News Abroad

Moves toward War with Iran: How to Prevent War ... Part 4

by William R. Polk

Editor: This the fourth in a series: Part 1. Part 2.Part 3.  In previous articles I have set out why I think an America attack on Iran is likely,  how such an attack  would be carried out and what would happen as a result.  Here I will discuss how it could be avoided while preventing the further spread of

The First War Crimes Trial of a Head of State

by Geoffrey Robertson

The trial of Charles I in 1649 secured the historic gains of the English civil war – the supremacy of parliament, the independence of judges, individual freedom guaranteed by Magna Carta and the common law. From a modern perspective, it was the first war crimes trial of a head of state. The arguments in Westminster Hall resonate today in the courtrooms at the Hague and even in the Iraqi Special Tribunal – Saddam Hussein’s opening words to his judge were, in translation, a p

Moves Toward War with Iran: Part 1

by William R. Polk

After careful study of recent moves and statements by the Bush Administration, I have concluded that there is at least a 10% chance of an American attack on Iran before the November 7 Congressional elections and about a 90% chance before the administration’s end in 2008. In this and following articles I will explain that prediction, illustrate what moves are now being made the prepare for war, analyze what the results of such actions would be and, finally, discuss what alternatives Amer

Moves toward War with Iran: In the Event of War ... Part 3

by William R. Polk

Editor: This the third in a series: Part 1. Part 2.The Iranians believe that American threats and moves are a bluff.  That is what I have been told authoritatively by a senior official of their government.  But, if they are wrong, something like the following will probably happen. The first step, in fact, has already happened.  Unmanned drones and pr

Moves toward War with Iran: Part 2

by William R. Polk

In my first article, I set out why I think an American attack on Iran is likely. Now I will show what steps are being taken to prepare for that event. The first step toward war is to prepare the public.  That step was partly taken in the 2005  “National Defense Strategy” which proclaimed that “America is a nation at war” and warned that  “At the direction of the President, we will defeat adver

The Caliph-Strophic Debate

by Walid Phares

It seems that the US is having a hard time winning the hearts and minds of Arabs and Muslims, but an equally serious problem can be observed in the intellectual circles of America where some have had a difficulty coming to terms with the terminology of the War of Ideas. If the educated elite of the United States is incapable of identifying the ideology and the strategy of the Jihadists five years after 9/11, we not only have a problem with handling the War in Iraq, but also with the future of

Global Warming: Life as We’ll Know It

by Matt Chew

“Global warming,” which may regionally include cooling, drying, humidification, or changes in the seasonality of winds and precipitation, is only one dynamic factor among many contributing to the constant flux of the biosphere. Another factor that will inevitably interact with any climate trend is the continuing redistribution of biota. Organisms besides humans are affected by climate change, regardless of its causes. If average temperatures rise in the Arctic Ocean and the

Global Warming: How History Is Being Manipulated to Undermine Calls for Action

by Spencer Weart

Informed people now understand that global warming is perhaps the most severe challenge facing the well-being of human society in the coming century. Only a dwindling minority of Americans now denies this (an even smaller fraction believe that we are regularly visited by space aliens). But those who deny it include powerful people, whose interests or ideology are threatened by government regulation of the fossil fuels that are the main source of the danger we face. History is often use

Global Warming: It’s 1970 All Over Again

by Frank Uekoetter

Once upon a time, it was easy to be an environmentalist. A visible pall of smog hung over many large cities, bringing tears to the eyes of residents on a bad day. Rivers were dirty, some to a point where they could burst into flames. Toxic garbage was dumped in ill-suited places with little thought about the future. And all that, it seemed, was the result of a single cause: the recklessness of industry. What seemed more appropriate, then, than to chastise industry until it faced up to its cor

Dissenting Against War Is as American as Apple Pie

by Ron Briley

As Congress recesses for the 2006 campaign season, the President hopes to resurrect Republican electoral hopes by once again appealing to the politics of fear. Building upon his politicization of events commemorating the fifth anniversary of the 2006 terrorist attacks, President Bush has pushed for the Congress to authorize military tribunals for the trials of detainees described as terrorists. The President and his Congressional supporters describe those opposed to the legislation, whether t

For Iraq, a Lesson from Africa

by Derek Catsam and Tom Bruscino

No one's looking, because no one's inclined to look in such an unlikely place. But it turns out that there's much to learn about how to handle the Iraqi quagmire by looking to Africa -- and, of all places, to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).   The lesson is simple and yet has been almost universally ignored by American politicians and military planners alike: If you focus too much on security and the mere appearance of democracy and do not work toward fostering the deve

Why We Should Leave Iraq Now

by John Weiss

We face a paradox in Iraq: the longer we stay, the stronger our enemies become. We cannot defeat either the insurgency or the civil war resulting from our invasion and occupation; in fact, both have grown stronger. Nor can we protect the Iraqis we came to save. A corrupt Iraqi government wastes the billions we have allocated for rebuilding, while the middle class flees to avoid the danger. The Pentagon trains Iraqis to fight, but we may well be training the army of our future enemies

Bomb them Back to the Stone Age: An Etymology

by Nick Cullather

Just after 9/11, the United States allegedly threatened to bomb Pakistan “back to the stone age” unless it joined the war on terror. In his forthcoming book, Pakistani leader Pervez Musharraf attributes the ultimatum to Richard Armitage, who flatly denies it. Sounding slightly less sure, President Bush says he was “taken aback by the harshness of the words.” Harsh, maybe, but hardly original. Journalists, fifth-grade bullies, and maybe

What the Believers in American Power Have Overlooked

by Joyce Appleby

The Iraq war has produced more ironies than successes. The greatest of them is that an attack designed to demonstrate the preeminent power of the United States has ended up making clear that we now live in an era of supranationalism.   The United States stands poised between wanting to write its own ticket and wishing to speed efforts to solve the world's problems. Conspicuously first among equals, it is going to have to get used to the idea that national sovereignty belongs to th

It's Not North Korean Nukes that's the Chief Korean Problem

by Mark Selden

The essence of the “Korea Problem” lies not in the threat of North Korean development of atomic weapons; nor does it lie in the existence of a rogue regime in North Korea (DPRK), as the international press and some American presidents and politicians would have it. The central problem is the division of the Korean peninsula, the outcome of half a century of Japanese colonial rule and a legacy of the incomplete character of independence resulting from US-Soviet division of Korea an

Islamofascism ... Bush Is on to Something

by Daniel Mandel

When speaking of today's affairs, are historical analogies and allusions helpful? Several commentators think not, at least when it comes to US President George W. Bush's recent references to "Islamofascism." Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson has argued that "the

Disarmament is a Two-Way Street

by Lawrence S. Wittner

The Bush administration’s current confrontation with Iran over what it claims is that nation’s nuclear weapons development program raises the question:  Can the disarmament of one country occur in isolation from the disarmament of others?That question seemed to be answered by the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1968.  Signed by almost all countries of the world, including the United States, it provided that the non-nuclear nations would forgo building nu

Was the Pope Wrong?

by Timothy R. Furnish

Back when it was still amusing, “Saturday Night Live” had a skit called “Bizarro World” in which conventional wisdom was turned upside down (my favorite—humorously, not politically—was one in which Ronald Reagan, far from being the somnolent buffoon of liberal legend, actually ran Cabinet meetings till others fell asleep and spoke on the phone in Arabic to Qadhafi). But nowadays it seems that reality is imitating art (okay, popular culture) as Mus

Donald Rumsfeld's Moral Confusion

by Robert J. McMahon

As another academic year begins at The Ohio State University, I am beginning my 25th year of teaching the History of U.S. Foreign Relations.  As always, I must brace myself for the influence popular culture invariably plays in shaping, and distorting, my students’ views about America’s engagement with the wider world.  Too frequently, films, television programs, mass-market magazines, and the like simplify and misinform– offering myth, stories of personal valor, an

Inviting Ahmadinejad to the Holocaust Museum would be a smart move for Bush

by Edward Olshaker

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has expressed at least three opinions about his favorite subject, the Holocaust: (1) it’s a myth; (2) it’s humorous, and therefore a fitting subject for a cartoon contest; and (3) it’s real, but he doesn’t trust the reporting of historians and must see substantive evidence with his own eyes.His visit to the United Nations on September 19 and 20, during which President Bush will also address the UN, is an opportunity for