AFF's Doublethink

In his final dispatch, Capt. Eric Lombardini returns home from the frontlines in Iraq and recounts the shock and emotion of reintegration to society.

The old Dubliner had bought me a pint, but he had no opening to hand it to me because of the drunken Canadian waving his arms. The Torontoan spread his arms wide while shouting about Iraq, trying to express, with his wing-span, what he thought was the magnitude of President Bush’s stupidity. Finally, the old [...]

xmlns:w=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word” xmlns:st1=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” xmlns=”http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40″> href=”file:///C:\Documents%20and%20Settings\Jerry%20Brito\My%20Documents\AFF\doublethink%20summer%202003\Brownfeld.doc”> name=”City”/> name=”PlaceType”/> name=”PlaceName”/> name=”country-region”/> name=”State”/> name=”place”/> kamis Normal kamis 2 1 2003-06-19T14:57:00Z 2003-06-19T14:57:00Z 1 2053 11708 Thomas B Fordham Foundation 97 27 13734 10.2605 Normal Clean Clean MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 September 11 was a shocking demonstration of the dangers of lawless countries and ungovernable regions, which are easy targets for Islamic fundamentalism and [...]

Talk about the “missing WMDs” and the notion that President Bush lied about Saddam Hussein having them in order to push America into war has more to do with a discredited anti-war movement desperate for something to be right about than whether the war was justified. The more astute observers have recognized that the issue [...]

Date: 5/18/2003 Subject: Waning months of the war 2 I miss seeing the three-toed footprints of great blue herons hunting on my parents’ beach on the shores of the Sassafras in Fall, the copper green cupola at the end of our dock standing vigilant as a lone sentry, stationed over the water, which in July [...]

On a lark last week, I attended a teach-in hosted by a coalition of Green Party, anti-war, anti-globalization, and labor activists. Among the many speakers were Ralph Nader and former congresswoman Cynthia McKinney. It was a lot like watching one’s team in the final minutes of a tied World Cup final–one moment you’re ready to [...]

Date: 6/19/2003 Subject: Mission complete < p> Hey there friends… < p> Only a couple of weeks left. Ideally I’m home by Independence Day, and then I’m taking leave to come North. I know my parents are planning a get together, I hope you all will come. < p> I will have a week or [...]

xmlns:w=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word” xmlns:st1=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” xmlns=”http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40″> href=”file:///C:\Documents%20and%20Settings\Jerry%20Brito\My%20Documents\AFF\doublethink%20summer%202003\Brownfeld.doc”> name=”City”/> name=”PlaceType”/> name=”PlaceName”/> name=”country-region”/> name=”State”/> name=”place”/> kamis Normal kamis 2 1 2003-06-19T14:57:00Z 2003-06-19T14:57:00Z 1 2053 11708 Thomas B Fordham Foundation 97 27 13734 10.2605 Normal Clean Clean MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 September 11 was a shocking demonstration of the dangers of lawless countries and ungovernable regions, which are easy targets for Islamic fundamentalism and [...]

Date: 4/20/2003 Subject: Healing in the Aftermath Friends and Family, Communications are terribly difficult to access, I quite feel like a British Colonial soldier in the Sudan, mail filtering in once in a blue moon, completely disconnected from the reality of the world. Please write, and when you do, use the following address. Stop writing [...]

Almost two and a half years after the dramatic events that culminated with the violent ouster of President de la Rua in December 2001 and caused Argentina to have three presidents in less than one week (de la Rua, Rodriguez Saa and Duhalde), the country will finally face the final round of the presidential election [...]

Date: 5/18/2003 Subject: Waning months of the war After a dog almost caused a military aircraft to crash by running across the flight line during takeoff, the Army has decided on a scorched earth policy with regards to the feral dogs. It’s understood that there was a need for management, but there rarely seem to [...]

Date: 4/7/2003 Subject: Iraq and sweat < p> So much has happened; I’m not quite sure where to begin. < p> For a time, I was the furthest forward of any veterinarian in Iraq. A dubious honor. For my soldiers and me the war has begun in earnest, no longer an ethereal game of Scud [...]

It seems that every time there is a glimmer of a chance that there might be an American opening towards Cuba, or increased engagement with the island, Fidel Castro does something to scuttle it. A coalition of mostly conservative farm-state members of Congress had just begun to press for an end to the embargo. Several [...]

Date: 4/16/2003 Subject: Lightning over the desert < p> The heat of the midday was suffocating, and I languished under my mosquito netting, trying to read a medical journal whose edges had browned and curled from the wear and tear of the road. The tent around me swam with the mirage of evaporating moisture, steaming [...]

Around this time in 2001, Secretary of State Colin Powell took it on the chin for opining, “Castro has done some good things for his people.” Last week Powell spoke about the Castro regime much more honestly, stating that the recent crackdown, sham trials and summary executions “should be an outrage to every leader in [...]

The grandiose argument that history was at an end appears to be at an end itself. The terror attacks of September 11th and the coming war with the Iraq settled that debate. As such, I find myself fondly recalling the heady days of the dot-com ’90s when we Boomer kids bestrode the road of life [...]

The most important reason to object to the Bush Administration’s imminent war with Iraq is the potential cost in human life. The war certainly endangers those boys who last week were researching bills on Capitol Hill and downing pitchers at the Tune Inn, but who are this week donning desert camo and shipping out to [...]

As U.S. troops get ready to “shock and awe” Iraq, it’s important to take one last look at the Bush Administration’s motivations for a preemptive war. Oil is still high on the list. In informed circles, saying that the coming war is about oil is taboo. That seems right because the confrontation with Iraq is [...]

Date: 3/16/2003 Subject: Musings < p> Hello all, < p> We’ve moved forward, inching ever closer to the Iraqi border. Like a runner at the starting block, poised in a stance of potential energy, we wait. < p> Daily, I monitor the BBC World News wondering at the activity of the noble pieces on this [...]

Last year a friend of mine got Christopher Hitchens’ book Why Orwell Matters as a birthday gift from his mother. My friend’s mother, a refugee from the Soviet Union, inscribed in the book: “Orwell was hated by the conservatives because he was a socialist. He was hated by the socialists because he told the truth.” [...]

Recently, Secretary of State Colin Powell made his presentation to the United Nations Security Council, hoping to convince its member nations that Iraq has deliberately violated the terms of Resolution 1441, which directed Iraq to fully comply with U.N. weapons inspectors and prove that all weapons of mass destruction had been destroyed or else face [...]

The recent debate over Turkey’s accession to the European Union has raised questions over what constitutes a “European” country and what qualifications are necessary for entry. Valerie Giscard d’Estaing, the former French president who is leading a project to draft a constitution for the EU, injected his own polemic on Turkey’s status when he recently [...]

We can all agree, of course, that war is bad. This point has never been in question in the discussions over what to do about Iraq. Libertarians can point to the tendency of government to bloat during war; conservatives can decry social and economic disruption; liberals can bemoan that war diverts spending from worthy and [...]

As President Bush attempts to stir up war sentiment, there seems to be no limit to his efforts to scare the American people. Rather than honestly assessing Saddam Hussein as an evil tyrant–which is true–Bush has cast him as a mighty threat who could detonate a nuclear weapon on American soil, or use chemical or [...]

With leaks of battle plans showing up daily in the New York Times, Congress has become uneasy and worries that the White House may be thinking of starting a war without it. President Bush has not signaled any intention of seeking congressional approval before attacking Iraq, and the White House has declined to participate in [...]

As an American of Cuban descent, I appreciated Jimmy Carter’s recent excursion the same way Leno and Letterman appreciated Monica Lewinsky keeping the dress. Our ex-president’s travels to the land of Castro, and the requisite media coverage, have been an endless source of guilty pleasure. < p>Look, Jimmy Carter needed a vacation. Ghostwriting Arafat’s memoirs [...]

Former President Jimmy Carter’s recent trip to Cuba prompted much talk among pundits over his role as an ex-president. From building houses for the poor to monitoring elections in the third world, today, more people associate Carter with Habitat for Humanity than with long gas lines and American hostages in Iran. In fact, Carter has [...]

< p>The current debate over how our government should respond to the threat of terrorism is focused on the tradeoffs between security and liberty. This debate assumes that the government is capable of protecting us from terrorist attacks, but only if we surrender some of our rights in the process. < p>If this premise is [...]

A group calling itself ANSWER (Act Now To Stop War & End Racism) met at a Unitarian Universalist church in Midtown Manhattan early this month as part of the broad-based far-left protest against the World Economic Forum meeting in New York. Though the nominal topic of discussion was globalization, teach-in rhetoric centered around the aftermath [...]

I used to root for big business for the same reason I rooted for the Red Sox and the Indians in the American League playoffs. I have no love for Manny Ramirez, only hate for Derek Jeter and the Yankees. Similarly, I had no love for Jack Welch, CEO of General Electric, I just despised [...]

< p>Americans were recently warned of a new fallout from the U.S.-China spy plane dispute. Chinese hackers apparently promised cyber-attacks on American web sites throughout the first week of May in retaliation for a wave of American hacks of Chinese sites. CNN told viewers (Apr. 27) to “beware … That nice picture of your corporate [...]

Sometimes, it is difficult to be a conservative, because the other side can make you sound so . . . heartless. For example, there is the matter of child soldiers. Everyone can agree that involving children in armed combat is undesirable. To that end, the United Nations is pushing all member states to sign an [...]

You have to be lucky all the time . . . We have to be lucky just once. -An international terrorist group Today’s headlines are filled with reports of megaton bombs being dropped over Yugoslavia. The laser-guided capability and pinpoint accuracy of these so-called “smart bombs” are lauded as the cutting edge of modern-day warfare. [...]

< p>The Clinton Administration is preparing to ask the new Congress to spend some $2.8 billion in “emergency” foreign aid–U.S. taxpayer dollars that will in theory be used to bolster developing nations world-wide. This new request arrives on the heels of last year’s budget that contained some $18 billion to underwrite the International Monetary Fund, [...]

< p>When military units march from one place to another, they often keep time by singing cadences. One of the most enduring of these starts off, “Here we go again, same old [stuff] again. . . .”–a useful cadence for our recurring bouts with Saddam Hussein. < p>Recently, after repeating (for the fifth time in [...]

< p>Three concepts that are given a great deal of lip service these days are capitalism, free trade, and economic development. Despite all the discussion, however, the three are rarely connected in any meaningful sense. The result has been disastrous. Fifty years of so-called economic development and foreign aid have led to economic repression and [...]