POLITICS-U.S.: Plans for Post-Saddam Iraq Split on Familiar Lines

While U.S. military strategists are refining their plans for invading Iraq early next year, the configuration of a post-invasion Iraq remains a matter of hot debate within the administration of President George W. Bush.

POLITICS-U.S.: A Harried Week for a Heavy-Handed Hegemon

Hawks in the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush received a rude reminder this week that Washington's vaunted power to determine the course of events around the world is more limited than perhaps they had thought.

POLITICS-U.S.: U.S. Discovers Its Le Pen

Even as the United States intensified its preparations for a possible invasion of Iraq as early as next month, official Washington this week became consumed by controversy over racism.

POLITICS-U.S.: Democracy and Double-Talk on Turkey

Turkey has long occupied a very special place in the hearts and minds of the 'Attack Iraq' crowd that remains the dominant voice in the administration of President George W. Bush.

POLITICS-U.S.: Israel’s Likud Scores With White House Appointment

Neo-conservative hawks in the administration of President George W. Bush have won a major battle against the State Department in the fight for control of U.S. Mideast policy with the surprise appointment of Iran-Contra figure Elliott Abrams to the region's top policy spot in the National Security Council (NSC).

POLITICS-U.S.: Bandar’s Bewilderment Mirrors Saudi Fall From Grace

Poor Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the ambassador of Saudi Arabia to the United States.

POLITICS-U.S.: Chalabi Lobby Battles Old Mideast Hands on Iraq

As in all things linked to U.S. foreign policy these days, the question of who should lead a post-Saddam Hussein Iraq is a matter of deep disagreement within the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush.

POLITICS-U.S.: Powell Regains Ground in ‘Bush I Versus Bush II’

After three months of infighting, it appears that Secretary of State Colin Powell, who was largely marginalized by Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney after the Sep. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, has clawed his way back into contention.

POLITICS-U.S.: War Party Gears Up for Post-Election Campaign

As soon as the results of Tuesday's mid-term elections are known, a small group of influential right-wing hawks with close ties to the offices of Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney will launch a new political campaign to rally public support for the invasion of Iraq.

POLITICS-U.S.: Hawks Trot Out World War II to Justify Iraq

In 1966, two years after Congress approved the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin resolution that authorised U.S. escalation in the Vietnam War, then-chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, J. William Fulbright, deplored both the decision and the debate surrounding it.

POLITICS-U.S.: Hawks Win War between Propaganda, Intelligence

When national security analysts looked at the poll data on Americans' perceptions linking the Sep. 11 attacks and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein earlier this month, they were startled.

POLITICS-U.S.: Washington Urged to Engage More With U.N.

As the administration of President George W. Bush pressures the U.N. Security Council to endorse military force against Iraq, a blue-ribbon task force of prominent U.S. citizens has called on Washington to take the United Nations much more seriously.

POLITICS-U.S.: The Emperor Within the Empire

''Who died and left Donald Rumsfeld Secretary of State?'' asked an August column by David Corn of The Nation, a prominent left-wing U.S. newsweekly.

POLITICS-U.S.: Hawks Now Justify Iraq Strike as War for Democracy

The normally cool - if not coldly analytical - Anthony Cordesman was uncharacteristically heated as he warmed to his subject.

POLITICS-U.S.: Iraq – Such Big Questions, So Little Time

With Washington war drums pounding ever louder, President George W. Bush's request to Congress for the broadest possible authority to disarm Iraq and oust its leader sets up a momentous debate over how much power Congress will cede to the president and about the future use of U.S. military power abroad.

POLITICS-U.S.: Neo-Con Hawks May Have Over-reached on Iraq

By launching a major campaign over the last two months to extend the war on terrorism as far as the Saudi royal family, neo-conservative ideologues who have emerged as the predominant force around President George W. Bush appear now to have overplayed their hand.

POLITICS-U.S.: Vision of Might and Right Triumphed After Sep 11

When excerpts of the document first appeared in the New York Times in the spring of 1992, it created quite a stir. One senator described it as a prescription for ''literally a 'Pax Americana'.''

POLITICS-U.S.: ‘Chicken Hawks’ Lead Push for War with Iraq

A high-ranking State Department official was speaking to a room full of senior military officers last month when he cracked, ''There's more combat experience on the 7th floor of the State Department than in the entire Office of the Secretary of Defense.''

POLITICS-U.S.: Washington Goes to War, Over War

War has been declared in Washington, but not against any foreign country, at least for the moment.

POLITICS-U.S.: Right-Wing Hardliners Tighten Grip on Foreign Policy

Ret. Gen. Colin Powell is unquestionably the most popular U.S. Secretary of State in the last half century, if not in U.S. history.

POLITICS-U.S.: Hawks Unhappy Over Improving Ties with Beijing

Despite President George W. Bush's efforts to embrace Taiwan ever tighter, Vice President Dick Cheney and influential right-wingers close to key policymakers at the Pentagon complain the administration has become too complacent about what they call a growing threat from China.