On the whole, I’ve been surprised and disappointed by the lack of well-known musicians stepping up to the microphone and singing out for peace lately, especially considering the resurgence of folk and Americana styles and artists (the traditional harbingers of “music with a message”) in recent years. Perhaps it’s the atmosphere of fear and blind …
Continue reading “Covers for Peace”
Glimpse through the commentary pages of American newspapers and you are bound to run into a headline comparing the mess in American-occupied Iraq to the chaos in hurricane-devastated Louisiana. In fact, forget about the op-eds bashing the Bush administration and watch for a few minutes the 24/7 coverage on one of the cable news networks. …
Continue reading “The United Gates of America”
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 humbler, more cooperative, and more understanding of other nations’ problems and failures? "Or will the United States …
Continue reading “Will Katrina Bring an Isolationist Revival?”
In a recent speech at Fort Bragg, a major U.S. military base, president Bush declared, “There is no higher calling than service in our armed forces.” It seems fewer and fewer young Americans and their parents agree with him. The U.S. military is finding it increasingly difficult to sustain itself. This is despite what at …
Continue reading “The Unraveling of the US Military”
Try this for freedom. Iraqi police backed by American forces with Humvees and armored personnel carriers set up hundreds of checkpoints around Baghdad last week – with the goal of checking every driver’s license plate. Because of an acute gas shortage and constant traffic jams, Baghdadis are now only allowed to drive every other day. …
Continue reading “Baghdad Traffic Jam”
"The specter of Vietnam has been buried forever in the desert sands of the Arabian peninsula," President George H. W. Bush said of the Gulf War victory in early 1991. He told a gathering of state legislators, "It’s a proud day for America – and, by God, we’ve kicked the Vietnam syndrome once and for …
Continue reading “Beyond the ‘Vietnam Syndrome’”
The pressure on Syria is being increased, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see a “border incident” involving a shoot-out between Syrian and American troops. We may be in for a new Tonkin Gulf, leading to an extension of our “liberatory” efforts in the Middle East. We already have U.S. Ambassador (i.e., Imperial …
Continue reading “Next Stop: Syria”
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 non-nuclear states as an integral part of its global military strategy. According to a March document by …
Continue reading “Pentagon Foresees Preemptive Nuclear Strikes”
http://www.independent.org/tii/antiwar/e050913.html
On Sept. 6-7, 2005, the New America Foundation hosted "Terrorism, Security & America’s Purpose," a policy forum featuring scholars, elected officials, intelligence experts, and journalists. A full list of speakers is available here. Juan Cole is professor of modern Middle East and South Asian history at the University of Michigan. He offers his perspective on …
Continue reading “Abusing America’s Fear of Terrorism” 
