Opinion Forum

Book Review: Decision Points by George W. Bush

February 8th, 2011

By Tom Carter Decision Points is unusual for a book written by a former politician. It’s clear, understandable, well-written, and free of excessive self-promotion. The book is made more readable by the simple, clear, direct style of his writing. Some reviewers have attributed that style to his supposed lack of intellect and writing ability, a [...]

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: 2000, Bush, Decision Points, Iraq, Katrina, recession, stem cells, terrorism
Categories: History, Politics | Comments (2) | Home

Lynn Woolsey: A National Embarrassment

January 10th, 2011

By Nancy Morgan My nephew, Lance Corporal Lee Morgan, will be deploying to Afghanistan next Friday. This will be his second tour of duty there. Lee will be putting his life on the line, once again, fighting a war which is described by Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) as “an epic failure, a national embarrassment and [...]

Articles written by Nancy Morgan
Tags: Afghanistan, Code Pink, failure, Iraq, Lynn Woolsey, terrorism, war
Categories: Military, News, Politics | Comments (2) | Home

A Child in the Islamic Republic

October 4th, 2010

By Brianna Aubin Last night, I attended a speech given by Tabby Davoodi, an Iranian Jew whose family escaped from the Islamic Republic in 1988 and who was invited to speak at the University of Illinois about the Iranian regime and her experiences growing up there before she and her family fled to America. “I’m [...]

Articles written by Brianna Aubin
Tags: Hezbollah, Iran, Iraq, islamic, Israel, revolution, Tabby Davoodi, war
Categories: Education, History, News, Politics | Comments (4) | Home

Another Kind of Hero

September 5th, 2010

By Jan Barry Former Arizona Cardinals football star Pat Tillman was posthumously awarded the Silver Star by the U.S. Army — for being killed by fellow Rangers on a mission in Afghanistan. The wrenching impact on his family of his death and promotion to poster boy for the War on Terrorism is the focus of [...]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: Afghanistan, documentary, friendly fire, Iraq, review, Silver Star, Tillman
Categories: Arts, Military, News, Politics | Comments (9) | Home

Winding Down a Misbegotten War

August 20th, 2010

By Jan Barry As the last U.S. combat units rumbled out of Iraq under President Obama’s August deadline, Time magazine’s chief political columnist, Joe Klein, summed up the costly consequences of what he called “a war that should never have been fought.” Blasting the Bush administration for blundering into “a neo-colonialist delusion” that caused hundreds [...]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: Afghanistan, casualties, cost, end, invasion, Iraq, occupation, threat, war
Categories: Military, News, Politics | Comments (1) | Home

bin Laden Is Laughing

July 19th, 2010

By Nancy Morgan Terrorists the world over are laughing into their turbans and praising Allah five times a day for the naive Americans who were responsible for electing Barack Hussein Obama as president of the U.S. And they’re giving a special thanks to the American media, specifically, the Washington Post, for giving them all the [...]

Articles written by Nancy Morgan
Tags: 9/11, Afghanistan, bin Laden, Iraq, islamic, Muslim, security, terrorism, war
Categories: Media, News, Politics | Comments (3) | Home

Clocking the Cost of War

April 15th, 2010

By Jan Barry The cost of waging war overseas on the fumes of a sputtering national economy is stirring some unusual, creative protests. Mayor Matt Ryan of Binghamton, NY, is vowing to install a digital “cost of war” clock on the front of the municipal building to show local residents how much they pay in [...]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: Afghanistan, Binghamton, cost, Iraq, militarism, taxes, veterans
Categories: Military, News, Politics | Comments (1) | Home

Peace Action at Work

March 26th, 2010

By Jan Barry In cold rain and summer heat, snowdrifts and bitter winds, a Veterans For Peace Chapter 21 contingent anchors a weekly peace vigil on a busy street corner by the NJ National Guard Armory in Teaneck. Chapter members are also active in numerous vigils, public meetings and marches around the state, as well [...]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: Afghanistan, Iraq, National Guard, NJ, peace vigil, Veterans for Peace
Categories: Military, News, Politics | Comments (6) | Home

Could It Really Work?

March 12th, 2010

By Brianna Aubin Elections were held in Iraq last week, with approximately 63% of the country turning out to vote despite terrorist attacks that killed several dozen. The counting has been slow, but there has been no serious reason to suspect fraud (usually if you’re going to cheat, you at least try to do it [...]

Articles written by Brianna Aubin
Tags: election, intelligence, Iraq, Saddam Hussein, war, WMD
Categories: Military, News, Politics | Comments (1) | Home

Why They Are at War with Us

January 14th, 2010

By Tom Carter I disagree with Pat Buchanan more often than not. However, in a recent column he asked and answered questions about why Islamic extremists, al-Qaeda in particular, are at war with the West and particularly with the U.S. We routinely denounce the religious extremism of the backward culture that spawns them, but we don’t often [...]

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: al-Qaeda, Buchanan, Iraq, Pakistan, terrorism, terrorist, war on terror
Categories: History, Politics | Comments (10) | Home

Health Care vs Afghanistan

October 26th, 2009

The President continues to leave our troops in Afghanistan hanging in the lurch while he works to get socialized medicine established in the USA. With all the resources he can muster you would think that he could break away long enough to attend to this rather important and urgent task. At this time his excuse [...]

Articles written by Larry Ennis
Tags: Afghanistan, Gates, health care, Iraq, Obama, strategy
Categories: History, Military, Politics | Comments (1) | Home

Wars and Real Security

October 21st, 2009

Winding Down Wars — And Ramping Up Real National Security The warning signs have been flashing for some time. Waging two wars in distant parts of the world simultaneously is unsustainable. Yet American leaders seem to have no clear-cut plan for winding down military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Meanwhile, from Baltimore to Detroit to [...]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: Afghanistan, Bacevich, Iraq, national security
Categories: History, Military, Politics | Comments (4) | Home

Department of Peace

October 15th, 2009

The former community activist who garnered a Nobel Peace Prize shortly after taking office as President of the United States should appreciate the grit of this civic campaign. Signing legislation that would cap this grassroots effort, moreover, is the sort of action that would likely generate a wall of peace awards for Barack Obama. The [...]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: Afghanistan, Department of Peace, Iraq, USIP, Willie Nelson
Categories: Military, News, Politics | Comments (9) | Home

Paglia on Obama, Law, Palin

October 14th, 2009

This month’s Camille Paglia column at Salon.com is, as usual, a delightful read. As a firm liberal Democrat with a very open mind, her views are unusually realistic and bluntly stated. In this column, she responds to letters from readers. The letters themselves are good, and Paglia’s responses are even better. Here are a few excerpts [...]

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: Afghanistan, hate crimes, Iraq, Obama, Paglia, Palin
Categories: Arts, Life, Media, Military, Politics | Comments (14) | Home

The Duty of Dissent

October 11th, 2009

They teach a lot of things at the US Military Academy at West Point, but one thing they don’t teach is the honorable duty of dissent, a vital element in a democracy. I was reminded of that while reading a new book about the latest crop of veterans protesting military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan. [...]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: Afghanistan, dissent, Iraq, soldiers, suicide, veterans, West Point
Categories: Military, Politics | Comments (14) | Home

Time to Get Out of Iraq

July 31st, 2009

Colonel Timothy Reese recently wrote a devastating memorandum, quoted in full at ForeignPolicy.com, regarding actual conditions in Iraq from a realistic military perspective. COL Reese should know — he’s the chief of the Baghdad Operations Command Advisory Team, Multinational Division-Baghdad, Iraq. Michael Gordon reported on the memo in The New York Times, providing a link to the full [...]

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: Iraq, war, withdrawal
Categories: Military, News, Politics | Comments (5) | Home

An Old Book’s Lessons

May 3rd, 2009

For decades, through multiple moves and clearings out of dusty bookshelves, I’ve dragged around a book by John Kenneth Galbraith. The sole reason for keeping this timeworn tome is that Galbraith signed it and, with a hearty flourish, handed it to me when we both appeared on a national TV talk program in 1971. Yet, [...]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: Galbraith, Iraq, Vietnam
Categories: Economics, History, Politics | Comments (1) | Home

Writers at Work

May 2nd, 2009

Writing is an essential nourishment for writers. “I felt so much better doing that,” an Iraq war vet turned poet and playwright said, exhaling as though he’d just pumped oxygen into his muscles by jogging around the block, after jotting down some thoughts during a writers’ workshop the other day. Earlier, one of the participants [...]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: Iraq, literature, war
Categories: Arts, Life, Military | Comments (1) | Home

“This War Is Lost”

April 19th, 2009

It was two years ago that Harry Reid, great American and distinguished leader of Senate Democrats, made his historic pronouncement. With all the solemnity and gravitas of a serious man who knew more about the war in Iraq than the President and all the generals, he declared, “This war is lost…and the surge is not accomplishing [...]

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: accountability, Harry Reid, Iraq
Categories: Military, Politics | Comments (11) | Home

New Military Mission

February 3rd, 2009

With a fresh breeze sweeping through the White House, now’s the time for a new look at U.S. military operations overseas. In electing Barak Obama president, a majority of voters chose the “peace candidate” who pressed for winding down the war in Iraq. On the other hand, Obama also supported sending more troops to Afghanistan. [...]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: Afghanistan, Iraq, military strategy
Categories: Military, Politics | Comments (8) | Home

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