Poisonous Misinterpretations

by Scott Horton Antiwar.com July 24, 2005 'This is not an isolated criminal act we are dealing with, it is an extreme and evil ideology whose roots lie in a perverted and poisonous misinterpretation of the religion of Islam.' — Tony Blair Why do they hate us? Does Islam, or a 'poisonous misinterpretation' of it, create terrorism? Often we’re told by politicians that a corrupt version of Islam is the cause of the al-Qaeda movement and its most deadly tactic, suicide terrorism. In his book,...

How Large a Crater Will We Leave?

by Scott Horton Antiwar.com July 20, 2005 Juan Cole, professor of Modern Middle East and South Asian History at the University of Michigan, has lived in the Middle East and is fluent in Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. His blog, Informed Comment, has earned its place at the top of the list for people interested in understanding events in the Islamic world outside of the typical mass media spin. While libertarians may object to his positions on some issues, those who have been following his work have...

War Is the Health of What?

by Scott Horton Antiwar.com July 15, 2005 Paul Craig Roberts is not a leftist, a liberal, a socialist, or a Democrat. He never has been. Roberts was the assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury for Ronald Reagan. (We all know that the one-world socialist types in the Reagan White House were in the vice president’s office.) Paul Craig Roberts is a supply-sider — they’re not quite libertarians, but getting there. He’s for capitalism, national sovereignty, the Constitution, baseball, flags, moms,...

How To Win The War On Terrorism: Call It Off

By Scott Horton This is one I wrote back in the summer of 2005 for the blog at Ameripundit.com: If we pretend, and accept the premise that the War on Terror is actually about stopping jihadists who target American citizens, then we might have to conclude that our government's efforts are counterproductive. Bin Laden has begun his second term, and the war in Iraq is an unfolding disaster that can only get worse. The War Party's "flypaper" thesis, purely made up after the fact, goes about like...

Slavery in the Service of Liberty

by Scott Horton Antiwar.com July 12, 2005 A majority of Americans had finally gotten over the fearmongering that convinced them to support the invasion of Iraq. The panic and bloodlust produced by the Sept. 11 attacks had faded after nearly four years. But after the July 7 bombings in London, it is likely that this brief period of widespread realism will fade. That the motive for the attack was the invasion and occupation of Iraq is readily apparent, but politicians rushed to proclaim their...