Antiwar.com

Update: In my nominations for the TomDispatch Political Comedy Awards of 2005, I suggested that the Bush administration, rejected by several top choices in its search for a director of national intelligence and evidently desperate, had “hit on what was clearly a brilliant scheme: Just look for someone who had a post already so nightmarish, … Continue reading “Rummy Dropped From the Loop?”

http://www.independent.org/tii/antiwar/e050222.html

"That all goes to show that wars are not won through newspaper articles, but rather with ideas, soldiers, weapons and munitions. A people wins when it has the prerequisites to victory, when it wants to win and when it must win. All that is true for us. This evening we look back along the path … Continue reading “Soulless Soldiers”

Suppose a traveling salesman came to your door. He said he was representing a foreign country that had a bad government. He would like for your son to volunteer to overthrow that government and possibly get killed in the process. What would you do? I’d slam the door in his face. There is no way … Continue reading “Just Say ‘No’ to Military Recruiters”

It is not very flattering to be paraded like a Rottweiler on a leash, whose master threatens to let him loose on his enemies. But this is our situation now. Vice President Dick Cheney threatened a few weeks ago that if Iran continues to develop its nuclear capabilities, Israel might attack her. This week, President … Continue reading “Beware of Dog!”

The best news in a long time has got to be Time magazine’s remarkable story about negotiations taking place between the U.S. and the Iraqi insurgency. Time reports: "Pentagon officials say the secret contacts with insurgent leaders are being conducted mainly by U.S. diplomats and intelligence officers. A Western observer close to the discussions says … Continue reading “Iraq: Bush Must Negotiate”

Thursday the news came in. The position of director of national intelligence (DNI), insisted upon by the 9/11 Commission, was finally filled. Shopped around for weeks unsuccessfully, it had already been rejected by former CIA Director Robert Gates, former Senator Sam Nunn, and former Attorney General William Barr because, though the DNI will officially preside … Continue reading “The Kings of Black Comedy”

On March 19, 2003, Bush informed Congress that Saddam posed “a continuing threat to the national security of the United States” by “continuing to possess and develop a significant chemical and biological weapons capability, actively seeking a nuclear weapons capability, and supporting and harboring terrorist organizations.” However, only days before, UN inspectors had reported that … Continue reading “Targeting Nonexistent Nukes?”

President Bush’s invasion has turned Iraq into a recruiting and training ground for anti-U.S. terrorists, according to CIA Director Porter Goss in testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Feb. 16. Goss’ report was supported by Vice Admiral Lowell Jacoby, director of the the Defense Intelligence Agency. Jacoby told the committee that "our … Continue reading “Outfoxed by bin Laden”

If Syria’s Bashar Assad was behind the assassination of ex-Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri of Lebanon, he is, in the edited version of Gen. Tommy Franks’ phrase, “the dumbest … man on the planet.” The Beirut car bombing that killed Hariri smashed Assad’s hope of any rapprochement with the United States, forced him into a collision … Continue reading “Baiting a Trap for Bush?”