US Arms Industry Fishing in Troubled South Asian Waters

NEW DELHI – By offering nuclear-capable F-16 Falcon fighters to Pakistan and the even more advanced F-18 Hornets to India, Washington has shown a cynical readiness to profit from the long-standing rivalry between the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbors, say analysts. "This is a bit like the Aesop’s fable in which two cats fighting over a … Continue reading “US Arms Industry Fishing in Troubled South Asian Waters”

Cheney’s Other Trick NIE?

Hats off to journalist Dafna Linzer and Sunday’s Washington Post for exposing a familiar but fallacious syllogism favored by senior Bush administration officials: Iran has a lot of oil. Ergo, Iran does not need nuclear energy for civil purposes. Ergo, Iran’s nuclear development program must be for weapons. Linzer and her researcher, Robert Thomason, remind … Continue reading “Cheney’s Other Trick NIE?”

Draft Needed to Bail Out Neocons

One of the favorite fantasies of right-wing talk radio and Fox "News" is that only Bush-hating liberals oppose the Iraq war and additional U.S. military incursions into the Middle East or wherever. Yet, it is the March issue of the Washington Monthly, a magazine with a liberal Democratic audience, that makes a case for the … Continue reading “Draft Needed to Bail Out Neocons”

How the East Was Won

On the first day of Kyrgyzstan’s “daffodil revolution,” photogenic girls smilingly offered daffodils to police guarding the presidential palace, but in a few hours those same guards were being pushed back and beaten by drunken crowds, who surged into the seat of government and ransacked the place. They also ransacked the entire city. “Democracy, whiskey, … Continue reading “How the East Was Won”

Howard Dean Still Selling Out the Antiwar Movement

It was just over two years ago that I learned a little-known “antiwar” Democrat from Vermont was planning to run for president. At a rally on the eve of Bush’s Iraq invasion, a fellow protester handed me a leaflet touting the now infamous Howard Dean, hoping that the propaganda would entice me to support his … Continue reading “Howard Dean Still Selling Out the Antiwar Movement”

Kyoto Goes Nuclear

Following Russia’s formal ratification of the Kyoto Protocol last November, it went into force on Feb. 16, 2005. The Protocol obligates "industrialized" signatories to reduce by 2012 their emissions of six "greenhouse gases" – primarily carbon dioxide – to 5.2 percent below 1990 levels. The United States is not a signatory. Of course, it’s obvious … Continue reading “Kyoto Goes Nuclear”

Bye-Bye NPT?

The 2005 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) will occur 2-27 May 2005 at the United Nations in New York and it may be the last. Under the NPT, the International Atomic Energy Agency is the designated "inspectorate" for verifying compliance by nation-states with their safeguards … Continue reading “Bye-Bye NPT?”

Afghanistan: Media Black Hole

We at the Afghan Women’s Mission (AWM) often ask ourselves, why aren’t the major newspapers showing the American people what’s really happening in Afghanistan? AWM co-directors James Ingalls and I recently returned from a trip to Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan’s (RAWA) projects in Afghanistan and Pakistan. While we were there we saw … Continue reading “Afghanistan: Media Black Hole”

Little Reporting on Paranoia in High Places

Journalists often refer to the Bush administration’s foreign policy as "unilateral" and "preemptive." Liberal pundits like to complain that a "go-it-alone" approach has isolated the United States from former allies. But the standard American media lexicon has steered clear of a word that would be an apt description of the Bush world view. Paranoid. Early … Continue reading “Little Reporting on Paranoia in High Places”