A week ago, Jay Bookmand did a great piece: The president's real goal in Iraq. Donald Kagan replied: Comparing America to ancient empires is 'ludicrous'. Then Jay replied to the reply:

An empire by any other name

"If you go abroad in search of monsters, you will inevitably find them even if you have to create them," McDougall wrote. "You will then fight them, whether or not you need to, and you will either come home defeated, or else so bloodied that the American people will lose their tolerance for engagement altogether, or else so victorious and full of yourself that the rest of the world will hate you and fear that you'll name them the next monster."

Five years later, McDougall's warning seems about to come true. [read more]

thanks to Tapped

---------

Critics of Bush and Cheney May Be Too Generous

Perhaps the critics are too generous to suspect merely political gamesmanship or settling a score for dad, for the allies and enemies that Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney choose are exactly those of the oil industry they still serve.

Iraq crossed western oil corporations 30 years ago, and the oil executives have long memories. In 1972, Saddam Hussein and his Ba'ath party nationalized the oil holdings of the Iraq Petroleum Company, which actually was owned by a group of western oil companies including Royal Dutch and American and French firms. [read more]

---------

Get Serious

According to the Bush administration, the threat posed by Iraq is serious enough to risk the lives of American soldiers, to end the lives of what would undoubtedly be thousands of Iraqi soldiers and civilians, and to risk a chemical or biological attack on the American homeland, but not serious enough to interrupt prime-time television. None of the big three broadcast networks carried Bush's case-for-war speech Monday night because, they say, the White House didn't ask. Pre-empting Saddam Hussein is one thing, apparently, but pre-empting Drew Carey is another [read more]

---------

Empire's always right

You see, I'd tried to remind Australia that rushing to America's colours was, as demonstrated in Vietnam, a health hazard. Before we signed up for the war against terror, wherever that might lead us, I thought it important to remember that the US has been the most trigger-happy of nations. With a long history of bellicosity and a culture of violence.

It is now my sad duty to say... I told you so. As expected, Washington is spiralling out of control - and Australia has as much to fear from its powerful friend as it does from its putative enemies. [read more]

thanks to American Samizdat

---------

Whoops!

thanks to BookNotes

---------

Art Attack

thanks to Politics in the Zeros