News Abroad

Our Hessians

by John Donoghue

In the summer of 1776, Thomas Jefferson penned a blistering attack against King George III, condemning him for deploying Hessian mercenaries to “complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny” begun the year before by the British army on Lexington Green. Jefferson calculated this sensational passage of the Declaration of Independence for effect. He knew that it would inflame the passions of patriots immersed in a republican political tradition that stretched back to England&r

Putin's Message: The Liberals, “Unfortunately, Still Live” in Russia

by Andreas Umland

Arguably, Russian President Putin’s speech at the “Forum of Supporters of Vladimir Putin” organized by the United Russia Party at Moscow on November 21 could constitute a turning point in post-Soviet affairs. In his address concerning the upcoming parliamentary elections, Putin was, clearly, referring to Russia’s politically weak, yet still visible liberal movement when he mentioned those who are “unfortunately, still within the country, who are skulking around

US Policy Toward Cuba: Still Stuck in a Time Warp

by Don Bohning

In a much ballyhooed October 24, 2007, speech at the State Department regarding U.S. policy towards, President George W. Bush cited the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland – al

History Repeats Itself: France in Algeria, the US in Iraq

by Marnia Lazreg

The disclosure by the New York Times on October 4, 2007 of Alberto Gonzales’s secret memo authorizing torture and President Bush’s public acknowledgment on October 6, 2007 that “interrogat

Asahel Grant: The First American to Fail in Iraq

by Gordon Taylor

On October 21, 2007, in Turkey’s Hakkari province, eight Turkish soldiers were taken prisoner after a clash with Kurdish rebels. Digital photos of the men, hidden in a forested ravine, soon appeared in Kurdish news services, and then the soldiers vanished.  Two weeks later, despite search efforts by the Turkish Army, the soldiers emerged and were handed over to Kurdish officials in Iraq.To those who know Hakkari, where the episode began, such a disappearance is anything but

It's Time for a New Look at Isolationism

by Christopher McKnight Nichols

George Washington and Thomas Jefferson warned Americans at the nation’s birth to “steer clear of foreign entanglements.” It’s a warning we scoff at today – at our peril. We need a new approach, a new isolationism.Time and again, Americans rightly return to see the merits of isolation during moments of perilous engagement abroad. One example of this from the recent past came during America’s involvement in Vietnam. As early as January 1965, Sen. Richa

The Annapolis Conference: A Chance to Right an Historical Wrong?

by Gil Troy

The Annapolis Conference is scheduled for Tuesday November 27, two days before the 60th anniversary marking the passage of the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine. If historians were mystics, this cosmic coincidence would set hearts a-fluttering and computer screens flickering. The Southern novelist Thomas Wolfe, steeped in his own region’s tragic history, immortalized the phrase “You can’t go home again.” Historians agree, being in the business of tracking nation

Iranian Muslim Bloggers

by Hamid Tehrani

Iranian Islamist blogs probably provide one of  the best places to learn information and news about power and state-related issues in the Islamic Republic, because some of  their writers have close ties with Iranian leaders and some of them even are leading figures in the regime. By studying and reading the Islamist blogs, we get an insight into the dynamism and evolution of the Islamic Republic's power structure, its ideology, its interests, and its conflicts. Islamis

What Mr. Putin Could Learn from George Washington

by Judith Apter Klinghoffer and Rick Shenkman

"If he does that [give up power], he will be the greatest man in the world," Said King George III about George Washington. The same can be said today abo

U.S. Water Boarding, 1899 Style

by William Loren Katz

Some high U.S. officials claim not be aware of it, and Judge Michael Mukasey, the President's choice for attorney general, prefers to equivocate, but water boarding has long been a form of torture that causes excruciating pain.

What Happened When We Stayed the Course in Cuba

by Joseph J. Gonzalez

President Bush has told Americans that his policy in Iraq will remain unchanged. With even prominent Republicans seeking to alter course, Americans may wonder why the president remains so determined. They should look to the lessons Bush draws from history. Bush is a student of history. What has it taught him? That determination succeeds and weakness fails. In a recent speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Bush said that history provides "lessons applicable to ou

Don't Believe "Peace Is at Hand"

by Ken Hughes

"Peace is at hand."Americans longed to hear this 35 years ago, when National Security Adviser Henry A. Kissinger announced it about Vietnam. We long to hear it again about Iraq. If we do hear it before the next election, we shouldn't believe it.Kissinger, we now know, realized Vietnam was not getting peace, but merely "a decent interval" -- a year or two between the final American troop withdrawal and the final South Vietnamese collapse. Still, his announceme

Vietnam and Iraq: The Benefits of Getting Out

by Hal Brands

Because the Bush administration's "surge" has failed to produce the promised results in Iraq, the administration's calls to stay the course in that conflict have taken on a desperate tone. The president and his supporters frequently cite the consequences of the Vietnam War as an argument against withdrawal, claiming that the U.S. exit from Indochina 35 years ago produced catastrophic consequences and that a retreat from Iraq would be more damaging still. This analogy may b

The Beginning of the End of the Facade of Russian Democracy

by Andreas Umland

Vladimir Putin’s decision to head the federal list of United Russia in the upcoming State Duma election may one day be seen as the major bungle in his biography as a statesman. The foreseeable result of the outgoing Russian president’s unexpected foray into parliamentary affairs will be a crushing victory for United Russia in the December 2007 election. Probably, the party of bureaucrats – an organization that has been in existence for less than ten years – will receiv

Did Churchill Have the Right Idea About Iraq?

by Shannon Monaghan

On Sept. 1, 1922, Great Britain's colonial secretary, the man responsible for the administration of the British presence in Iraq, wrote a scathing letter to his Prime Minister on the miserable state of that country and Britain's interests there.  He closed his letter with these crushing lines: "At present we are paying eight millions [in] pounds Sterling a year [the equivalent of half a billion dollars today] for the privilege of living on an ungrateful volcano out of whic

Should the IAEA Stay Out of Politics? Can It?

by Gabrielle Hecht

In his speech to the United Nations Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, proclaimed that Iranian nuclear development had left the realm of politics for the technical domain of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Last week Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, responding to criticism of the United States by IAEA director Mohamed El Baradei, retorted that the agency should stay out of politics and stick to technical functions. Ahmadinejad and Rice essentially make the same claim: tha

Everybody’s Got Something to Hide, Except for Me and the Mahdi: Ahmadinezhad Escapes from New York

by Timothy R. Furnish

         Last week, President Ahmadi-nezhad of Iran, the front man for Iran’s real leader Ayatollah Khamaeini, brought his propaganda blitzkrieg to New York.  And although M

An Anniversary to Celebrate If You Oppose War

by Lawrence S. Wittner

The largest peace organization in the United States, Peace Action, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.  Yet surprisingly few Americans know much about it.Peace Action originated with the National C

Should We Even Be Using Mercenaries in Iraq?

by Paul Finkelman

In the Declaration of Independence Thomas Jefferson attacked King George for sending hired troop -- mercenaries -- to occupy his American colonies and help put down the Revolution.  Jefferson wrote:    "He is, at this Time, transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the Works of Death, Desolation, and Tyranny already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous Ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civili

What Would William Appleman Williams Say Now?

by Thomas McCormick

The work of the late William Appleman Williams constitutes the most comprehensive and sophisticated critique of American foreign policy offered during the last half century. It continues to influence a host of present-day scholars and even to engage more orthodox academics who might have preferred to ignore it. His influence in the 1960s and 1970s, however, extended far beyond the academy. His classic, The Tragedy of American Diplomacy, was virtually required reading for the New Left