News Abroad

In Many Ways the War in Iraq Resembles the War for American Independence

by Michael Creswell

Although Iraqi citizens have now voted on a new constitution, the recent spike in violence in Iraq leads many Americans to wonder why victory remains elusive. Surely, they say, the world’s lone superpower can defeat the insurgents and the remnants of Saddam Hussein’s former armed forces. However, if Americans set aside their repugnance at the comparison, they will note that the Iraq War’s structural correlation of forces—not the methods or goals—resembles the Am

Interview with Juan Cole

by Tom Engelhardt

The man who starts my every on-line day is standing at the door. He's small-framed with short, wavy hair and fragile-looking specs. Nattily dressed in a dark suit and tie, he apologizes, as he enters, for being so formally togged out on a Sunday morning. As it happens, I'm but a pit stop on the way to an afternoon TV interview at the PBS program Great Decisions on one of his specialties, Iran. This is, of course, Juan Cole. His website, Informed Comment

Maybe They Should Hand Out a Nobel Prize for War

by Robert R. Goldberg

The awarding of the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize to Mohamed ElBaradei of the United Nation’s International Atomic Energy Agency is a victory for the international disarmament movement as well as a clear expression of faith in the role of the UN as peacekeeper. It’s also a slap in the face to the Bush Administration from the international community: One month prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, ElBaradei and his committee made it clear that Iraq had no nuclear-creating capacity, t

Is Bush Trying Out the Madman Theory?

by Jeffrey Kimball

Responding to questions about United States policy toward Iran’s nuclear program, President Bush bluntly said in Brussels, Belgium, on Tuesday, February 22: “This notion that the United States is getting ready to attack Iran is simply ridiculous. And having said that, all options are on the table.” His response reminded Europeans, members of Congress, and many American citizens of statements he and his administration had made during the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq, as we

Our Global Cinderella

by Lawrence S. Wittner

The announcement that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2005 has been awarded to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and to its chief, Mohamed ElBaradei, should remind us of the crucial activities performed by the United Nations. The IAEA, of course, is the U.N. agency that has worked, with considerable effectiveness, to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Hundreds of nuclear facilities are monitored by the IAEA in over 70 countries. Among its other activities, it led the sear

How Just Was WW II? (And What Does that Have to Do with Our War in Iraq?)

by Dagmar Barnouw

On the morning of March 19, 2003, the preemptive invasion of Iraq seemed imminent and our local NPR station had brought together a small panel to discuss different countries’ different opinions about it. Trying to explain Ger

Is the Solution to the Korean Crisis in Antarctica?

by William Lambers

Isn't it ironic that while South Korea is locked in a dispute with North Korea over its nuclear weapons program, the two rivals are at the same time members of a peace treaty that prohibits all military activity? The unlikely source of common ground lies in the Antarctic Treaty of 1959. This treaty may appear obscure, but in reality it's a model for achieving peace and disarmament on the Korean peninsula.   In 1958 President Eisenhower invited 11 nations who had conducted scientif

Now Bush Needs to Apply the Lessons of Katrina to the War In Iraq

by Judith Apter Klinghoffer

As hurricane Rita bore down on Texas, Presient Bush cleared his schedule and headed to the Northern Command where the response to Rita is coordinated and he is planning to visit the affected region ASAP. This time the folks would not be able to tell him all is well when it is not, nor that they are taking care of business the best way possible when they are not. This time they know he will be watching and there will be consequences to failure. Behaving as a bureaucracy during an em

Why We Need Our Own Iliad

by Thomas G. Palaima

Three and a half years ago, when U.S. soldiers were only fighting in Afghanistan, I wondered in an opinion column when we would finally have an American "Iliad," a work that would reveal the costs, necessities and realities of war. Natural disaster in New Orleans and Mississippi has pushed the wars our troops are still fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan off the front pages, except when suicide bombers rack up large numbers. And we focus now on the dodge or half-accept-the-blame

Series: What America Needs to Do to Achieve Its Foreign Policy Goals

by William R. Polk

What America Needs to Do to Achieve Its Foreign Policy Goals (1)Nuclear Weapons (2) Getting Serious About the UN (3) Dealing with Terrorism (4) Improving Intelligence Capabilities (5)

Series: What America Needs to Do to Achieve Its Foreign Policy Goals ... Dealing with the West Bank (7)

by William R. Polk

Click here to read the other articles in this series. In many ways, the Palestine problem is the most pervasive, complex and dangerous problem in American foreign policy. It is also the most difficult to address because it is so deeply embedded in guilt, emotion and fear as to be almost beyond rational thought. Americans, both government officials and private citizens, feel far freer to criticize America, Britain or F

Why We Need to Be Wary of Simple Solutions to Iraq

by William R. Polk

Under the headline “A little tenderness can turn around insurgents,” the International Herald Tribune on August 26 published an article on how to win the war in Iraq. It is an important article although important in ways the authors did not intend. I have not met the authors, Scott Gerwehr and Nina Hachigian, who both work at RAND, a spin-off o

Series: What America Needs to Do to Achieve Its Foreign Policy Goals ... Improving Intelligence Capabilities (5)

by William R. Polk

Click here to read the other articles in this series. America’s policy on intelligence, everyone agrees, needs revision, but I believe that the ways and means now being suggested are inadequate or inappropriate. To explain this, it is necessary first to disaggregate what we mean by intelligence. It falls into three categories: collection of information, evaluation of information and espionage. America generall

If We Cannot Trust You With Our Dead, How Can We Trust You With Our Living?

by Judith Apter Klinghoffer

It's time to stop beating around the bush: A growing pundit chorus is breaching the proposition that the creation of a Jewish state called Israel was a mistake and the “root cause” of Islamic terror. Hence, rectifying that mistake by dismantling the state of Israel will go a long way towards pacifying Jihadists like Zarqaui and securing the British (and other Western) homeland from terrorist attacks, argues Geoffrey Wheatcroft in a recent Financial Times column entitled,

Series: What America Needs to Do to Achieve Its Foreign Policy Goals ... Concerning Public Ignorance (6)

by William R. Polk

Click here to read the other articles in this series. The United States is upheld and given its character by a tripod: one leg is the popular participation in government; the second leg is an informed public; and the third is the economy. I will touch on these only briefly as they are generally familiar. Popular participation is not only embedded in the Constitution but is practiced in our neighborhoods and towns.

Casualties in the Heartland, 1968/2005

by Christian Appy

"You bet your goddamn dollar I'm bitter. It's people like us who give up our sons for the country," said a firefighter whose son was killed in action."Let's face it: if you have a lot of money, or if you have the right connections, you don't end up on a firing line over there. I think we ought to win that war or pull out. What the hell else should we do -- sit and bleed ourselves to death, year after year?" His wife jumps in to add,"My husband and I can't help but thinking that our son g

A Tale of Two Constitutional Conventions: Iraq's and Ours

by Paul Douglas Newman

Next week I will begin teaching a college seminar entitled, “The Early American Republic,” and the first subject we will tackle over the month of September is the framing of the constitution of the United States and the struggle for ratification. By October we will study the challenges to the power of the newly created nation by a political opposition party and by the people themselves. At about the same time, Iraqi citizens will be going to the polls to vote on a proposed federal

Why Japan Has to Keep Apologizing

by Gavan McCormack

How different the 60th anniversaries of the end of World War II in Europe and in Asia. In the former, German participation was taken for granted, and the defeat of Nazism celebrated on all sides as the dawn of liberation. In the latter, it would be inconceivable for the Japanese Government to be invited to participate in commemorative events in Beijing, Seoul, Pyongyang, or elsewhere, as debate over what the war was about continues. There may be no other country in the

Why We Need Nuclear Arms Control Now More than Ever

by William Lambers

The United States continues to live under the fear of nuclear attack. The source of this threat has changed from the Soviet Union to terrorist groups. Yet what hasn't changed is the need for the United States to provide leadership in enhancing nuclear security worldwide.   Anti-terrorist efforts include improving security at Russian nuclear sites, which are considered vulnerable to theft. The Bush administration is also forming a network of nations to intercept illegal shipments o

Bedtime Stories Governments Tell During Wartime

by Daniel Oppenheimer

On January 11 th, 1967, three days after the start of Operation Cedar Falls, the New York Times published its first reports on the mission, which was the “largest…of the [Vietnam] war” to that point. There were two articles, both written by anonymous stringers.* The first provides a dry overview of what was happening and why; the objective of Operation Cedar Falls, according to the Times, was to seize control of a jungle about “60 square miles about