Bush in Free Fall

As President Bush’s poll numbers plummet to new lows and public support for Congress to end the war in Iraq continues to build, Robert Scheer wonders when Bush will finally turn on the neo-conservatives who betrayed his presidential legacy.

Posted on Jul 24, 2007 197 COMMENTS

King George W.:  James Madison’s Nightmare

In 1795, James Madison wrote of war’s far-reaching and corrosive effect on public liberty.  He could well have been warning us about our own King George, just the sort of imperial president that Madison and other founders of our nation feared most.

Posted on Jul 17, 2007 191 COMMENTS

Bush’s Pakistan Paradox

The marker of what will go down in history as “Bush’s folly” is that this idiot of a president invaded a country that had absolutely nothing to do with terrorist attacks on the United States or WMD threats to America while coddling the military junta in Pakistan, which was guilty on both counts.

Posted on Jul 10, 2007 106 COMMENTS

Hamas Holds the High Cards

What a difference 40 years makes.  Robert Scheer takes a look at current events in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank from a historical perspective, tracing the dramatic developments among regional and religious factions since the end of the Six-Day War.

Posted on Jun 19, 2007 258 COMMENTS

‘President’ Lieberman: A Cautionary Tale

What would have happened if, by some twist of political fate, Sen. Joe Lieberman had assumed the U.S.’s highest office instead of George W. Bush?  Judging by his hawkish leanings of late, particularly vis-à-vis Iran, the man who ran alongside Al Gore in 2000 proves the point that not every (once) Democratic candidate would have been better than Bush.

Posted on Jun 12, 2007 176 COMMENTS

Iraq Is the New Korea

Somehow, the Bush administration’s assertion that U.S. troops may remain in Iraq for decades to come went relatively unnoticed by Democratic hopefuls during the June 4 debate.

Posted on Jun 6, 2007 67 COMMENTS

Welcome to Grandpa’s World, Baby Cheney

The picture released by the White House last week of Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne, cradling their newborn grandson Samuel David Cheney represents an opportunity for future progress in human rights—if they choose to embrace it with as much care as they do baby Samuel.

Posted on May 29, 2007 42 COMMENTS

Worse Than Watergate, Part II

If Attorney General Alberto Gonzales wasn’t in enough trouble already, he now has to deal with the fallout from his disgraceful behavior in John Ashcroft’s hospital room in March of 2004, when Gonzales attempted to strong-arm Ashcroft into reauthorizing the domestic surveillance program implemented by the White House after 9/11—as Ashcroft lay ailing on his sickbed.

Posted on May 22, 2007 106 COMMENTS

Iran Calls Bush’s Bluff

Relations between the U.S. and Iran are shifting as U.N. inspectors discover that Iran’s uranium enrichment program appears to be further along than previously believed.  These new developments only underscore the increasing volatility in the very region the American invasion of Iraq was supposed to secure, and they put the Bush administration in a codependent relationship with Iran’s ruling regime.

Posted on May 15, 2007 49 COMMENTS

Bush Alums Reap Their Rewards

It’s no wonder that an administration that celebrated and rewarded liars and opportunists would produce the likes of Paul Wolfowitz, who followed up the Iraq disaster with a scandal at the World Bank, and George Tenet, who held his tongue until the price was right. But how do they sleep at night?

Posted on May 8, 2007 60 COMMENTS

After Thousands Have Died, Tenet Comes Clean

The three short sentences at the beginning of Chapter 17 of former CIA Director George Tenet’s memoir, “At the Center of the Storm,” tell it all: “The United States did not go to war in Iraq solely because of WMD. I doubt it was even the principal cause. Yet it was the public face that was put on it.”

Posted on May 1, 2007 66 COMMENTS

Bush Blames the Troops

Ignoring the fact that we have a system of civilian control over the military, which is why he, the elected president, is designated the commander in chief, Bush hides behind the fiction that the officers in the field are calling the shots when in fact he has put them in an unwinnable situation and refuses to even consider a timetable for getting them out. 

Posted on Apr 24, 2007 57 COMMENTS

Heck of a Job, Wolfie

Paul Wolfowitz, the former deputy secretary of defense who helped sell a stupid war, now finds himself in a bit of trouble. As head of the World Bank, he secured a cushy pay raise for his girlfriend, lied about it and alienated his staff in the process. Not to worry—President Bush still thinks he’s doing a bang-up job.

Posted on Apr 17, 2007 57 COMMENTS

Iraqis Finally Unite—Against the U.S.

Iraqis want Americans out of their country more than ever, as indicated by the recent mass protest in Najaf. But if you ask Joe Lieberman, the sight of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis chanting anti-American slogans and tearing apart our flag was just proof that the “surge” is working.

Posted on Apr 10, 2007 57 COMMENTS

Leave Your Morals at the Border

The Supreme Court may not be interested in applying American values to Guantanamo Bay, but at least one soldier has taken a principled stand against the prison’s tortured justice system. 

Posted on Apr 3, 2007 29 COMMENTS

Pentagon Cowers Behind Wordplay

The military covered its ass on Monday, with a report on the investigation into the exploitation of Pat Tillman that stank of non-denial denials. After three years of lies and obfuscation, the Tillman family deserves better.

Posted on Mar 27, 2007 38 COMMENTS

Saddam Has the Last Laugh

The man who once famously took a sledgehammer to Saddam Hussein’s statue now says “the Americans are worse than the dictatorship.” That’s a growing sentiment in George W. Bush’s Iraq, where a majority of people view attacks on coalition forces as acceptable.

Posted on Mar 20, 2007 63 COMMENTS

His Own Worst Enemy

Dick Cheney has once again accused his critics of giving aid and comfort to the enemy, yet that’s precisely what his administration’s own policies have achieved.

Posted on Mar 13, 2007 104 COMMENTS

Coulter’s Slur Puts Spotlight on Edwards

Thank you, Ann Coulter, for boosting the principled but media-neglected presidential candidacy of John Edwards. 

Posted on Mar 6, 2007 76 COMMENTS

Going Back to North Korea, Hat in Hand

There is nothing wrong with negotiating with our enemies rather than weakly blustering at cartoon images of them—I wish we would do the same in our dealings with Iran—but it would be nice if we would stop shooting ourselves in the foot first.

Posted on Feb 27, 2007 17 COMMENTS

Hillary’s Calculations Add Up to War

In light of her hawkish posturing and consistent support of the war for all the wrong reasons, the best advice on Hillary’s campaign comes from the candidate herself: If you’re against the war, vote for someone else.

Posted on Feb 20, 2007 163 COMMENTS

Before the Invasion, There Was Feith

The lies of Douglas Feith, exposed by the Pentagon’s inspector general, are the key to understanding the greatest intelligence fiasco in American history.

Posted on Feb 13, 2007 87 COMMENTS

Bush Budget Delivers the Bacon

President Bush’s outrageous military budget has nothing do with fighting terrorism but everything to do with pumping up the profits of the administration’s generous political donors in the defense industry. So, the question is: Will the Democrats have the guts to stop this betrayal of the public trust? 

Posted on Feb 6, 2007 57 COMMENTS

A Tribute to Molly

Posted on Jan 31, 2007 80 COMMENTS

A Case for Impeachment

Revelations in the perjury trial of Lewis “Scooter” Libby re-emphasize the need for an impeachment trial to establish the true story behind President Bush’s erroneous claim about Saddam Hussein’s supposed nuclear weapons program.

Posted on Jan 30, 2007 141 COMMENTS