Since World War II, American foreign policy in general has been both realistic and moderate. There have been occasional bursts of intensified anxiety and paranoiac fears, but, by and large, American presidents–both the Democrats and Republicans who’ve been elected since 1948–have been able to maintain a steady course. Today, however, we are facing the first […]
Article
Posted inArticle
Curveballs to Congress
Comment Upon a first reading, the Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigatory report on Iraq seems certain to be a document of seminal and historical import; even in the present day, it may transcend our penchant for 24-hour news cycles, our increasingly truncated attention spans, and our capacity to be inured to any new disclosure of deception […]
Posted inDispatches
“The Evil Was Very Grave … ”
The Cuban independence hero and poet José Martí lived in New York from 1880 to 1895. He was a New Yorker, and easily the most important literary figure then residing in the city (after Walt Whitman’s departure to rural New Jersey). During most of those years he made his living as a journalist, writing about […]
Posted inSpecial Report
The Courage to Lead
As president, John Kerry would inherit the most formidable grass-roots force in recent American history. Born in the rising populism of last year’s frenetic primaries, this force has generated its own cobblestone leadership. What will Kerry do with these exuberant leaders dispersed across country and city? What will they do with him? To hold this […]
Posted inFeatures
The Power of the Pen
Sure, the Democrats could hit the jackpot this year and take the White House and both chambers of Congress. But if John Kerry wins, he could just as easily be facing a Republican-controlled Congress that’s, well, not eager to cooperate. Luckily, his hands wouldn’t be tied. He’d still have the executive order to help promote […]
Posted inDispatches
Onward and Forward
On a blustery march day, Peter Schurman, the executive director of MoveOn.org, stands next to a Win Without War poster at a press conference on Capitol Hill. Schurman is a 34-year-old Yale School of Management graduate with a high forehead, blue eyes, and razor-sharp features who doesn’t like to talk about himself. He’s not a […]
Posted inFeatures
Climbing the Hill
So, what, if anything, could a president Kerry get through Congress? It’s beyond question that a President Kerry would inherit a Congress that, for the past half-decade, has been spiraling into an ever deeper dysfunctionality. During the past two years, under the control of the Bush administration and the leadership of Republicans Tom DeLay in […]
Posted inFeatures
Follow the (Saudi) Money
Head north out of Phnom Penh, and within a few miles the cacophonous traffic of Cambodia’s capital gives way to herds of oxen and water buffalo, their shoulder blades rolling underneath their hides. As you travel, the riverside restaurants — frequented by well-off Khmers and thick with neon lights and the sound of karaoke — […]
Posted inFeatures
Promises, Promises
At the June 2003 G8 summit in Evian, France, President George W. Bush met with the other heads of state at a private dinner. There, according to sources close to two dinner guests, he promised the Europeans that if they gave $1 billion to a new joint AIDS fund, he would match it. But by […]
Posted inArticle
Journey from Hell
My mother told me about drug mules when I was 6. It was her ingenious way of keeping me from running amok in Bangkok’s Don Muang airport. “Someone will kidnap you!” she hissed, clamping her monstrous little bird claw on my wrist. “And make you swallow the drug! And then” — the claw gripped tighter […]