April 24: Commemorating 90th Anniversary of Armenian Genocide

When a leading Turkish novelist said earlier this year that 1 million Armenians were murdered in his country during World War I, he broke a deep taboo. Three lawsuits were filed against Orhan Pamuk, accusing him of damaging the state. “He shouldn’t be allowed to breathe,” roared one nationalist group. In Istanbul, a school collected [...]

Majority No Longer Supports War: Why Remain?

The occupation is worse than an economic tsunami: it managed to plunge Iraq – once a beacon of development in the Arab world – into Sub-Saharan poverty. There’s less electricity each day than in 2003 or even 2004. Without electricity, the whole country is paralyzed: nothing – communications, industry, the healthcare system, the educational system [...]

Misunderstanding the Pope in the Near East

“The church decided to close itself off more, and to focus on its European roots” in choosing Cardinal Ratzinger, said Hussein al-Shobokshy, a Saudi columnist for the Pan-Arab daily Al Sharq al Awsat. “The neocons should be happy with this election. He is someone they can do business with.” ~International Herald-Tribune One Saudi columnist does [...]

Unity to What End?

How much weight John Paul II’s successor will give to unity with the Orthodox remains to be seen. If the new Pope comes from Africa or Latin America he may put little or no weight on this question. Indeed the Orthodox may find that John Paul II was their best opportunity for unity; when they [...]

Benedict XVI: Confronting Modernism, War and Death in Humility and Hope

With much of the church having succumbed to the heresy of modernism, it needs an Athanasius. ~Pat Buchanan, April 8 With the selection of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, the hopes of traditionalist Catholics the world over, expressed by Mr. Buchanan’s article over a week ago, were realised as fully as they could [...]

Buchanan on DeLay

Already, the neoconservative Wall Street Journal has put its nail file between his shoulder blades and urged the GOP to abandon him. While the GOP caucus seems to be holding firm, DeLay has few vocal defenders. Of what does he stand accused? He put his wife and daughter on his campaign staff, for pay. But, [...]

Empire’s Disenchanted Helpers

Alyaa said she was the first woman in her neighborhood to sign up to work with the U.S. government after Saddam Hussein fell. She used to stand shoulder to shoulder with an American soldier in front of the U.S. military’s Camp Scania in the Rashid section of Baghdad. As a translator, Alyaa, 24, talked to [...]

Iraq Toll Slows, Continues to Rise

Since the U.S. invasion in 2003, at least 1,546 troops have died in Iraq, including at least 1,176 who died as a result of hostile action, according to the Defense Department. The figures include four military civilians. Those numbers have dropped precipitously since national elections at the end of January, but deaths are still being [...]

Montana Protests PATRIOT Act

Montana’s role in this movement is significant because it’s the only state in the continental United States, west of the Mississippi River, that has passed a formal resolution adamantly opposing provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act, which citizens and legislators believe subverts civil rights granted by the U.S. Constitution. Montana is a red state which [...]

No Love for Mexican Democracy in Washington

It may be just about the most inspiring sight imaginable: hundreds of thousands of people gathered in the main square of some capital city, demanding democratic self-rule. “They’re doing it in many different corners of the world,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said last week, “places as varied as Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan and, on the [...]