U.S. goes ballistic over nuclear missile defence—again
Vancouver Courier (April 9, 2000)
The date on the Globe and Mail clipping says March 23, 2000. The subject is the U.S. testing its national nuclear missile defence system, and efforts to push Canada to get with the program. The irony of the date, though, is unmistakable. ... read more In Serbia, the march of folly soldiers on
Vancouver Courier (April 4, 1999)
When will the United States wake up and smell its own stupidity? Did the Vietnam War teach it nothing? Even 24 years after the final helicopter carried the last Americans and pro-American Vietnamese from the rooftop of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon on April 29, 1975, the Clinton administration is acting as if the Vietnam War never happened. ... read more

U.S. will reap bitter fruit from banana war
Vancouver Courier (March 14, 1999)
When I first read this piece, I had to keep reminding myself that I was reading a journalistic feature, not a piece of triumphalist brass-polishing churned out by the United States Information Agency. In his column entitled “U.S. basks in security, affluence and influence,” Andrew Cohen reports that violent crime, unemployment, traffic deaths, inflation, teenage pregnancy and welfare rolls in the U.S. are all down, some of them significantly. ... read more

Globe shows how slowly our world turns
Vancouver Courier (February 21, 1999)
Readers of the Globe and Mail are discovering that history makes fascinating news. Though this observation itself isn’t exactly news, Canada’s national newspaper is giving the importance of history added meaning. From now until the end of the year, the “millennium page”—a copy of a historical front page for each of this year’s 313 publishing dates—gives readers a snapshot of Canada and the world throughout the century. ... read more

U.S. shows that ethics belongs to the powerful
Vancouver Courier (December 20, 1998)
Every time I hear “human rights” I wince. Of all the catch-phrases that clutter our language, it’s perhaps the most abused. It’s a pat little phrase that engenders sympathy more than understanding, and for that reason it is harmful. People can profess support for its noble precepts, yet succumb to the most egregious woolly headedness. ... read more

World criminal court can’t rule out national interests
Vancouver Courier (July 19, 1998)
Every time I come across a “Free Tibet” or “Free East Timor” rally I’m reminded that international justice is at best an abstraction; in practice, a universally enforceable standard of justice doesn’t exist. If it did, Tibetans, East Timorese, Palestinians and other peoples could appeal their oppression to the United Nations Security Council or the World Court and expect their demands for justice to be heeded. ... read more

Canada’s UN investment a wasting asset
Vancouver Courier (February 15, 1998)
Over the past five decades, successive Canadian governments have put great stock in liberal internationalism. Given that this country has always had a weak national ego—and our American neighbour a dangerously overdeveloped one—investing in collective security has seemed like a reasonable way to keep out of the American shadow. ... read more

For Canada, UN peacekeeping has outlived its usefulness
Vancouver Courier (June 2, 1997):
You know the United Nations is on its last legs when the secretary-general has to go to cap-in-hand looking for money. In effect, that’s what Boutros Boutros-Ghali was doing on his recent visit to Canada. The UN’s peacekeeping mission to Haiti has run out of money and he wants Canada to extend its security commitment to that country’s fragile democracy for another six months beyond the June 30 expiry date....read more