Lincoln, Civil Liberties, and 9/11

Abraham Lincoln, it would seem, is in the midst of a career revival. In recent years, the 16th president has been praised by the likes of author Doris Kearns Goodwin, and Lincoln boosterism has been prominently featured on high-traffic political blogs such as Power...

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Unprepared for Bioterrorism

Last week, Andrew Speaker – an Atlanta, Ga., personal injury lawyer with XDR-TB, a form of tuberculosis that is resistant to almost all antibiotics – created a big health scare by exposing fellow travelers to a dangerous infection. Speaker flew from Atlanta...

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The Pentagon’s Blank Check

Soon after the invasion of Iraq was launched, war supporters and critics alike, in a bow to the Vietnam era, began to speak referentially of the "Q-word" – for "quagmire," of course. By now, Iraq has had that administration-inspired "Q" hung firmly around its...

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Could an al-Qaeda Attack Trigger War With Iran?

Following revelations of a George W. Bush administration policy to hold Iran responsible for any al-Qaeda attack on the U.S. that could be portrayed as planned on Iranian soil, former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski warned last week that Washington might...

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Iraq and the Korean ‘Model’

Any doubts that the U.S. is engaged in a colonial adventure in Iraq – because we're "liberators," not imperialists – ought to be permanently dispelled now that top administration officials are holding up the "Korean model" as a framework...

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Aide’s Sentence Caps Star-Crossed Year for Cheney

Tuesday's sentencing to 30 months in prison of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby by a federal judge for lying to government investigators about his role in leaking the identity of a CIA operative marks the latest in a series of blows to Vice President Dick Cheney....

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Backtalk, June 5, 2007

Pakistan Is Going Down the Road of the Shah's Iran Political commentators generally tend to misrepresent the position of Islamists in Pakistan. Being close to Pakistan and actively observing the current events it becomes quite obvious that despite the post-Sept. 11...

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