It was Jim Hoagland, the Washington Post's liberal hawk par excellence, who first pondered the possible foreign policy consequences of Hurricane Katrina and the destruction of New Orleans. "Will post-Katrina America," he asked in his regular column, "be...
Pentagon Foresees Preemptive Nuclear Strikes
Amid increasing tension between the United States and Iran over Tehran's nuclear program, and growing concern about overstretched U.S. ground forces, the George W. Bush administration is moving steadily toward adopting the preemptive use of nuclear weapons against...
Four Years After 9/11, Anti-Terror Strategy in Doubt
If U.S. President George W. Bush was counting on Sunday's "Freedom Walk" and country music festival at the Pentagon to revive the patriotic spirit (and rally his sagging approval ratings) that followed the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on their fourth anniversary,...
Iraq War Splurge Hits Home at 150 MPH
With state, local, and federal officials still grappling with the extent of the devastation and human suffering inflicted by Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans and points east, suggestions that the already plunging political standing of President George W. Bush could...
Iraq War Costs Now Exceed Vietnam’s
The U.S. Treasury is paying out more each month to sustain the war in Iraq than it did during the Vietnam War, according to a new report that calls the ongoing conflict "the most expensive military effort in the last 60 years." The 84-page report, "The Iraq Quagmire:...
Asia Displaces Near East as Top Arms Importer
Arms merchants from industrialized nations are increasingly finding Asia, which has replaced the Near East as the world's top conventional-weapons market, the place to go, according to a new report [.pdf] by the Congressional Research Service (CRS). Led by purchases...
Iraq: Democracy or Disintegration?
One day after the formal presentation by a majority of Iraq's elected leaders of their proposed constitution, opinions here and in Baghdad appeared divided over whether the draft would lead to greater democracy or the virtual, if not actual, disintegration of the...
Iran’s Growing Sway in Iraq Defies Neocons’ Logic
Anyone who still believes that the U.S. neoconservatives who led the drive to war in Iraq are diabolically clever geo-strategic masterminds should now consider Iran's vastly improved position vis-à-vis its U.S.-occupied neighbor. Not only did Washington knock...
Democrats Fumble Iraq Policy
While Republicans voice growing unease over U.S. President George W. Bush's vow to "stay the course" in Iraq, Democrats remain deeply divided about their position on a conflict that most of them privately describe as a major foreign policy disaster. Despite...
Realists Taking Over in Washington?
Is realism finally, definitively, back in the driver's seat of U.S. foreign policy? That's the conclusion featured this week on the op-ed page of the nation's most influential newspaper, the New York Times, in a column by the managing editor of the nation's most...


