News Abroad

How South Koreans Can Save Themselves from Bush's Madness

by Chalmers Johnson

This Wednesday, April 23, North Korea, the U.S., and China will meet in Beijing to discuss a possible resolution of a crisis caused by North Korea's determination to defend itself with nuclear weapons against threats of aggression from the Bush administration. North Korea made the first concession. On Saturday, April 12, Pyongyang dropped its demand that it meet the U.S. face-to-face, without any other participants in the talks, including the U.N. Security Council. The U.S. made e

How Bush Has Reordered the Muslim World

by Larry Schweikart

In 1904, geographer Sir Halford John Mackinder unveiled his famous thesis entitled the "Geographical Pivot of History," in which he argued there existed a pivotal area "in the closed heart-land of Euro-Asia" that was isolated from sea power, and thus immune from the influences of oceanic states. In Mackinder's famous three-point summation: Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland; Who rules the heartland commands the World Is

6,000 Years of History Gone

by Tom Engelhardt

We had "ground zero." In Baghdad, writes Robert Fisk of the British Independent, they now have the "Year Zero." Several days ago, the great National Museum of Antiquities was looted of everything and completely trashed. We now know there were warnings aplenty to this administration of such a possibility -- but perhaps the warnings were ignored, as one reader has suggested to me, because they came from those who were assumed a priori to be against the administ

What Is Being Done to Save Iraq's National Heritage

by Bruce Craig

Given the coverage of the war in the nation's press, it is hard not to be aware of the large-scale looting and destruction of priceless artifacts in Iraq's Museum of Antiquities in Baghdad. The institution's collections documented the Babylonian, Sumerian, Assyrian, and Islamic civilizations. Last Sunday (13 April 2003) for example, a front-page story and poignant photo in the Washington Post showed a tearful Nabhal Amin, the museum's deputy director, crying as she surveyed the dest

Why Iraq Might Be a Better Candidate for Democracy than You Think

by Eric Davis

Americans share two misperceptions of Iraqi politics and society. One is that ethnic conflict is endemic to Iraqi society. Another is that Iraqis lack a tradition of civil society, cultural tolerance, and political participation. Both perceptions are contradicted by the historical record. These faulty premises lay behind Washington's unwillingness to support the Iraqi uprising of 1991, which came close to ousting the Ba'athist regime. It would be a great tragedy if the United States were

Why People in the Middle East May Be Skeptical About the U.S. Commitment to Democracy in Iraq

by Michael E. Latham

The liberation of Iraq, the White House tells us, is well under way. With Saddam Hussein's regime destroyed, American forces will install a new representative government. Democracy will replace tyranny, and freedom will rise from the ashes of brutality. That vision certainly is appealing. From the nineteenth-century days of Manifest Destiny through the Cold War, Americans have long thought of themselves as a missionary people, uniquely called to bring the blessings of liberty

Under the Eyes of U.S. Forces and This Happened?

by Said Arjomand

HNN FUND RAISING DRIVE If you like the service HNN provides, please consider making a donation. The sack of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad and looting of its unique and most precious relics of the Mesopotamian civilization, probably by organized groups, which went on for fort

A Day That Will Live in (CNN's) Middle Eastern History

by Anthony B. Toth

HNN FUND RAISING DRIVE If you like the service HNN provides, please consider making a donation. April 9, 2003: "One of the most amazing days in Iraq's history," according to noted Iraqi history expert, Wolf Blitzer. "For many it was the moment that Saddam

Should Baath Party Members Be Allowed to Work for the New Iraqi Government?

by Nikolas K. Gvosdev

HNN FUND RAISING DRIVE If you like the service HNN provides, please consider making a donation. Now that American forces have entered Baghdad, the U.S. military moves to the second phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom. It must restore civil authority, especially in the wake

Should We Be Worried About the Rising Tide of Anti-Americanism?

by Norman Markowitz

As the war against Iraq grinds on, recent polls show that large majorities of people throughout the world now have a much lower opinion of the United States and its foreign policies than was reflected in polls of previous years. Remarkably, this is true both in countries whose governments support President Bush's war policy, such as Britain, Italy and Spain, and in those whose governments oppose the war, such as Germany, France and Russia. This sharp increase in animosity

Interview with Stephen Walt

by Natasha Hunter

Stephen Walt is academic dean of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.Natasha Hunter: From the president on down to callers on C-SPAN, more and more people are consciously using the term "appeasement" in reference to softer positions on Iraq. Some even refer directly to Neville Chamberlain and his policy of appeasement of Hitler in the late 1930s. Is this a valid comparison? Professor Stephen Walt: No. It's a completely invalid compa

Forget hearts, Go for the Iraqi Minds

by Judith Apter Klinghoffer

Here I go again - trying to give advice. But watching Southern Iraqis scramble to get hold of a box of American rations and then shout their loyalty to Saddam made me very uncomfortable. This is a movie I have seen once too often, and it never ends well for the US. Once again America tries to achieve its goals by capturing the "hearts and minds" of Arabs by showering them with goodies and promises. It is a doomed strategy not only because past betrayals have hardened Arab hea

It's Not Vietnam, but It Sure Feels Like It

by Tom Engelhardt

Let's start with a touch of irony. For thirty years, the men (and lone woman) now running our country have also been running away from Vietnam. In this war, it only took six days for Vietnam to catch up to them. Last night, for instance, here's what I noticed on the CBS and ABC national news, followed by the Lehrer News Hour. CBS led off with word that the U.S. military in Iraq, where all was going according to plan and on schedule, had nonetheless called for reinforcemen

Predictions About the Effects of War with Iraq

This page will be constantly updated with new predictions. Fouad Ajami, Majid Khadduri Professor of Middle Eastern Studies at the School for Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, in Foreign Affairs (January/February 2003): In the end, the battle for a secular, modernist order in the Arab world is an endeavor for the Arabs themselves. But power matters, and a great power's will and prestige can help tip the scales in favor of mode

Why Did Spain Become a Part of the "Coalition of the Willing"?

by Henry Kamen

The sudden emergence of Spain as a player on the international stage, and an active ally of President Bush in his campaign against Iraq, has startled and alarmed opinion across the world. On Feb. 25, Spain, which holds a nonpermanent seat on the U.N. Security Council, co-wrote with the United States and Britain a tough new resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq. Since the end of World War II, Spain has consistently played a backstage role. Ruled by the Franco dicta

Do the French Know Something We Don't?

by David Applebaum

Most Americans are unfamiliar with French History.  They know little of the era when France was the superpower of Europe and less about the events that brought an end to French hegemony.  It would be helpful if they knew more. French revolutionaries ended the Old Regime and imagined they could lead the world by example.  The ability to demonstrate the benefits and blessings of freedom -- civil liberties and laisser-faire economics -- became an illusion. 

Should Arabs Who Peddle Anti-Semitic Nonsense Be Taken Seriously?

by Richard L. Cravatts

The recent injudicious comments by Raymond Baaklini, Lebanon's Canadian ambassador, suggesting that Canada's foreign policy was being influenced by the "90 per cent of the mass media . . . controlled by Jews or Zionists" was a shocking, but not entirely unusual observation. In fact, it echoed a well-worn myth about Jewish control: it has been nearly one hundred years since the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, a forged, notorious screed purporting to expose a

And a War in the Philippines and Indonesia, too?

by Ronald K. Edgerton

The recent airport bombing in Davao, southern Philippines, the latest in a string of terrorist incidents on the island of Mindanao, will raise a hue and cry for more American military aid to the Philippines. We are already training Philippine troops to fight terrorists there, and some 350 American Green Berets have just been deployed to track down Muslim guerrillas on the impoverished island of Jolo.

Why You Should Pray that We Don't Bomb the Sites Sacred to Shiites

by Juan Cole

Most Iraqi Shiites would be overjoyed to see the United States come in and effect regime change. But will the Shiites, brutalized by Saddam's tyranny, remain happy with the United States in the aftermath of the war? The US is about to take control through conquest of the holiest shrines of Shiite Islam. The sensibilities of Shiites throughout the world could easily be injured if they are damaged in war or later seen to be administered unjustly. U.S. Undersecretary of Defense Paul Wolfowit

Meanwhile, in North Korea

by Ruth Rosen

Host: Good evening. This is GNN, Global News Network, with another edition of "Interview with History." GNN is committed to recovering our hidden history, lost during the Dark Decades. Tonight, our guests are retired Army Gen. Samuel Spears, who served two tours of duty in Persian Gulf War II and commanded the U.S. forces in Korean War II. He answers questions from his grandson, Adam Spears, a senior at Lowell High School. Adam, why don't you begin? Adam: Well, we're stu