News Abroad

How We Betrayed Our Own History in Iraq

by Glenn Melancon

The scenes of torture and abuse from Abu Ghraib illustrate why the Enlightenment is so important to the history of the West.  A small group of intellectuals dared to challenge" common sense" notions of security, arguing that limiting the arbitrary power of government creates a safer society.  Since the American and French revolutions, westerners have struggled to rein in the violence of the state.  The philosophes insisted that the state act in a measured, rational manner

From Normandy to Jihadi Beach

by Tom Engelhardt

Last weekend, while dedicating the National World War II Memorial on the Washington Mall in front of thousands of veterans of that war, including his own father (who had bailed out of a torpedo bomber south of Japan in 1944), the president choked up while saying:"These were the modest sons of a peaceful country, and millions of us are very proud to call them Dad. They gave the best years of their lives to the greatest mission their country ever accepted." He then held center stage with his fat

12 Questions for President Bush

by Chalmers Johnson

1. Please tell us more about your notion of "full sovereignty" for Iraq. Will this be like our returning Okinawan sovereignty to Japan in 1972, when we retained exclusive control over the thirty-eight military bases on the island and the deployment and behavior of American forces on them? 2. Please tell us: If we plan to return Iraq to the Iraqis, why is the U.S. currently building fourteen permanent bases there? 3. Presumably the American troops to be stationed o

Attempting Analogy: Japanese Manchuria and Occupied Iraq

by Jonathan Dresner

Pulitzer-prize winning Japanese historian Herbert Bix's long analysis of the U.S. situation in Iraq, focusing on the problem of the source of war crimes, has been posted on HNN (HNN got it from

Why This Historian of World War I Sees Parallels Between the U.S. Today and Germany Then

by Larry Zuckerman

The inevitable struggle in Washington to divert or exploit public outrage over the torture of Iraqi prisoners has obscured a lesson learned ninety years ago this summer. Justice demands that the truth be known about who did what on whose orders at Abu Ghraib prison, but the explanation must go deeper. A useful investigation would also consider the effects of the beliefs that led to war–that the nation's mortal peril justified a preemptive strike, and that victory would be swift an

Do Soldiers Have a Duty to Disobey Illegal Orders?

by Patrick F. McDevitt

Joseph Heller’s famous novel Catch-22 is based on the premise that common soldiers can never beat the system. Regardless of the rights or wrongs of the matter, when someone has to pay, it’s going to be your average GI Joe (or Jane), not the military and certainly not the civilians charged with overseeing the military.

Column: Why in Japan I Feel Like an Individual (Letters from Japan, Part 9)

by William Thompson

This spring Mr. Thompson is a visiting professor at Osaka University of Commerce. This is the ninth of his"Letters from Japan." OK, it was not exactly the Abraham Lincoln story,

Column: A Little Fantasy, A Little Reality, A Lot of Absurdity (Letters from Japan, Part 8)

by William Thompson

This spring Mr. Thompson is a visiting professor at Osaka University of Commerce. This is the eighth of his"Letters from Japan."FantasyNovember 10, 2005. The advis

On the Difference Between Bush and Saddam

by Matthew Mason

In the first day or two after revelations of American prisoner abuse in Iraq exploded on the world, television cameras captured the angry reaction of “the Arab street.” Among the messages demonstrators sent was a placard which read something like: “What’s the difference between Saddam and Bush? Nothing!” This was a powerful point, meant to hit America where it hurt. But let me suggest two important differences between the ousted dictator and the incumbent preside

About Donald Rumsfeld's Comparison of Iraq and the Civil War

by David M. Wrobel

Historians of modern America reading the May 13 New York Times article, "Stolid Rumsfeld Soldiers On, But Weighs Ability to Serve," by Elisabeth Bumiller, may have experienced a touch of historiographical déjà vu. Bumiller's fascinating piece focuses on the hard-working secretary of defense burying himself in the tasks of his office while besieged by calls for his resignation, and finding solace in the lessons of history. The article concludes with Rumsfeld's

The Politics of Cutting and Running

by John Mueller

Recently, Secretary of State Colin Powell forcefully declared that the United States would leave Iraq after June 30 if requested to do so by a new interim Iraqi government. This suggests that the United States is now seeking a face-saving method for cutting its loses there--for withdrawing or substantially reducing its presence. Increasingly the American effort seems to be devolving into a costly, enervating, lonely, and deeply-divisive occupation that the United States would eventual

End the Occupation Now

by Ruth Rosen

I STILL REMEMBER when I read a New York Times news story in February 1997 that left me shaken. Tapes of phone conversations made by President Lyndon B. Johnson had just been released. It turns out that in 1964, Johnson already knew that the United States could win the battles, but not the war, in Vietnam. Johnson called the war"the biggest damn mess I ever saw" and said,"I don't think it's worth fighting for and I don't think we can get out." Though he viewed the war

Historians' Reactions to Abu Ghraib

These comments were all made in the last week in response to the allegations of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison. I’m talking about people having a good time, these people [CIA agents and MPs at Abu Ghraib], you ever heard of emotional release? You heard of need to blow some steam off? This is no different than what happens at the Skull and Bones initiation and we’re going to ruin people’s lives over it

From Nanjing 1937 to Fallujah 2004

by Herbert P. Bix

The roots of the Japan-China War (1937-45) can be traced back to the surprise attack that Japanese army officers launched, in September 1931, on Chinese forces in Manchuria. Their premeditated coup led to Japan's seizure of the vast, resource-rich region. Initially carried out in the name of self-defense, the Manchurian takeover was later justified as a

Why Extending Soldiers' Time in Iraq Could Prove Dangerous

by Philip Gerard

The Pentagon recently prevented more than 40,000 regular  soldiers, reservists and National Guard troops from leaving the service after their terms of enlistment or deployment expired. The military calls the move a"stop-loss order." On April 10, 20,000 more troops were"requested" to extend their tours of duty in Iraq for three months, maybe longer. The military's desperate grab for able-bodied soldiers invokes a troubling parallel with America's pre-World War II

We're Winning Ugly in the Middle East, but that's Better than Losing Beautifully

by Judith Apter Klinghoffer

Watching the amazing ugliness and incoherence of the Iraqi battlefront of the war on terror, it is easy to understand Otto Von Bismark’s comment that a special providence watches out for drunks, fools and the United States of America. Why? Because America is winning the war on terror. How? By slowly but surely making the Middle East safe for democracy. Indeed, it is even possible to argue that the American stumbling in Iraq is providing a cover under which reform can be presented as a

Have We Given in to Defeatism?

by John Moser

The news from Iraq, as far as we can tell, is not good. The war to remove Saddam Hussein was quick and relatively bloodless, but the more ambitious goal of bringing democracy to the Fertile Crescent still seems a long way off. Recent events in Fallujah suggest that it could be many months—years perhaps—before the various Saddam loyalists and foreign terrorists arrayed against the U.S. and its Iraqi supporters are defeated once and for all. As a result of this, criticis

The Main Question Now Is Which Strongman Will Emerge to Take Charge in Iraq

by Daniel Pipes

The battle of will now underway in Fallujah between Iraqis and Americans will, I expect, increase. Further, I predict Iraqis will prevail, and I do so on the basis of two presumptions: Iraqis don't want Americans to rule them; and Iraqis care much more about the future of their country than do Americans.For the sake of argument, let's assume my reasoning is correct, the American government abandons its goal of"a free and peaceful Iraq," and co

Iraq as a Weapons Lab

by Nicholas Turse

With the first anniversary of the invasion of Iraq just past and millions of demonstrators back in the streets of cities across the world, are we any clearer on the reasons for going to war? We know it was about energy and empire; but, as we also know, the official claim (until recently) was that it was about those non-existent WMDs. Or was it to remove a tyrant? Or to democratize the Middle East? Or to wage the war on terror? Or to finish Papa's Gulf War I? While at least some of these reaso

Torture & Civilian Deaths in Three Counterinsurgencies

by William Marina

It was revealed last week, that on top of the indiscriminate bombardment of civilians in Iraqi urban areas, both U.S. and British soldiers have become involved in torture as well. At the same time, comparing the three overall interventions, some writers have drawn attention to parallels with Vietnam a generation ago, and the Philippines a century earlier. Massive civilian deaths and torture are characteristic of all three Imperial Interventions. Our Philippine adventure resulted in th