Editorial note: This is the text of a speech delivered before at audience at the Whittier Law School, in Whittier, California, on March 15. Does the media have an obligation to tell the truth? In discussing my topic with Joe Varada – who was kind enough to ask me here to speak to you – …
Continue reading “Handmaiden of the State”
“We do not negotiate with terrorists!” How many times have we heard statesmen so declaim, even as they worked back channels to cut deals with the men with bloody hands with whom they publicly refused, on principle, to negotiate? FDR negotiated with Stalin, who conducted what historian Robert Conquest calls “The Great Terror.” Nixon went …
Continue reading “New Democrats: Hamas and Hezbollah”
Just an hour north of the Mexican border, at the base of the cloud-capped Huachuca Mountains, sits a military base with a long history of covert military action. In its early days as a military fort, it was the location of the capture of Geronimo, the last Apache warrior to resist the United States. More …
Continue reading “Interrogators for Hire”
http://www.independent.org/tii/antiwar/e050315.html
Political movements require momentum; they need to constantly build and aggregate. When they take a lengthy break from organizing and stop the momentum, it is difficult to restart. During the Vietnam War, there was a consistent expansion of antiwar efforts. Every year, the movement built and grew. Antiwar activists did not take breaks during election …
Continue reading “Restarting the Antiwar Movement”
"After the shooting, the U.S. military said that the vehicle carrying the Italians was speeding and refused to stop, and that a U.S. patrol tried to warn the driver with hand and arm signals, by flashing white lights and firing shots in front of the car and into the car’s engine block. … Prime Minister …
Continue reading “The Eyewitnesses Must Be Crazy”
Unlike most neoconservatives, UN Ambassador-designate John Bolton didn’t start out his political career on the center-left – either as a liberal, social democrat, or socialist. When Irving Kirstol, regarded by many as the “godfather of neoconservatism” described a neoconservative as a “liberal who has been mugged by reality,” he wasn’t describing John R. Bolton. In …
Continue reading “Bolton’s Baggage”
JERUSALEM – The initial reactions bordered on the euphoric. Lebanese citizens were pouring into the streets of Beirut in open defiance of Damascus, and Israelis were cheering. Talk in Israel of a democratic, Syria-free neighbor to its north abounded. Some even speculated Lebanon might be the next Arab country – after Egypt and Jordan – …
Continue reading “Israeli Euphoria Over Lebanon Wearing Off”
NEW YORK – Violence in Iraq claimed the lives of 23 journalists and 16 media support workers in 2004, making it the most deadly year for press freedom in a decade, according to the annual report of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). At least 22 journalists were also abducted by insurgents, and …
Continue reading “Iraq Toll Makes 2004 Worst Year for Press in a Decade”
The Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena, who was wounded by American soldiers as her car approached the Baghdad Airport, believes she was shot at deliberately. I doubt that is true. Of course, our government would kill an Italian journalist if it had a reason to do so, but I can’t think of one. I don’t use …
Continue reading “A Stupid War to Die In” 
