War and Peace
Items on the quest for peace and the fact of war
Meet Mr. Adamov
Fri 13 Jul 2007 • Responses: 1 • by David Aikman
The Bush-Putin meeting brings back memories of Putin’s earlier career.
At the beginning of July, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with President Bush in the Bush family summer retreat at Kennebunkport, Maine. It could turn out to be one of the most crucial meetings in Russian-US relations since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Hold that Ad
Tue 10 Jul 2007 • Responses: 1 • by David Aikman
Perhaps China has been too successful at censorship.
It was some eighteen years ago that the world was trying to absorb what had taken place in China’s Tiananmen Square in Beijing on the night of June 3–4, 1989. Six weeks of sometimes chaotic, always spontaneous, and invariably exhilarating demonstrations had taken place in Tiananmen Square, after the death of Hu Yaobang, a Chinese leader associated with reform, on April 15.
Accounting for Tenet
Wed 20 Jun 2007 • Responses: 2 • by David Aikman
David Aikman looks at the actions and explanations of former US Director of National Intelligence George Tenet.
Washington insiders have seen it happen so often that they roll their eyes every time it takes place. A national policy is deemed to have been a failure and an individual deeply involved with it resigns or is fired by the administration in office at the time. Then he attempts to redeem his reputation (and finances) by accepting a huge advance from a publisher for a tell-all book and by appearing on TV shows defending his reputation.
By saying this is what has happened with former CIA director George Tenet in the case of the publication of his book, At the Center of the Storm (advance $4 million), is not intended to depict the man as a scoundrel.
Six Days and Forty Years
Mon 11 Jun 2007 • Responses: 2 • by David Aikman
David Aikman looks back on the Six Days War and its unexpected outcomes.
The Six-Day War of 1967 was one of the most startling military victories in history. In the course of six days, from June 5 through June 11, the Israeli Defense Forces essentially wiped out on the ground the air force of Egypt, crippled for years the air forces of Jordan and Syria, and triumphed over the armies of those three Arab states deployed against Israel.
More significantly, after just a few days’ fighting, Israel found itself in military control over 1.2 million Arabs in the West Bank (part of British Mandate Palestine and annexed by Jordan in 1950) and Gaza (before 1967 under the control of Egypt). Arabs killed, wounded, and imprisoned were in the scores of thousands; Israeli casualties were listed at the almost mythical level of 777 (which seems small but is a higher proportion of the 1967 Israeli population than all the 57,000 Americans killed during the Vietnam War).
Fighting Wars During Peace-Time
Mon 02 Apr 2007 • Responses: 1 • by David Aikman
Britain’s magazine The Economist once made an interesting point about democracies and fighting wars. “Democracies,” the magazine said—and I offer a paraphrase rather than quote precisely—“find it difficult to fight wars during peace-time.” The point is a subtle one. Essentially, it is that democratic societies are seldom prepared to engage in sustained war-fighting if they do not believe that their county is really at war.
The Fifth Year of War
Fri 23 Mar 2007 • Responses: 2 • by David Aikman
David Aikman muses on the US war in Iraq.
A major landmark in American foreign policy was passed this week: the fourth anniversary of the war in Iraq. As the US enters its fifth year of fighting in Iraq, many observers have noted that America has been at war there longer than it fought in World War I, World War II, or Korea. Americans, it is fair to say, do not like fighting wars, and especially in peace-time. On this topic, more below.
The original reasons given by the administration for the invasion of Iraq in March 2003 were to locate and destroy Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction and to overthrow the Saddam Hussein regime. Much has been made of the fact that, after US forces had conquered Baghdad and subdued most of the remainder of the country, no weapons of mass destruction were found. This fact has been used to support assertions that President Bush lied to the American people by using the WMD argument to initiate hostilities against Iraq.
