Bear Left! Links of the Week

This Week's Articles:

The New Despot

Paul Corrigan

The radical conservatism that runs through much of George W. Bush's policy is not what the Bush campaign promised. The American voter was promised a compassionate conservative and a competent executive. Absent the compassion and competency, the administration and the media continuously tell the American public that we should trust the president based on his character and his faith in God. What have we received in return for our trust? Bush has brought to America an ugly combination of domestic repression, militarism, racism, and imperial expansion.

Assigning the Blame

Tim Francis-Wright

In January 2001, George Bush took office after receiving just under 48% of the popular vote for president in the November 2000 elections. In the aftermath of the elections, many Democratic partisans blamed Green Party candidate Ralph Nader and his followers for taking away votes in key states from Democrat Al Gore. But they have a much bigger problem—the turncoats in their midst. Lots of Democrats voted for Bush in 2000, and millions more are now propping up his popularity, despite a term in office riddled with error, cant, and sophistry.

[Click on a title to read a particular article.]

Last Week's Articles:

Bush's Character

Paul Corrigan

President Bush has failed the true test of character. Handed the American presidency, Bush has abused the power bestowed upon him. A man with character uses power discreetly. A moral man chooses patience over war. A man with ethical strength favors the needs of the many over the wants of the rich. A man of character is competent and dependable. Bush fails every one of these tests.

Between Iraq and a Hard Place

Tim Francis-Wright

If the Bush administration starts a full-blown war on Iraq, it will engender a dilemma that will shape American foreign policy for the foreseeable future. Is Iraq an exception or an exemplar? If Iraq is exceptional, what makes it special in the eyes of the United States? And if it is exemplary, what makes this war such a good blueprint for other countries?

[Click on a title to read a particular article.]

Older Articles:

Alos two hundred articles from previous weeks are in our archives. If you're not careful, you might learn something.

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Links of the Week

Two Men Driving Bush to War: Karl Rove and Paul Wolfowitz are the Texans who drive American foreign policy (Ed Vuillamy, The Observer).

"Horrendous": In an interview, Nobel laureate George Akerlof decries the proposed economic stimulus package (Bonnie Azab Powell, University of California at Berkeley).

The Arabs Are Like Mice: A million Britons protested the impending war in London, but in Arab countries, protects were miniscule (Robert Fisk, The Independent).

Professor in Terror Indictments Was a Bush Supporter: Sami Amin al-Arian was a key, visible supporter of the Bush campaign (Wayne Washington, Boston Globe).

The Economic Risks: The costs of a war are more than just the direct costs of a war (The Economist).

The Will of the World: The 15 February 2003 demonstrations could mark the birth of global democracy (Jonathan Schell, The Nation).

Defining Success in Narrow Terms: The Bush administration would label as failing some obviously successful schools (Michael Winerip, New York Times).

Their Master's Voice: Rupert Murdoch owns 175 newspapers worldwide, and virtually all of them support a war with Iraq (Roy Greenslade, The Guardian).

The Bottom Line on Iraq: It's the Bottom Line: There's money to be made in post-war Iraq by the corporate cronies of the Bush administration (Arianna Huffington, Arianna Online.com).

Links of Previous Weeks are in our voluminous archives.

Check out our Link Library for news, opinion, and just plain interesting stuff!

Fact of the Week

In December 2002 and January 2003, United States oil companies bought more than $1.6 billion in crude oil from Iraq. The partial shutdown of the Venezuelan oil industry caused American oil companies to import about 1.1 million barrels of oil per day, 62 percent of Iraqi exports.

Source:
Washington Post, 22 February 2003.

Our favorite links on the impending war with Iraq

Red Pepper news on Iraq.

No Rush to War: a collection of articles from The Nation.

Target: Iraq from Global Security.org.

Iraq's Nuclear Weapon Programme from the International Atomic Energy Agency.

New York Times op-ed ad signed by 33 international relations scholars (HTML version of the ad).

Stand Down cross-ideological, anti-war weblog.

Alternative Resources on the US-Iraq Conflict: like it says, from the American Library Association.

Iraq War Debate: a huge collection of links from the University of Michigan.

Project on Defense Alternatives: analyses of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Anti-War Links: heaps of them, from The Guardian.

United for Peace: Broad-based anti-war coalition.

Inspections in Iraq: A Primer: some blasts from the past from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

Al-Qaida and Iraq: How Strong is the Evidence?": it's not very strong at all (from The Guardian).

Claims and Evaluations of Iraq's Proscribed Weapons: just the facts,and just about weaponry.

More, alas, likely to come.

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