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Wednesday, October 05, 2005 12:00:22 AM
 On Oct. 12, 2002, terror bombers murdered 202 people on the Indonesian island of Bali. The terrorists belonged to Jemaah Islamiya (JI), Al-Qaida's nom de guerre in Southeast Asia. Eighty-eight Australians died in that attack.Wednesday, September 28, 2005 12:02:48 AM
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, President Bush asked a logical, though politically complex, question: "Is there a natural disaster, of a certain size, that would then enable the Defense Department to become the lead agency in coordinating and leading the response effort?" Wednesday, September 21, 2005 12:08:22 AM
Light water still bedevils Asia's diplomatic heavyweights. North Korea's demand for light water nuclear reactors, that is. Wednesday, September 14, 2005 02:16:20 PM
Take 40 pounds of Kevlar body armor, armor inserts, helmet and support equipment, then add weapon and ammunition. Tuesday, September 06, 2005 11:21:32 PM
The worried faces of Katrina's victims -- crowding the Superdome, fleeing drowned farms and suburbs -- convey the depth of personal loss and tragedy. Thursday, September 01, 2005 12:54:55 AM
How will the Taliban contest Afghanistan's mid-September parliamentary elections? With their only political weapons: terror strikes and fearful headlines. Friday, August 19, 2005 03:11:56 PM
An Iraqi democracy, whatever its final form and written constitution, will be both controversial and dangerous. Thursday, August 11, 2005 02:29:34 PM
Meet Pete the Barber. Pete's story illustrates why Col. Henry Gole's "Soldiering: Observations from Korea, Vietnam, and Safe Places" (Potomac Books) is no "old soldier's war story," but a fascinating hybrid of gripping personal history and rigorous personal essay. Thursday, August 04, 2005 02:57:24 PM
The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima (Aug. 6, 1945) and Nagasaki (Aug. 9) didn't end World War II -- at least not quite. The six days between Nagasaki and Japan's surrender on Aug. 15 were six more hideous days of war for U.S. and allied forces. Combat -- and Japanese atrocities -- continued in China, the Philippines and Southeast Asia. Wednesday, July 27, 2005 07:52:23 AM
Call it the terrorists' War on Tourism -- a war waged by jihadists that long predates 9-11, Afghanistan and Iraq. Thursday, July 21, 2005 09:06:15 AM
Those who want to see judges who will apply the law instead of imposing their own policies face not only political obstruction to the appointment of such judges but also calculated confusion about the very words used in discussing what is at issue. Thursday, July 14, 2005 09:49:45 AM
Terrorism as practiced by Al Qaeda -- and, for that matter Saddamist killers in Iraq -- is 21st century information warfare. Terrorists don't simply target London and Baghdad, they target the news media. Thursday, July 07, 2005 04:29:30 PM
NORTHERN PERSIAN GULF, AL BASRAH OIL TERMINAL -- Desert and ocean -- sand and salt -- literally collide in the brown-white haze above the blue water of the Persian Gulf. Thursday, June 30, 2005 06:18:00 AM
"War is hell," Gen. Billy Sherman said. The hell of the American Civil War ended slavery and settled a constitutional question regarding a state’s right to secede from the Union. Nominally over in 1865, civil rights activists of the 1960s knew the social and economic injustices they confronted were the unfinished business of Shiloh and Gettysburg. For a century, the Ku Klux Klan used terror tactics to murder innocents. The KKK’s fire bombings and lynching-assassinations pre-figure the tactics employed by Saddam’s holdout henchmen in Iraq. Wednesday, June 22, 2005 03:44:00 AM
BAGHDAD -- This trip to Iraq is deja vu with a difference. I served here as a soldier, and returning as a writer in part explains the change in perspective. This trip my job is assessment and analysis, not action. Even with a fast-paced itinerary that takes us to Fallujah, Tal Afar and Kirkuk, there is more time to reflect. Thursday, June 02, 2005 12:10:00 AM
The European Union isn’t finished, and unfortunately, we haven’t quite seen the last of Jacques Chirac -- though politically he is a dead man talking. With France’s rejection of the EU constitution, however, the domestic and international political utility of Chirac’s slimy, shallow anti-American schtick enters the dustbin of current history. Sunday, May 29, 2005 08:38:00 AM
The acronym is "DIME" -- a quick verbal coin for the four elements of national power: "Diplomatic," "Information," "Military" and "Economic" power. When "policy is working," diplomacy, economic interests, military power and information power (both the ability to communicate and to gather intelligence) complement one another. It’s a difficult ballet, but choreographing and directing this dance is the business of statesmen. Thursday, May 19, 2005 10:53:48 AM
It was classic "media gotcha," using the "Vietnam and Watergate" storyline of "United States bad, Third World good" -- but the phony story led to riots, deaths and an embarrassing retraction. I’m referring, of course, to Newsweek’s "Koran flushing" story, which ran in the magazine’s May 1 edition. Wednesday, May 11, 2005 09:19:00 AM
Like Mark Twain’s death, the demise of the tank has been "greatly exaggerated." A weekend conversation with my WWII and Korea vet father spurs this column. Wednesday, May 04, 2005 10:48:00 AM
For the crowd in Piccadilly Circus, the first V-E Day -- Victory Europe, May 8, 1945 -- was a manic moment of relief and release. With the Nazis defeated, "the lights came on again in England" and Piccadilly erupted with a spontaneous street party. Thursday, April 28, 2005 12:22:12 AM
A political specter haunts North America -- the specter of the world’s next failed state. We can still call it Canada, at least for a couple years. And who knows, like news of Mark Twain’s demise, my cheeky pessimism may be greatly exaggerated. Our northern neighbor’s polyglot populace of beer drinkers, peaceniks, Mounties and socialists may yet dump their crooked politicians and craft a new, more robust deal with Quebecois separatists. Wednesday, April 20, 2005 07:04:00 AM
Last week, a federal prosecutor issued the first indictments in the United Nations’ Oil For Food corruption fiasco. I chuckled when a correspondent for The Nation magazine quickly dubbed Oil for Food a "Texas scandal" -- a wisecrack drawn from the decadent Left’s "Bomb Bush Not Baghdad" joke book. It’s pop sloganeering designed to scourge the critic, while denying the central problem. Wednesday, April 13, 2005 07:43:00 AM
Al Qaeda is desperately trying to produce an "Iraqi Tet" -- a Middle Eastern repetition of the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong 1968 offensive in South Vietnam. Wednesday, April 06, 2005 11:52:00 AM
Zimbabwe’s dictator Robert Mugabe combines the worst aspects of Cold War and War on Terror tyranny. Think of Mugabe as an African Slobodan Milosevic. When the Cold War closed down, Milosevic morphed from Yugoslav communist to Serb fascist. As time passed in southern Africa, shape-shifting Mugabe adjusted his schtick, moving from Marx-spouting revolutionary to kleptocrat tribal dictator. Both thugs are ethnic cleansers and cynical thieves who murder rivals, silence the press and brutally intimidate domestic opposition. Wednesday, March 30, 2005 12:01:00 PM
Secretary-General Kofi Annan wants to reform the United Nations, but the more immediate issue is who will reform Kofi Annan. Credit former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker and his "Independent Inquiry Committee" with delivering a skull-cracking report on the United Nations’ Oil For Food (OFF) scandal, albeit one administered with a soft hammer. Investigators argue there is no evidence that Annan knew about an OFF contract bid involving his son, Kojo Annan, and Kojo’s employer, Cotecna. Friday, March 18, 2005 04:40:47 PM
For the moment, the struggle in Lebanon remains a battle of crowds and cameras -- and it’s a battle pro-democracy demonstrators are winning. But Western diplomats and their new allies in Free Iraq know a bloodless democratic victory is no certainty. Syria and Iran fear democracy and peace, and their Lebanese stalking horse, Hezbollah, has guns and loyal fighters. |