democracy
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A Life, Wasted

Jan 3, 2006
The father of a soldier killed in Iraq calls his son's death "wasted in a belief that democracy would grow simply by removing a dictator--a careless misunderstanding of what democracy requires." Read the column

Iran’s Victory in Iraq

Dec 21, 2005
For the Bush White House, the good news from Iraq just never stops. But the joy that President Bush has expressed over the country's latest election, though more restrained than his infamous "Mission Accomplished" speech, will similarly come back to haunt him.

The Big Blowup Over Venezuela

Dec 14, 2005
Update: Hugo Chavez and the Latin American left picked up an important new ally when, a few weeks ago, peasant leader Evo Morales (shown at right here) was elected as president of Bolivia. What's all the fuss over Hugo Chavez? Marc Cooper examines the mercurial leader and his contentious relations with the Bush administration.

Propaganda? What Propaganda?

Dec 13, 2005
"There is no U.S. footprint" is the proud boast of one of the Pentagon's propaganda contractors, and it prompts the questions: Why not? What are they ashamed of? One thing is that most of us in this democracy did not know we were paying for this vast official propaganda operation until we read it in Jeff Gerth's excellent investigative piece in The New York Times. A truly free press is our most valuable export, and its reputation should not be undermined by the Bushies' addiction to government propaganda.

In Response to…

Dec 3, 2005
I would agree that things in China have gone far better than anyone predicted during the dark post-1989 days But, what explains that success? Good visionary planning? Strong leadership? A national psyche exhausted by any kind of turmoil? Good luck? The danger is that even the best economy tends to be cyclical, and it is far from clear that China has the political legitimacy, deeply enough rooted political institutions, or shared set of values to help it survive a downturn As to Wintermute and whether Taiwan is worth fighting for I personally do not believe that any functioning democracy is worth throwing over the side to keep some other sort of the peace - commercial or otherwise We Americans forget.