Author Archives: floegel

Vatican Roulette

5/1/2003 – 2:52 pm

Now that hostilities have subsided in the Iraq war, we’re all hoping for an outpouring of democratic spirit. At the same time, we fear the nation may be falling into the hands of fundamentalist demagogues. I’m not talking about Iraq; I mean the United States of America. Three weeks ago, Rick Santorum, the Republican junior […]

Posted in Catholicism, Civil Liberty, Commentary | Comments (0)

Hard Lessons

4/24/2003 – 2:50 pm

The newspapers say President Bush is determined to avoid the mistake his father made in 1992. Now that Bush Junior’s Persian Gulf war is winding down, George W. is said to be prepared to pay attention to his domestic agenda in ways his father did not. The domestic agenda could stand a bit of attention. […]

Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)

Hail, Dorothy

4/17/2003 – 2:48 pm

My friend Jeanne said, “Those guys at the Pentagon must have watched ‘The Wizard of Oz’ too many times. They think Saddam Hussein is the Wicked Witch of the West and now that he’s gone everyone will kneel down and say, ‘Hail, Dorothy.’” If you follow the analogy, George W. Bush is Dorothy. I wonder […]

Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)

Freedom’s Just Another Word for Nothing Left to Lose

4/10/2003 – 2:45 pm

The battle for Baghdad, and thus the war in Iraq, is drawing to a close. Already the hawks in the Pentagon are rattling their sabers toward Syria. The war on terror, it is to be assumed, continues unabated even if we still can’t find Osama bin Laden. Shortly after 9-11, President Bush, referring to terrorists, […]

Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)

Shock Waves

4/3/2003 – 2:43 pm

I was reading the twenty-fourth paragraph of a war story in the Washington Post Sunday when the sentence jumped out at me: “If the Pentagon does deploy into Iraq all the troops currently scheduled to go, almost half the combat power of the Army and the Marine Corps will be in Iraq.” That’s an uncomfortable […]

Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)

A War of Choice

3/27/2003 – 3:44 pm

Early in the Clinton administration, UN Ambassador Madeleine Albright sat in a meeting with General Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, discussing Bosnia. Ms. Albright suggested sending in American troops. “What’s the point of having this superb military that you’re always talking about if we can’t use it?” she asked. General Powell, […]

Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)

All Over the World

3/20/2003 – 3:41 pm

Life is uncertain. Change is the only constant; so it is now. As I write these words, we are still within the 48-hour window that precedes the onset of hostilities in Iraq. I went downtown Sunday night to the front lawn of the Unitarian Church. Some 400 of my fellow Burlingtonians gathered with candles to […]

Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)