President Bush declared after the attack on Iraq: “We’re not an imperial power. We’re a liberating power.” The president maintains the rhetoric that empires throughout history have taken—wars are waged for “liberation” rather than for domination. Perhaps Bush is unaware that he was echoing British General Stanley Maude, who, after conquering Baghdad in 1917, proclaimed, […]

The U.S. is now bogged down in a guerilla war in Iraq. The political leadership misled the people in a pattern of deception that Machiavelli would have admired. The media, with few exceptions, never challenged the official stories. Only a handful in Congress asked questions. In a remarkable propaganda triumph, the Bush Administration managed to […]

Ordinary people work all their lives, expecting their pensions upon retirement. Instead, they’re handed pink slips, then told their pensions are worthless. Corporate executives rake in millions while shady accounting practices hide the fact that they are at the helm of ships in trouble. When news of massive corporate scandals at Enron, WorldCom and Global […]

People have power but can exercise it most effectively when it is organized and collective. It’s relatively easy for the state and big business to pick off and neutralize freelancers and lone operatives. It’s when a movement forms that the state and the corporations can be challenged. Citizens in privileged societies like the U.S. often […]