Over the last month, the justifications for war offered by the Bush administration have been examined and found wanting. It turns out that the evidence for the military threat posed by Saddam Hussein to the United States was quite weak. But last week there was a...
Maybe the Liberventionists Were Right
About spreading freedom at gunpoint. Drug prohibition seems to be out the window in liberated Afghanistan-- which is why we'll soon be invading them again. From the Christian Science Monitor: Bumper year for Afghan poppies BATIKOT, AFGHANISTAN - Gul Hazrat Bacha has...
Plunderers in Serbia
According to the Financial Times, Ms Kori Udovicki, "a Yale-educated economist and former expert on Yugoslavia for the International Monetary Fund" is the new head of the Serbian central bank. The choice should not be surprising. Udovicki is a Statist economist to...
Celebration in Baghdad?
On one of the nightly news programs this evening, news of Uday's and Qusay's deaths was said to have been greeted by Iraqis with celebratory gunfire. The video showed sporadic green flares across the Baghdad sky to support this claim. Struck me as odd that Iraqis--who...
RE Merle Haggard
I made reference to Haggard in my 4th of July piece for his musical merits, but Merle's politics are pretty solidly libertarian, too. This profile on Salon (from November 2000) is a good place to start: [O]ver the years it has become apparent that at the heart of his...
Merle Haggard, Revisionist Historian
This afternoon on Fox News, John Gibson was interviewing country singer Merle Haggard about his new song, "And that's the news". After listening to the lyrics Gibson asked Haggard if he was questioning the legitimacy of the Iraqi war, Merle denied the charge,saying...
Wolfowitz a non-interventionist?
Apparently Paul Wolfwitz has begun reading Antiwar.com: "I think all foreigners should stop interfering in the internal affairs of Iraq," said Wolfowitz, who is touring the country to meet U.S. troops and Iraqi officials. "Those who want to come and help are welcome,"...
Your Tax Dollars at Work
From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: An Arabic-language magazine hitting newsstands in the Middle East this week may be America's newest weapon in the war on terrorism, a White House official said Monday. Hi magazine, which is subsidized by the U.S. State...
A New GI Blog
There has been a lot of buzz around the blog of an American soldier in Iraq who describes the occupation in stark, unfiltered terms. Now another soldier, this one in Kuwait, has followed suit. This entry on his newborn son illuminates the personal toll of empire: He...
“Collateral Damage”
Sorry, no column tomorrow, but if you're looking for something to fill the void, check out www.philipdru.com Philip hosts a weekly political conversation on Austin radio and posts the interviews on his website. He interviewed me last week-- you can listen to me being...