In The News

Ankara Links Iraq Force to US Action Over Kurds

Metin Munir September 29, 2003
The US recently asked India, Pakistan, South Korea, and Turkey to deploy troops in Iraq. India and Pakistan declined, preferring to commit troops only under UN sanction. South Korea is still considering the request. But Turkey will commit only if there is a quid pro quo. Worried about the Kurdish secessionist movement and public approval, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants the US...

Politics in Command

Jonathan Schell September 29, 2003
In war, true victory means the achievement of an express political aim. Although Saddam Hussein has been toppled, the political objective of the American war in Iraq appears far from fulfilled. An author and journalist who has written extensively about war and peace, Jonathan Schell, says what should worry Washington more than the daily attacks on US troops is its failure to win the hearts and...

Connect the Dots

Thomas Friedman September 25, 2003
The US has refused to cut agricultural subsidies to its farmers for years, and it refused again at the recent WTO meeting in Cancún. Thomas Friedman laments that fact, arguing that a real connection exists between US hypocrisy on world trade issues and the roots of anti-American terrorism. Countries like Pakistan, mired in poverty, would produce fewer angry fundamentalists willing to bomb the...

Diplomatic Fantasyland: The Illusion of a Negotiated Solution to the North Korean Nuclear Crisis

Nicholas Eberstadt September 23, 2003
The world has been confronted with three alternative outcomes with concern to North Korea: They become a nuclear power; they dismantle their program through diplomatic negotiation; or they are forcibly disarmed. Unfortunately, the government in Pyongyang has repeatedly proved that it's not going budge easily. A nuclear weapons program in North Korea would be a disaster for both its...

Public Staggered by Costs but Wants to Stay the Course

September 23, 2003
Americans are increasingly open to a major UN role in postwar Iraq, with about half (51%) saying the US should give up some military control to the UN to get other countries to send more troops there. Growing support for an expanded UN role in Iraq comes amid growing public concern over mounting US casualties and the rising cost of the operation. According to a recent study by the Pew Research...

Ability to Reason Vital in Fighting Terrorism

Kofi Annan September 23, 2003
At a conference on terrorism held today, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan argued that a clear, rational approach to dealing with terrorism is the only way to defeat it. "The rage we feel at terrorist attacks must not remove our ability to reason. If we are to defeat terrorism, it is our duty, and indeed our interest, to try to understand this deadly phenomenon, and carefully to...

Border Security Merging

Jesse Bogan September 22, 2003
Coming into the US can be a confusing experience, with all different agencies competing to check your car for illegal immigrants, drugs, fruit, or terrorists. Now, in a move towards political expediency, the department of Homeland Security is moving to present "one face at the border" through a unified border patrol (CBP). Current immigration and agriculture officials are complaining...