The Guardian (London)

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell -- who has said nary a negative word about the president and administration he served -- has finally joined a growing roster of Republican dissidents who have strongly criticized Bush administration policy on the Iraq War and related parts of that crusade.

On the Sunday political show Meet the Press, Powell stated bluntly that the American military detention facility at Guantanamo should be closed down immediately -- "this afternoon" to be precise. He also said… more

Gaza is on the precipice.

This has implications not only for the security of Palestinians and Israelis but also for further radicalizing the region beyond. As Mogadishu enters its second decade of chaos and ungovernability there is a cautionary tale for neighbours seeking to fuel civil wars.

With Gaza collapsing, the key culprits are considered to be the Palestinians, Israel, the United States, and even the Arab states. The Palestinians have been unable to hold together a functioning unity government and… more

Americans used to love Tony Blair.

When Bill Clinton’s presidency ended, a vast majority of Americans -- despite a sex scandal and impeachment -- preferred him to remain in office over either Al Gore or George Bush. For many Americans, Tony Blair -- perceived to be a protégé of Clinton -- was their chance to see Clinton’s charisma and Third Way style of problem-solving idealism carry on in the work and deeds of Britain’s youthful and globally energetic prime minister.… more

It’s been a long time since America’s beleaguered press corps has been able to set the nation’s policy agenda. But investigative reporting by The Washington Post on the deplorable conditions facing some veterans at Walter Reed Army hospital in Washington has brought a swift official reaction and changed the national conversation.

After initially downplaying the Post’s exposé when it ran two weeks ago, the Bush administration has now felt compelled to fire its Army secretary. Meanwhile a two-star general has been… more

Chuck Hagel, the Republican senator from Nebraska, is one of the few senior figures in either Congress or the Bush administration to have been in combat. While many of them deferred their service, like the chief hawk, Vice President Dick Cheney, or did a short spell on home soil in the National Guard, like George Bush, Hagel spent time in the mud of Vietnam as infantry seargant.

This experience explains why he is one of the leading opponents in Bush's… more

US preparations for an air strike against Iran are at an advanced stage, in spite of repeated public denials by the Bush administration, according to informed sources in Washington.The present military build-up in the Gulf would allow the US to mount an attack by the spring. But the sources said that if there was an attack, it was more likely next year, just before Mr Bush leaves office...Mr Bush...leaves office in January 2009 and has said… more

The White House yesterday bowed to Senate opposition and gave up its attempt to keep its controversial ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, in his job - the latest sign of President George Bush's diminishing authority. Mr Bush issued a statement denouncing the senators, including a Republican moderate, who had blocked Mr Bolton's confirmation process in the chamber's foreign affairs committee...

No successor was announced yesterday, but the choice will provide a telling benchmark of how far Mr Bush is prepared… more

As America gropes for an exit from Iraq, thoughts on both sides of the Atlantic turn to her likely future direction. After Vietnam, you could not sell a foreign entanglement in Washington for at least another decade. A similar period of abashed withdrawal from the world stage may well now be in prospect, whoever wins in 2008. European liberals, still clucking in horror at what they see as naked imperialist adventurism, might be expected to welcome such an outcome. But… more

Americans turned out in force yesterday to vote in a bitterly fought election to decide who will control Congress for the last two years of the Bush era, but the poll was marred by technical glitches and accusations of fraud.

Anecdotal reports from around the country suggested the turnout in some of the closely contested Senate races - in Virginia and Missouri for example - was at a level not seen for many years in a midterm vote, in an… more

Several prominent neoconservatives have turned on George Bush days before critical midterm elections, lambasting his administration for incompetence in the handling of the Iraq war and questioning the wisdom of the 2003 invasion they were instrumental in promoting.

Richard Perle and Kenneth Adelman, who were both Pentagon advisers before the war, Michael Rubin, a former senior official in the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans, and David Frum, a former Bush speechwriter, were among the neoconservatives who recanted to Vanity Fair magazine… more