News Abroad

Civil Liberties: After Afghanistan, Can We Ever Neglect Women's Rights Again?

by Ruth Rosen

What a difference a war makes. George W. Bush entered the Oval Office determined to repeal some of the rights won by American women activists during the last three decades. Then came the terrorist attacks and the war against terrorism. Within a few weeks, the language of women's rights had slipped into the lexicon of foreign diplomacy."The rights of the women of Afghanistan will not be negotiable." With those few words, Secretary of State Colin

Osama bin Laden’s Preoccupation with Death

by James Reid

My interest in the history of terrorism began when I replaced a professor whose house had been bombed by terrorists from one of the Lebanese militias. I dealt with that circumstance for four years, during which time the class was affected by an assassination near campus, and numerous other problems. Finally, a young man who had attended my classes for four years had been caught with a bomb, and went to prison. Eleven years after the end of the first situation, I received death threats from Bin L

Military: A Little Ruthlessness Now and Then Is a Good Thing

by Mark Safranski

One aspect of the war on terrorism that has been little noted, except by piecemeal complaint by a few critics, is how George W. Bush's administration has recently begun prosecuting the war with a quality long absent from American policymaking, sheer ruthlessness. We had hints of this tendency with the Pentagon decision to deploy special forces in Afghanistan; and if the dropping of 15,000 lb"Daisy Cutter" megabombs on Taliban troops did not clarify that something new in U.S. policy was afoot the

Military: The 329th Regiment

by Keith Miller

My father Sergeant James L. Miller (1917-1954), awarded a Purple Heart and Bronze Star with an oak leaf cluster, fought with the 329th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Battalion, in the 83rd"Thunderbolt" Division. The contributions of my father's unit (which embarked across English Channel for Normandy on 19 June 1944) deserve special attention and are related in the account to follow for the admiration of students, many of whom might otherwise never apprecia

The Response of the British People to Terrorism in the United States

by Harold D. Langley

My wife and I visited England in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, and we traveled about that country during a three week period. While visiting historic and cultural sites, as well as shopping, dining, staying at B&B's and enjoying pubs, we had an opportunity to observe and to converse with a cross section of the British people while their country moved toward an active participation in the fight against the Taliba

Repeating History in Afghanistan

by David Corn

As I write, I am trying to hold my breath. My office is across the street from the Senate Hart Office Building. Through yellowing leaves, I can see the corner of the building that was closed after an letter containing anthrax spores was opened by a staffer for Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. From the roof of Hart, bright white puffs of steam pop out of vents, and in a reverie of paranoia I envision hardy anthrax bacteria lofting over Capitol H

Apocalypse Now?

by Ted Daniels

When the World Trade Center collapsed like a ghastly flower opening, many of us thought immediately of apocalypse. That metaphor seemed and still seems apt for the hideous images of people plummeting a thousand feet and dust-coated ghosts emerging from the hellish air of ruined buildings. The metaphor is more than that. This war is in all earnest an apocalyptic battle, at least where our enemies are concerned, and we might do well to be aware of that fact. This is not the first time the West has

Why We Fear Afghanistan and Why We Shouldn't

by Michael Radu

Much of the current analysis of the U.S.-British military actions against the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan seem to accept unquestioningly conventional wisdom on the prospects for military success in that country. But the major premises of this conventional wisdom are simply myths that have developed over the years, either from ignorance or malevolence. The facts, it will be seen, simply do not support them.

Undermining Musharraf

by Joseph Palermo

General Pervez Musharraf, the President of Pakistan, is in a difficult predicament which President George W. Bush and his advisers have made even more thorny with their recent insensitive and undiplomatic public statements. The Musharraf government has been performing a high wire act from the time the United States military buildup in South Asia began. Violent anti-American street demonstrations have rocked Pakistan with thousands of supporters of the Taliban and Osama bin Laden participatin

The Enemy of My Enemy

by Alvin Finkel

While a long-term appreciation of American foreign policy is of little help while America is at war, it is of great importance in trying to anticipate future crises. A key problem in American foreign policy that marks it off sharply from domestic policy is the small number of players involved in shaping policy. Large corporations of course play a huge role in the shaping of most key government policies in America, domestic and foreign. But in the area of domestic policy, public involvement is gr

Cold War II

by Walter A. McDougall

The first Cold War crept in slowly and was not at all evident to most average Americans when President Truman addressed a joint session of Congress in March 1947. No U.S. forces overseas, much less the United States itself, had been attacked, and Americans were obsessed with demobilizing from World War II and preventing a return of Great Depression conditions. So if Truman were to arouse the nation to resist world communism, he had to do what Senator Arthur Vandenberg recommended, which was t

And So the War Came

by Adam Garfinkle

Before we can see clearly the way ahead from the horrible events of September 11, we need to look backward to sources -- for if we do not understand how these events came about, we will be hard pressed to prevent recurrences. Indeed, there are many sources for the events of September 11, some remote and some more proximate, some across the sea and some here at home. The purpose for naming them is not to engage in recrimination; there will be time for that later. The purpose is pr

Making a Misstep Is Easy

by Robert Brent Toplin

President Bush has declared a"war" on terrorists and expressed his determination to smoke out the villains responsible for the terrible assaults of Sept. 11 as well as other vicious attacks of the past decade. He wants firm action to bring the guilty parties to justice and to prevent future episodes of terrorism. What kind of war will the United States mount to deal with the threat? Will the country participate in a cautious, limited effort backed by support from many nations around

Blowback Balderdash

by Thomas Henriksen

EVEN BEFORE PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH approved covert support for the factions opposing the Taliban regime, pundits began warning us about"blowback," in which we are engulfed by the unintended consequences of our actions. Time and again, we are told, American support for Afghan resistance to the Soviet occupation in the 1980s"blew back" on us as Afghanistan came to harbor Osama bin Laden, the chief perpetrator in the September 11 terror

Why Afganistan Won't Be A Quagmire

by Stacy B. Haldi

The United States has sent special forces, along with British special forces, into Afghanistan. This is just the beginning; more ground forces will follow. The limited air strikes the United States launched in response to previous terrorist incidents failed to punish the terrorists and certainly did not protect the United States. The United States has concluded that Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network, al-Qaida, are responsible for the Sept. 11 attack on America. Moreov

The Terrorist War

by Patrick Buchanan

Editor's Note: In 1999, as he was preparing to make a second run for the presidency, Patrick Buchanan published A Republic, Not an Empire. The book was reviled almost instantly. Mr. Buchanan claimed that Hitler was not our enemy until Pearl Harbor, when Germany declared war on us. Because of the furor over the Hitler business, Mr. Buchanan's main thesis largely went unnoticed. Mr. Buchanan argued that American commitments around the world far exceed the country's ability to

They Hate Us Because …

by Ruth Rosen

Her parents escaped Vietnam in a rickety boat. Now a proud graduate of the University of California, she, unlike her parents, has only known peace and prosperity. September 11 ended that chapter of her life. In a letter to her friends and former professors, she writes,"My youth is over; my innocence has ended." Like so many Americans, she describes a traumatic wound, a certainty that she will never again enjoy a sense of security. "Why did this happen?" In the first days after t

Responding to Terrorism Without Committing Terrorism

by Chalmers Johnson

One of the objectives of terrorism is to provoke the ruling elites of a target regime into disastrous overreaction. When it works, as it has in Israel over the past year, the results can be devastating for all sides. Who does this ultimately benefit? The terrorists. Carlos Marighella, the Brazilian guerrilla leader whose writings influenced political terrorists in the 1960s and 1970s, explained why. If the government can be provoked into a military response to terrorism, he

Is the Problem We Don’t Know Who Our True Friends Are?

by Norman Markowitz

In the present very real crisis,"International Terrorism" is being used as"international Communism" was for so long in what was largely a manufactured crisis -- the Cold War -- as a disembodied force represented by evil individuals (Stalin, Mao, Fidel, Ho) rather than a wing of the world socialist movement, which, with the Russian revolution and the victory over Fascism in World War II, became a leading force throughout the world. After World War II, the concept of"totalitarianism" was rapidly t

Killing Civilians Is a Depressing Trend

by David Ekbladh

In the words of Rudy Giuliani, the coordinated attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11 was perhaps"the most jarring event in American history." Like the mayor of New York City, many have already loaded this stunning event with historical significance. It is taken as a point of departure in a variety of ways. The United States is said to be embroiled in"the first war of the 21st Century." Those suspected are said to be waging an unprecedented campaign of ter