Roundup: Media's Take

Mark Danner: Iraq ... The War of the Imagination

[This piece, which appears in the December 21, 2006 issue of the New York Review of Books, is posted here with the kind permission of the editors of that magazine.] "Today, if we went into Iraq, like the president would like us to do, you know where you begin. You never know where you are going to end." -- George F. Kennan, September 26, 2002 "I ask you, sir, what is the American army d

Harlan Cleveland: Is Obama Ready?

[Harlan Cleveland, political scientist and public executive, a Princeton graduate and a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, is President Emeritus of the World Academy of Art and Science. In government he has been a high official of the Marshall Plan, Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs and U.S. Ambassador to NATO. In academia he has served as dean of two graduate schools of public affairs (the Maxwell School at Syracuse University and the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute at the

Sherry Colb: A Maryland State Court Rules that Women May Not Withdraw Consent After Penetration: The Perils of Relying on History

[Sherry F. Colb, a FindLaw columnist, is Professor and Frederick B. Lacey Scholar at Rutgers Law School in Newark. Her other columns may be found in the archive of her work on this site. ] Late last month, in Maouloud Baby v. State of Maryland, the Court of Special Appeals of Maryland held that once a man has begun a consensual act of sexual intercourse with a woman, he may continue until he climaxes - even if she asks him to stop - without violating the law of rape. In

Daniel Henninger: Twenty-five years later, Reagan’s tax cuts are a global tide

It was entirely appropriate that as its keynote speaker to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the 1981 Reagan tax cut, the Heritage Foundation in Washington this week should assign the job to Art Laffer. Mr. Laffer is surely the most irrepressibly ebullient practitioner of the dismal science of economics alive today, maybe ever. It is no surprise that more than a quarter century ago, then California Gov. Ronald Reagan, another genuinely cheerful soul in a dismal profession, would have found commo

Joshua Spivak: Why have so many recent speakers of the house fallen?

[Joshua Spivak is a New York-based attorney and media consultant.] Tuesday's crushing Republican defeat, prodded along by a series of scandals and cover-ups, signifies an embarrassing end to Speaker Dennis Hastert's political career. Hastert's fall from power is the latest in a destabilizing trend in the House of Representatives. For nearly all of the twentieth century, the position of the speaker of the House -- one of the most powerful political positions in the country -- was sol

Joshua Spivak: Why Bush didn't fire Rumsfeld earlier

[Joshua Spivak is an attorney and media consultant based in New York and Berkeley, Calif.] If there has been one consistent hallmark in George W. Bush's political career, it is his need to avoid the missteps of his father. From consciously mollifying his conservative base with a concentration on tax cuts and social policy to ousting Saddam Hussein, Bush has focused on not repeating the political errors of Bush the Elder. Though many will interpret his latest action, firing

Nat Hentoff: Bush revives the Espionage Act

"Persons who come into unauthorized possession of classified information must abide by the law. That applies to academics, journalists, professors, whatever." —Federal District Judge T.S. Ellis III, who will preside over the case of United States of America v. Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, charged with violating the Espionage Act of 1917. "This is the first prosecution ever of private citizens for receiving and distributing classified information. "—Floyd Abra

John V. Walsh: The Korea, Vietnam, Iraq Syndrome

[This article is prepared from unprepared remarks at a demonstration of the Antiwar League (AntiwarLeague.org) in Boston on Veterans Day.] "Two, Three, Many Vietnams"! was Che Guevara's famous call to arms. Today we remain in the throes of our third Vietnam, Iraq. This is the third time since World War II that hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops have been sent abroad in a neo-colonialist war (1). The first "Vietnam" was in fact Korea. And it was th

Norman Solomon: The New Media Offensive for the Iraq War

[Norman Solomon’s latest book, “War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death,” is out in paperback. For information, go to: www.warmadeeasy.com] The American media establishment has launched a major offensive against the option of withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq. In the latest media assault, right-wing outfits like Fox News and the Wall Street Journal editorial page are secondary. The heaviest firepower is now coming from the most valuable square

Adam Brodsky: Iraq's a mess, but so what?

'MANY Americans," President Bush said Wednesday, voted "to register their displeasure with the lack of progress" in Iraq. So did he - by dumping Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. But what exactly are people upset about? Is the situation in Iraq really so grim? Certainly, the realities of Iraq don't justify the enormous resentment that some insist is the explanation for Tuesday's results. Yes, Iraq is a mess. Sectarian violence has spiraled.

Max Boot: Rumsfeld, the walking contradiction

DONALD RUMSFELD'S downfall is replete with sad ironies. For a start, he is primarily associated with a cause — the democratization of Iraq — that he never gave much sign of believing in. Far from being a neocon, Rumsfeld remains a resolutely traditional Midwestern Republican who was happy to thrash Saddam Hussein but never evinced much enthusiasm for remaking the Middle East. It was no accident that he neglected the kind of post-invasion planning needed to implement the sweeping ch

Ivan Eland: Revisiting Iran-Contra: The Nomination of Robert Gates

[Ivan Eland is Director of the Center on Peace & Liberty at The Independent Institute and Assistant Editor of The Independent Review. Dr. Eland is a graduate of Iowa State University and received an M.B.A. in applied economics and Ph.D. in national security policy from George Washington University.] Most of official Washington has long believed that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld needed to be sacked. Unfortunately it took a major Republican loss at the polls to finally pro

George Melloan: Once upon a time, Democrats were supply-siders too

... To find a template for how the Democrats might conduct themselves profitably over the next two years, it is useful to go back 25 years to the signature achievement of the supply-side revolution, the Kemp-Roth tax bill. It was this sharp cut in tax rates, particularly in the highest income brackets, that set public policy on a new course under Ronald Reagan. Republicans celebrate this as solely their achievement -- or at least those do who haven't forgotten why their party started winning, in

Andre Vltchek: Why Bush May Face Religious Wrath in Indonesia

[Andre Vltchek filed this report for Japan Focus from Bogor and Jakarta. A novelist, journalist and filmmaker, Vltchek is co-founder of Mainstay Press, a publishing house for political fiction. His recent books include the novel Point of No Return and a book of political essays, Western Terror: From Potosi to Baghdad. He produced a 90-minute documentary film about Suharto’s dictatorship and its impact on present-day Indonesia called Terlena—Breaking of a Nation. A senior fellow at the Oakland In

Sidney Blumenthal: The American revolution of 2006 and beyond

The concession by George Allen that confirms that James Webb has won in Virginia, a victory that gives the Democrats a majority in the Senate, completes the party's sweep of both houses of the Congress and ratifies the repudiation of President Bush and his policies, especially in the Iraq war. Bush's radical presidency was the number one issue in the mid-term elections. Republican candidates lived in fear that they would receive calls from the White House suggesting that the presid

Álvaro Vargas Llosa: What Ortega's victory doesn't mean

[Álvaro Vargas Llosa, the author of “Liberty for Latin America,” is the director of the Center on Global Prosperity at the Independent Institute in Washington.] THE irony could not be more poignant. Twenty years ago today, Ronald Reagan went on national television and admitted his government’s involvement in an arms deal with Iran, the proceeds of which, we later found out, were diverted to the contra rebels fighting a Marxist regime in Central America. Now Daniel Ortega, the man th

Daniel Henninger: Like Father, Like Son?

[Mr. Henninger is deputy editor of The Wall Street Journal's editorial page. His column appears Fridays in the Journal and on OpinionJournal.com.] With the appointment of Robert Gates--CIA director from 1991 to 1993--to succeed Don Rumsfeld as secretary of defense, George W. Bush has brought upon himself much talk about sons in the shadow of their fathers. His presidency has turned Shakespearean, allowing all to tell sad stories about kings haunted by the ghosts they have deposed.

National Security Archive: The Iran-Contra Scandal, 1991 Confirmation Hearings

Bush administration nominee for Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates had a long career in government which showed a notable combination of ambition and caution, according to a new book by Archive senior analyst John Prados ["Safe for Democracy: The Secret Wars of the CIA" (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2006)] which deals with Gates among its much wider coverage of the agency since its inception. As Director of Central Intelligence in the immediate aftermath of the Cold War, Gates

Doug Troutman: On a Country Losing Its Humanity ... A Vet's Reflections

[Doug Troutman was with the First Cavalry Division in Vietnam in 1966/67. He was later a Park Ranger in Yosemite National Park and then a Wilderness Specialist and Outdoor Recreation Planner with the Bureau of Land Management. He lives in a small town in eastern Oregon away from the madding crowd.] I've never dealt well with Veterans Day. Perhaps it's because I knew too many men whose names appear on a black wall in Washington D.C. In Vietnam, letters often took weeks t

Robert Parry: The Secret World of Robert Gates

[Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book is Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq.] Robert Gates, George W. Bush's choice to replace Donald Rumsfeld as Defense Secretary, is a trusted figure within the Bush Family's inner circle, but there are lingering questions about whether Gates is a trustworthy public official. The 63-year-old Gates has long faced a