The coup in America
From Afghanistan to Israel and Iraq, the calm reason of openDemocracy’s international security correspondent has made weekly sense of the ‘war on terrorism’. The strength of Paul Rogers’ analysis, as this week’s Editor’s Note confirms, is rooted in an assessment of global dangers that preceded the shock of 9/11. One year on, he registers the profound global concern at the mindset of the new US security elite.

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Get Ready for Bleak Life During Wartime

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Intoxicated With Power

According to recent news stories, the Bush administration may have decided that if the United States ultimately invades Iraq, it will establish a military government under the control of an American military officer who will simultaneously run and redesign the country, on the model of Gen. Douglas MacArthur in Japan after World War II. Whether this turns out to be the policy of the Bush administration, the fact that consideration of such an approach has reached this level warns us that there may be a dangerous intoxication with American power, and a serious loss of judgment as to its limits, among the most senior persons in our government. [read more]

thanks to Blowback

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Iraq Is No Stage for MacArthur-Japan Sequel

thanks to SmirkingChimp.com

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Pre-emptive strikes by India not acceptable: US

This is typical of the double-standards adopted by the US in its foreign policy, driven as it is exclusively by self-interest. Don’t look for consistency, norms, or values whatsoever – it’s pure and simple self-centeredness. Where pre-emptive strikes suit them, they are allowed; where they don't, they’re not. [read more]

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Pretty Blue Angels Of Death
A dazzling air show, a bitter reminder of what hell we are causing elsewhere, free balloons for the kids

Let us now happily observe the Navy's shiny and world-renowned Blue Angels precision flying team roaring over S.F. Bay, shaking the office windows and triggering a million car alarms and inducing coronaries in the elderly and panicking the easily panickable into thinking Armageddon is at hand at last, take me Jesus I am ready, oh wait, damn, it's just Fleet Week. [read more]

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Clean lies, dirty wars
As the United States continues to ponder war with Iraq, a military scientist and writer now living in Reno recalls the truths she learned during a trip to post-Desert Storm Iraq.