During World War II, one of the Fuhrer's favorite sayings was, "All generals lie." Today, Washington prefers the word "spin" to lie, although the difference is often difficult to parse. As an 18th-century man, I prefer an 18th century word: puffery. If we consider...
For the War Party, deception isn't just a tactic, or even a strategy – it's a lifestyle. That's why they're indifferent to getting caught. Like a hardened criminal arrested for his umpteenth felony, the neocons see brazen lying as just a routine procedure. Caught...
Two years before the 2008 presidential election, Newt Gingrich, the former Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, is trying desperately to grab the national spotlight by declaring he'd be a lot tougher than George W. Bush in prosecuting what he calls...
Empire Runs Into a Wall It has been five years since hijacked airliners slammed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and much has changed since. The supposedly swift campaign of vengeance to root out Osama bin Laden from the caves of Afghanistan failed. The...
The Bush administration is objecting to a groundbreaking treaty that set up a nuclear weapon-free zone in Central Asia. Under the treaty signed Friday, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan committed themselves not to produce, buy, or allow...
In a recent speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld declared that, "The enemy is so much better at communicating. I wish we were better at countering that because the constant drumbeat of things they say – all of which are...
You've heard the president and vice president say it over and over in various ways: There was a connection between the events of Sept. 11, 2001, and Iraq. Let's take this seriously and consider some of the links between the two. Numbers and Comparisons At least 3,438...
To hear the American government and its Israeli allies tell it, the struggle in the Middle East is a straightforward black-and-white one, which pits the Forces of Goodness (Washington and Tel Aviv) against "terrorists" and terrorist-supporting states like Iran and...
BEIRUT - Sectarian political fissures are widening in Lebanon nearly one month after a United Nations brokered cease-fire went into affect, due in part to a muted political battle being waged internally between Hezbollah and the Lebanese government as both attempt to...
For many baby boomers, a defining question is: "Where were you and what were you doing when President Kennedy was shot?" For the post-baby boom generation, the defining question will be: "Where were you and what were you doing on 9/11?" I was in my...
