Category Archives: Politics

Dear Attorney General Mukasey, By all accounts you are an honorable man with a distinguished career record.  Why on earth would you want to sign on with the Bush Administration?  OK, I get it, serving as United States Attorney General … Continue reading →

On Friday, I attended a speech given by former president Bill Clinton when he visited the Microsoft campus in Redmond, WA.  Here’s my terribly grainy cell phone picture of Steve Ballmer introducing Clinton. He spoke about his new book, Giving, and the … Continue reading →

That’s how retired Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez described the war in Iraq in a speech on October 12, 2007 to luncheon of military reporters and editors.   It’s a veritable machine-gunning of American leadership and policy.  Some of the more pity quotes: … Continue reading →

This article from the International Herald Tribune casts an interesting light on the recent protests in Burma.  (I’m going to use the old name of the country since the new name, Myanmar, was imposed by the military junta.)  The article notes … Continue reading →

  Photo: Reuters This report in the New York Times and elsewhere talks of growing protests led by Buddhist monks against Myanmar’s military regime.  Yesterday the protestors were greeted by Aung Ssn Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and leader … Continue reading →

Listening to and reading about General David Petraeus’ report to Congress this week has been completely depressing. When asked by Senator John Warner (R.-Va) if his strategy in Iraq was making America safer, Petraeus responded, "Sir, I don’t know, actually. I’ve not … Continue reading →

Looks like others are picking up on the theme started by Lt. Col. Paul Yingling in his article A failure in generalship, published in the Armed Forces Journal.  (My previous post on this here.) Paul Kaplan’s article Challenging the Generals … Continue reading →

The June 21 leader from the Economist magazine echoes some of the points I made last week (I’m making no claims for originality of insight).  "…Western policy is in danger of strengthening the wrong side by making the Islamists look … Continue reading →

Over at the Guardian, Jonathan Steele claims that Hamas’s seizure of control of the Gaza Strip was aimed a pre-empting a Fatah-led, US-sponsored coup against it.   Steele presents Hamas as a victim of sinister US, Israeli and Fatah plotting all stemming … Continue reading →