Roundup: Media's Take

May 4, 2004

The History of the Obscure Law Eliot Spitzer Is Using to Tame Wall Street

Nicholas Thompson, in Legal Affairs (May/Hune 2004):FOR THREE-QUARTERS OF A CENTURY, an unspoken gentleman's agreement bound the moneymen of Wall Street and the New York attorney general's office. The AG got to use an astonishingly powerful state securities law called the Martin Act, but not against the big boys. Acceptable targets through the years incl

May 3, 2004

Dick Cheney's Draft Record Becomes an Issue

Katharine Q. Seelye, in the NYT (May 3, 2004):It was 1959 when Dick Cheney, then a student at Yale University, turned 18 and became eligible for the draft. Eventually, like 16 million other young men of that era, Mr. Cheney sought deferments. By the time he turned 26 in January 1967 and was no longer eligible for the draft, he had asked for and received five deferments, four because he was a student and one for being a new father.Although Presiden

April 30, 2004

We Seem to Be Following in the Footsteps of the British in Iraq

From the South China Morning Post (April 25, 2004): If the United States and its allies had consulted history books before invading Iraq just over a year ago, they might have had second thoughts. Iraqis do not take foreign occupation lightly, as the blood-spattered accounts attest. Most telling is the British war cemetery in Baghdad known as North Gate. Row upon row of graves - more than 3,000, mostly unidentifie

April 30, 2004

So the Economy Will Decide the Election? Which Economy?

Susan Page, in USA Today (April 26, 2004): Allan Lichtman, a historian at American University in Washington, D.C., who created a formula to predict presidential elections, says that the"very odd recovery" has made the political repercussions of individual economic statistics less reliable than in the past [as a guide to the election outcome]. Lichtman is the author of The Keys to the White House, which identifies 13"keys" that

April 30, 2004

What We Can Learn from New Zealand History About War

Gordon Dryden, in the New Zealand Herald (April 26, 2004): Maybe it's the death of Michael King, so soon after completing The Penguin History of New Zealand. Or maybe the devastation and killing in Iraq. But somehow Anzac Day seemed much more important this year than any others I can remember. A good time, too, to recall George Santayana's famous quotation:"Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

April 29, 2004

The 9-11 Inquiry Seems a Lot Like the Pearl Harbor Inquiry--With One Big Difference

Edward Epstein, in the San Francisco Chronicle (April 28, 2004): The special committee formed to investigate what the president called an"unprovoked and dastardly attack" on the United States waded deep into controversy, interviewed dozens of witnesses and produced a 10 million-word record. It issued a final report, blaming many involved in U.S. national security for failing to do their jobs and recommended sweeping changes to prevent a simi

April 29, 2004

Gerald Ford Testified in Public About the Pardon ... Bush Should Testify in Public About 9-11

John Nicholas, in the Nation (April 24, 2004):History usually provides a roadmap for the present. Unfortunately, leaders fail to consult the map. That's certainly been the case as the 9/11 Commission has prepared to hear behind-closed-doors testimony from Vice President Dick Cheney and President George Bush at the same time. Members of the commission and, for the most part, members

April 28, 2004

Hire the Baathists

Eric Posner, professor of law at the University of Chicago, in the NYT (April 28, 2004):The decision by the Coalition Provisional Authority to ease its policy barring former Baath Party members from Iraqi government jobs has generated widespread criticism in Iraqi political circles. Ahmed Chalabi, America's onetime favorite member of the Iraqi Governing Council, said

April 28, 2004

Frank Rich: It's 1920's Iraq All Over Again

Frank Rich, in the NYT (April 18, 2004):The most apt movie for this moment just may be David Lean's "Lawrence of Arabia." Richard Holbrooke, the Clinton ambassador to the United Nations whose foreign service career began in Vietnam, said to me last week, "That's the image everyone I've talked to who saw the movie has in his head right now." What Mr. Holbrooke is referrin

April 27, 2004

WSJ: Will May Day Change Now that the EU Is Expanding?

Editorial in the WSJ (April 27, 2004): ... As a matter of fact, violence has been part of May Day protests from the start. It may come as a surprise to some that May Day had its origins in the United States, where in 1886, during the first ever May protests for the eight-hour work day, a bomb killed eight policemen in Chicago.May Day was then adopted by the International Labor Congress in Paris 1889 and was later u

April 27, 2004

Photographing War Dead: How the Policy Has Changed Through History

David Carr, in the NYT (April 25, 2004):...The current administration's squeamishness about photographs depicting the consequences of war has plenty of precedents in American history, but it stands in stark contrast to where war photography began. In 1862, New Yorkers went to the gallery of Matthew Brady and saw, for the first time, the gory externalities of

April 27, 2004

Should High Officials Resign When They Disagree with the President?

John Tierney, in the NYT (April 25, 2004):If they disagree with their president, a few officials resign, as Secretary of State Cyrus R. Vance did after Jimmy Carter's unsuccessful military attempt to rescue American hostages in Iran. A few are fired for insubordination, like Gen. Douglas MacArthur. But there is a third way, as Colin L. Powell has demonstrated.

April 24, 2004

John Kerry's Role as a Vietnam Anti-War Activist Poses Challenges to His Campaign

David Halbfinger, in the NYT (April 24, 2004):When questions were raised last month about whether a 27-year-old John Kerry had attended a Kansas City meeting of Vietnam Veterans Against the War where the assassination of senators was discussed, the Kerry presidential campaign went into action. It accepted the resignation of a campaign volunteer in Flor

April 23, 2004

Morley Safer: The Bush Administration's Ignorance of History Is Astounding

Roselyn Tantraphol, in the Hartford Courant (April 18, 200): The increasing level of violence gripping Iraq does not signal a repetition of the Vietnam War, but has been the result of an administration that turns a blind eye to historical lessons,"60 Minutes" correspondent Morley Safer said Saturday. And the unfolding events have been reported by"a captive media" that

April 23, 2004

President Bush Has Returned the GOP to Its Historic Mission of Liberating Captives

Stephen Schwartz, author of The Two Faces of Islam: The House of Sa'ud from Tradition to Terror, in frontpagemag.com (April 21, 2004): Isolationists, Islamist extremists, and"intellectuals" -- and other types beginning with the letter"i," who will be left unnamed in the interest of civility -- have sneered at the awkward eloquence of President George W. Bush, embodied in his press conference on the evening of April 13. "Awkward eloquence" is not an oxymoron,

April 23, 2004

William Greider: Iraq as Vietnam

William Greider, in the Nation (May 3, 2004):...One can begin to recognize that much of the news is  actually an old story--recycled versions of the human folly committed  by previous generations. To my eyes, the insurrection under way in  Iraq looks like"little Tet"--a smaller version of the original Tet  offensive the Vietcong staged in 1968. It shocks Americans in much  the sa

April 23, 2004

U.S. Risks Repeating Britain's 1920 Mistakes in Iraq

William Choong, in the Straits Times (Singapore) (April 17, 2004):A HEAVILY armed military force from a Western country takes down a Middle Eastern regime which threatens Western interests in the region. A widespread revolt breaks out. This forces the invader to hand back power to elements of the former regime. Iraq? Obviously. But in describing the latest case of insurrection in the country, one could just as well be talking about Britain's Iraqi

April 23, 2004

After Tet Polls also Showed Americans Wanted to Send More Troops

Rick Hampson, in USA Today (April 20, 2004):For three weeks the nation has been battered by the worst news from Iraq since the war began 13 months ago. But despite the shootings, bombings, sieges, ambushes, kidnappings and combat deaths, most Americans still support the war. And an increasing number think it should be stepped up.Historians say that's a common reaction to attacks on U.S. forces. During the Vietnam War, for instance, polls taken im

April 23, 2004

FDR Was Second-Guessed About Pearl Harbor as Bush Is Now About 9-11

Joseph Persico, in the Montreal Gazette (April 19, 2004):The U.S. president was receiving intelligence that an attack might occur imminently, probably not on the American mainland, but abroad. Intercepted communications pointed to an adversary with a deadly history of surprise attacks. And, it did happen, the most horrific assault ever on U.S. territory, and one that would lead to war. An investigation as to how so large a blow could have gone und

April 23, 2004

The Ban on Military Pictures of Fallen Soldiers

James T. Madore, in Newsday (April 18, 2004):... [F]or more than a year, the Bush administration has strictly enforced a ban on media outlets taking pictures of soldiers' coffins being returned to U.S. military bases on grounds that it upsets mourners. Critics say it's part of the White House's attempt to downplay the human cost of the war, which this month alone has killed at least 89 U.S. troops. As the casualties mount, the prohibition, whose o