Antiwar.com

Why are the neocons writing long screeds trying to disprove their own existence? Poor Jonah Goldberg is faced with an impossible task. He wants his readers to forget the history of their own movement, ignore the enormous literature documenting the neoconservative odyssey from left to right, and pretend that the doctrine of perpetual preemptive war … Continue reading “Outing the Neocons”

There is a palpable grumpiness surrounding businessmen and foreigners here in Chengdu. Business is bad, there is no work for expats, travel is restricted and worst of all: the netbars have closed. For the common Sichuanese, the loss of Internet access, the roadblocks to scenic sites and the marked decrease in traffic – business or … Continue reading “Lessons of SARS”

Iraqi Self-Rule Delayed In addition to scientific studies, there is ample evidence that politicians lie, prevaricate and steal. Paul Bremer, the new civil administrator of Iraq, is no exception. Consider the following: in an about-face, America decided Iraq was not yet ready for self-rule, reneging on their promise for a quick transition to an independent … Continue reading “Liberation? Not Yet”

Bliss It Was Who is Christopher Caldwell? No doubt Google would tell me some sort of truth about the man, but is there world enough and time to be bothered? He\’s something to do with that gaggle of charmers over at Mr Murdoch\’s Weekly Standard, I know that much, but nothing else. I don\’t know … Continue reading “On the Nature of Meaning (and Union Jack Tee-Shirts)”

When David "Axis of Evil" Frum, a former speechwriter for George W. Bush, turned his rhetorical guns on antiwar conservatives and libertarians, this writer included, he ended his peroration against "unpatriotic conservatives" with the declaration that all good right-wingers must now "turn their backs" on the heretics. But what has happened is quite the opposite: … Continue reading “Revolt Against the Neocons”

Only alert readers may have noticed that the Israeli-biased American "Road Map to Peace", already being imposed on the Palestinians, has not even been accepted by Israel’s rejectionist government. Asked about it, Secretary of State Colin Powell said that accepting or not accepting it "didn’t really matter" – when Israel is concerned, to be sure; … Continue reading “The Apartheid Wall”

It’s beggars belief, but it is true. Last week, a group of influential politicians who inhabit the rarefied but influential world of Washington DC think-tanks, proposed that US government officials be given the right to sit in on the European Union’s inter-govermmental conference, and on meetings of its other executive bodies, so that the USA … Continue reading “Becoming the 51st State”

When Jonathan Foreman of the New York Post, who earlier did a piece on how the rest of the media were downplaying expressions of affection for Americans among Iraqis (a story several pro-war readers helpfully emailed to me), that the United States seems to be blowing the occupation, you know things can’t be going especially … Continue reading “The Justifications Crumble”

I’m shocked – shocked! – but it appears that neither Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld nor General Tommy Franks has read Ludwig von Mises, or even David Hume. Their economic ignorance has led to the only American defeat — not on the battlefield, but on the economic front. The ‘Saddam dinar’ (picture on the left) has … Continue reading “Dinar Is Served”

At first it looked like it was going to be Syria: Baghdad had no sooner fallen, you’ll remember, when Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld began glowering in the direction of Damascus. Colin Powell’s powwow with Syrian President Bashar Assad cut the War Party off at the pass, however, and the focus soon shifted elsewhere: when an … Continue reading “Regime Change Roulette”