Iraq was a preemptive war. But that language has been discredited, so the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a station of the Israel lobby, has put out a paper all-but-calling for military strikes against Iran, which it describes as…
Now Joe Klein has raised the issue of dual loyalty around the neoconservatives’ motivation for “plump”ing for the Iraq war: The notion that we could just waltz in and inject democracy into an extremely complicated, devout and ancient culture smacked–still…
I had a big weekend. My father-in-law turned 80 and we celebrated in Philadelphia. I married into a Protestant clan and a lot of the festivities took place in Chestnut Hill, which is the sort of privileged old neighborhood in…
A long time ago I wrote a piece for the New York Observer arguing that the famous talking-points memo was the work of Bruce Lindsey, and Bill Safire mentioned my piece in his Times column, saying it was “brilliant.” My…
I’m reading Douglas Feith’s book War and Decision. As I said the other day, Feith is afraid of the rageful spirit directed toward him and other people who got us into this war, and that fear is written throughout this…
Is the Israel lobby pushing for a military confrontation with Iran? You betcha. Ratcheting up the pressure on Iran was one of the main currents at AIPAC’s policy conference. Congress is about to approve what Dailykos calls “Iran war” legislation,…
Just wanted to register the fact that last night on Chris Matthews, former Oklahoma Sen. David Boren, now in Obama’s foreign policy kitchen, described Iraq as the greatest mistake in American history. Don’t have the quote. Someone else said the…
Former S.C. Senator Ernest Fritz Hollings voted for the disastrous Iraq war resolution in ’02 because he bought the WMD malarkey, he says in his new memoir (from Univ. of South Carolina press). Hollings writes that the real reasons for…
C-Span’s Book TV, which usually pits ideological adversaries, paired up Clifford May, president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, with Robert Kagan, author of The Return of History. Sort of like asking the New England Patriots cheerleaders to interview…