Antiwar.com Original

I go to a great gym, right here in Pacific Heights, San Francisco, and, because I’m such a regular, I’m pals with a lot of the guys who go there: they know what I do for a living, and often ask: “So, what’re you writing about today?” For the past couple of weeks, the most … Continue reading “WHY ARE WE IN MACEDONIA?”

As Washington and China face military confrontation, an Australian has warned Americans about how the British Empire lasted so long. "England," observes Editor Owen Harries in the Spring 2001 National Interest ("Anglosphere Illusion"), "was the only hegemon that did not attract a hostile coalition against itself. It avoided that fate by showing great restraint, prudence … Continue reading “Answering the ‘Wolfowitz (Bush) Doctrine’ on American Empire”

Peace is breaking out all over, in Macedonia, so they say! Some may call it an armistice. Others, a meeting and agreement of warring factions, still others, a halt to hostilities or a silencing of weapons. This is certainly like no peace that I have ever seen in the past. How is this different, one … Continue reading “A Macedonian Style of Peace”

Mission to Macedonia So, you’re the ruthless ruler of a worldwide empire, and you want to take over a poor, hapless, unsuspecting nation – whaddaya do? Step number one: fund a guerrilla insurgency. STEP ONE: ADD ONE INSURGENCY There’s always some disgruntled minority that will take up arms, especially if tempted with all sorts of … Continue reading “HOW TO TAKE OVER A COUNTRY”

Most Americans have still not gotten beyond the end of the Cold War and associated changes in the nature of the world when it comes to thinking about the Middle East. For decades, both before and after the formation of Israel, the United States has believed it has had a special relationship with the area … Continue reading “Middle East Status is Quo”

The revolution that overthrew Yugoslav socialism, led by Vojislav Kostunica, is far from over: having gotten rid of Slobodan Milosevic, and freed the country from the sclerotic grasp of the Serbian Socialist Party, Kostunica became the President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) only to find yet another obstacle in his path: Serbian Prime … Continue reading “GO FOR IT, KOSTUNICA!”

The world may believe that the carefully staged, orchestrated, and subdued signing of the “Made in America” Ohrid framework document translates into peace in Macedonia, the latest Balkan boiling pot. It, however, does not. It will not provide any measurable change to the status quo, except for one thing: NATO soldiers have now, legally, shoehorned … Continue reading “Macedonia’s Underhanded Dissolution”

Japan’s Prime Minister Junichero Koizumi will face many tests in the months to come: reforming Japan’s sclerotic economy, reinvigorating a society fossilized by habit and chafing under the heel of the US occupation. The Japanese people have placed their hopes in him, and his rise has been celebrated here, in this column, as a harbinger … Continue reading “YASUKUNI BROUHAHA”

During the Cold War, outrage at the idea of “moral equivalence” animated the neoconservative critics of non-interventionism. How dare those leftists hold up the Soviet occupation of Hungary and all of Eastern Europe and equate it with, say, the American occupation of Korea, US dominance of Latin America, or our penchant for overthrowing regimes around … Continue reading “IN PRAISE OF ‘MORAL EQUIVALENCE’”

There are essentially two types of peace agreements: those that ratify a peace that is in place for whatever reason (conquest, surrender, war-weariness) and those that seek to push forward a “process” that has not yet brought anything resembling an actual peace. One may hope that the Macedonian peace accord signed Monday is in the … Continue reading “A Macedonian Fantasy?”