It seems to me that a lot of people blame all the tension in the Middle East on the Israel-Palestine conflict. The spin on that particular ball seems to be, if only the U.S. would throw Israel to the wolves already, tempers in the region would cool, neighboring states would graciously agree to sit down at the negotiating table and sincerely discuss real reform, and--most importantly--the "Arab Street" would no longer be driven to terror attacks out of frustration with the Imperial injustice of...

So this morning on my way in to work, Air America made a big deal out of Bush's two-facedness, or split-tonguedness, or asshattery, or whatever.

No, I don't remember which of their radio personalities it was. All I know is that it wasn't Al Franken, because Al Franken always sounds like he's drunk. Have you ever noticed that? Seriously. Unlike the rest of this post, I'm not going for a cheap liberal-bashing shot here. He really does enunciate like a drunk man, all the frickin' time. Any...

I'm not sure exactly what category these recent negotiations with the fabled "insurgents" should fall under. The media always use the terms 'terrorists' and 'insurgents' in the same context. It makes for interesting considerations. For example, negotiating with the people constantly labelled as 'terrorists' makes for a fair and even parallel. "Either you are with us, or you are with the ones we will negotiate with if they come attack us a lot". Makes for a good honest parallel doesn't it? What ...

The war in Iraq brought the lingering difference between Americans and Europeans into stark relief. Europeans were against the war, for the most part and Americans were for it, for the most part. It is, ironically, a reversal of world views. During the 18th and 19th centuries, the Americans were the ones espousing the importance of international law and the need for subtle diplomacy while the Europeans who made use of raw power on the international stage.

In the late 20th century, with the S...

Now it's been almost two years. I hear all of the pundits about how Iraq is a quagmire. That we were wrong to go in the first place.
They point to no WMD's and to ongoing violence. However, my view is that we had no choice. The evidence at the time was overwhelming.
The terrorist thought we were week. And to top it all off, we had been trying to deal with Saddum for 12 years thru the U.N. .
Face it if we don't take the fight to the terrorist. The terrorist would and still will try to take...