bush addresses the nation: "My fellow countrymen, in the past, enemies of America required massed armies, and great navies, powerful air forces to put our nation, our people, our friends and allies at risk. What has changed in the...
‘Anonymous’ Thrives in Imperial Press
Every now and then, an article catches my eye that seems to sum up the worst of Washington-based access journalism ("just the spin, ma'am") in our imperial press. On Friday, the morning of the second presidential debate, just such a piece – "Pentagon Sets...
Withdrawal Goes Mainstream
On Oct. 31, 2003, in a piece called "The Time of Withdrawal," I wrote: "I think one thing is predictable in a world where predicting anything accurately is a low-percentage bet: Sooner or later, the time of withdrawal will be upon us. Some of us would like...
Sen. Kerry, Help Is Not on the Way
If the United States is the Earth's last great imperial power, then the election of its leader is indeed a global event. On this event, in fact, the world has already spoken – in opinion poll terms at least. According to a recent Program on International Policy...