Two weeks ago Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf became the first South Asian leader to be invited to Camp David. Encouraged by the honor thus bestowed and by Washington’s post-9-11 largesse he asked President Bush for many things, from six billion in aid to updated F-16 fighters. He did not get them all—most notably those planes—but for a military dictator with links to militant Islam who makes and proliferates weapons of mass destruction, he did very well indeed. [Go to Chronicles Extra!]

The Supreme Court’s ruling in Lawrence v. Texas has created panic and confusion among conservatives. The confusion comes largely from the representatives of the harmless right. [Go to Chronicles Extra!]

When Alberta's Tories met in Red Deer for their annual convention this past March, one of the best attended of the party's forums concerned the question of separatism for the province. [Go to Chronicles Extra!]

Newsmax.com has of late become a conduit for stories from disgruntled, so-called leaders of the "Christian Right" auch as Paul Weyrich, Roger Knight, Gary Bauer, Louis Sheldon, Mike Farris and Jim Dobson, who are saying out loud that unless the Republican Party quits taking them for granted and doesn't start paying attention to them, there may be a revolt or mass exodus away from President George W. Bush in the upcoming 2004 election. [Go to Chronicles Extra!]

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TRI'S 6TH ANNUAL
SUMMER SCHOOL:
Shakespeare and the
Tudor Revolution

Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, the anthem of the European Union, accompanied the official presentation of the Union’s draft constitution last week. The 75-page document was prepared by a 15-member “Presidency” representing 105 members of the Convention on the Future of Europe, headed by former French president Valery Giscard d’Estaing. [Go to Chronicles Extra!]

If a rifle figures above a mantlepiece in Act I it is likely to fire in Act III. Likewise, if a dozen well-known KLA apologists and pro-Albanian lobbies parading as think-tanks start simultaneously clamoring for Kosovo’s independence—making identical or similar statements in a ten-day period—it is almost certain that their efforts will be presented as a pressing policy issue before the summer is out. [Go to Chronicles Extra!]

Since WMDs were not the real reason for attacking Iraq, the question of the war’s true purpose remains unresolved. Almost two months since President Bush announced that “major combat operations” had come to an end the United States appears strangely uncertain of its post-war mission. [Go to Chronicles Extra!]

Pervert priests are not the biggest problem for the Catholic Church. They are symptomatic of another, elementary crisis, and Georgetown University put it on display recently for graduation. [Go to Chronicles Extra!]

The one surprising aspect of the current controversy surrounding Iraq’s “weapons of mass destruction” is not the failure to find them; those in the know had known all along that they did not exist. It is the Administration’s inept and confused handling of the situation that should have been anticipated months ago, when the “bureaucratic” decision was initially made to opt for the WMDs as casus belli. [Go to Chronicles Extra!]

American evangelicals, according to former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “are the Israelis’ best friend in the whole world.” In return, they dubbed him “the Ronald Reagan of Israel.” That so many are still surprised by those statements indicates that, by and large, those happy to be called evangelicals or even fundamentalists have been largely ignored by most of the dominant American mass culture . . . [Go to Chronicles Extra!]

Is Iran next? That question seems far more urgent today than it was two weeks ago. The Washington Post declared, on May 25, that the White House “appears ready to take on an aggressive policy of trying to destabilize the Iranian government.” [Go to Chronicles Extra!]

On Thursday, May 29^th, Serbia’s top-circulation daily newspaper, Glas Javnosti, published a full-page interview with our foreign affairs editor on the subject of Serbia and Montenegro’s proposed membership of NATO’s Partnership for Peace PfP) program. Read the complete translation here. [Go to Chronicles Extra!]

The war in Iraq is over but its diplomatic fallout continues. To those of us who believe in the fundamental unity of interests between Europe, North America and Russia, the continuing atmosphere of mistrust between Washington on one side and Paris, Berlin, and Moscow on the other is alarming. [Go to Chronicles Extra!]

“Sharon to Accept Road Map!” proclaimed the headlines on May 23, but they are wrong. The accurate headline should be “Bush Appeases Sharon, Road Map Dead.” [Go to Chronicles Extra!]

Acts of international terrorism fell by almost half from 2001 to 2002, U.S. Administration officials pointed out only weeks ago, and 199 reported incidents last year were the lowest figure since 1969. The fact that no incidents were directed against the United States (or its chief ally, the United Kingdom) prompted bold statements about the success of President Bush’s anti-terror campaign. [Go to Chronicles Extra!]

"If you want to do something right you have to do it yourself" is a phrase that sums up the American character.

But when that character comes under attack, as it has been along the U.S.-Mexican border, it raises many larger questions on the fine line between respect for the law and human rights. [Go to Chronicles Extra!]

Chronicles contributor Sean Scallon discusses local resistance to the Patriot Act. [Go to Chronicles Extra!]