The Unbearable Lightness Of Being American

Six months after September 11th, the Bush administration has a little problem. It wants to marshall public support to attack Iraq. But it also wants to control what Americans know about the war in Afghanistan. President Bush can't have things both ways -- especially amidst a growing number of signs that Americans are losing interest in events overseas.

Though it hasn't been very long since last September, Americans are already treating the terrorist attacks as events of the past, history to be recorded and re- viewed like a wedding video.
[read more]

thanks to SmirkingChimp.com

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Iraq asks UN about U.S. threats to Saddam

Seeking to broaden talks on weapons inspectors, Iraq has angered Washington by asking the United Nations to answer questions about U.S. threats to topple President Saddam Hussein.
(...)

The questions ranged from whether U.S. threats against the Iraqi government were a breach of international law to whether what the Iraqis called U.S. "spies" would serve on inspection teams.

Iraq also asked how long inspectors would stay and whether Baghdad would be compensated for damage inflicted by U.S and British bombings to enforce a flight- exclusion zone.
[read more]

thanks to Liberal Arts Mafia

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Pull Up a Chair
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

Are you sitting down? O.K., I'm not going to beat around the bush. I'm just going to say it straight: There is no way that America will be able to sustain a successful Middle East policy, whether it wants to invade Iraq or do anything else in the region, unless the U.S. is prepared to station American troops on the ground, indefinitely, around both Afghanistan and Israel.
[read more]

thanks to Doc Searls

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An interesting comment, on the above piece, from one of Docs readers...

Floating up from Foggy Bottom