Doug Bandow - The Japan Times

Today's print edition

Subscribe for more access

Meta

Doug Bandow

For Doug Bandow's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

COMMENTARY

Jun 29, 2003

Humane results don't justify bad policy

WASHINGTON -- Never mind finding Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, intones U.S. Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican: Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was a bad man and "our war to liberate Iraq was right and just." Liberal pundit Nat Hentoff agrees, calling humanitarianism "the most compelling reason...

COMMENTARY

May 29, 2003

Help Kuwait bring its POWs back home

UM QASR, Iraq -- The men line up, dirty but happy. They carry a variety of boxes, cheap suitcases and plastic bags. Some have wrapped towels around their heads like traditional Arab headdresses; one incongruously sports a straw hat.

COMMENTARY

May 23, 2003

Politics placed before health

WASHINGTON -- If the infectious disease SARS breaks out around the globe, it most likely will come from China, the world's most populous state with a primitive health-care system and vast rural population. And if severe acute respiratory syndrome spreads from China, the cause will be the Chinese government's...

COMMENTARY

May 17, 2003

Let Asia resolve the North Korean crisis

WASHINGTON -- The Iraq war is over, but the Korean Peninsula is growing hotter. Obvious disagreement over policy toward the North has clouded South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun's visit to the United States, while Washington's recent nuclear talks with North Korea ended in acrimony. U.S. President George...

COMMENTARY

May 10, 2003

Let market forces decide corporate fates

WASHINGTON -- America's series of corporate scandals have demonstrated the power of the market to discipline errant businesses. Market forces can also rehabilitate firms, unless Uncle Sam decides to shoot the economy's wounded.

COMMENTARY

May 4, 2003

Rare chance for U.S. to fix tort lottery

WASHINGTON -- Trial attorney and U.S. Sen. John Edwards is well-liked by the plaintiff's bar. Too well-liked perhaps, since the Justice Department is investigating apparently illegal contributions to his presidential campaign -- which have since been returned -- from an Arkansas law firm. Although Edwards...

COMMENTARY

Apr 12, 2003

Hey, it's not my fault that I'm overweight

WASHINGTON -- I'm trying to lose a few extra pounds, but the other day some Brach's chocolate eggs began calling to me: "eat me, eat me."

COMMENTARY

Apr 4, 2003

Give China reason to pressure Pyongyang

WASHINGTON -- North Korea is a Potemkin country. When I visited, it had an airport without airplanes, roads without cars and streets without street signs.

COMMENTARY

Mar 31, 2003

Debt owed to those inclined to be soldiers

COMMENTARY

Mar 22, 2003

Difficult task of buying a few good allies

WASHINGTON -- The United States may dominate the globe, but it is almost alone in the war against Iraq. Even the offer of some $30 billion in aid could not procure basing rights from Turkey, a longtime ally.

COMMENTARY

Feb 15, 2003

Why hasn't Saddam killed all Americans?

WASHINGTON -- Americans all should be dead. At least, Americans all should be dead if the Bush administration is correct about Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. It believes there is nothing today that prevents a weak and isolated Iraq from striking the United States, the globe's dominant power.

COMMENTARY

Jan 26, 2003

Still time to rewrite script ending in war

WASHINGTON -- The U.N. inspectors in Iraq have suddenly taken front stage. But the process is a sideshow. The real issue is whether an invasion is necessary to protect the West.

COMMENTARY

Jan 20, 2003

Call for U.S. conscription is misplaced

WASHINGTON -- New York Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel opposed the U.S. congressional resolution supporting war in Iraq. He lost. So now he wants to draft young people into the coming conflict to ensure that Americans "shoulder the burden of the war equally."

COMMENTARY

Jan 6, 2003

Time for a U.S.-South Korean divorce

WASHINGTON -- The United States has defended South Korea for 50 years. But newly elected President Roh Moo Hyun suggests that his nation might "mediate" in any war between America and the North. Whatever value the U.S.-ROK alliance once had has disappeared. The presence of 37,000 troops in South Korea...

COMMENTARY

Dec 4, 2002

The high price of Saudi oil

WASHINGTON -- The U.S.-Saudi relationship is again engulfed in controversy. Did a Saudi princess, and wife of the Saudi ambassador to the United States, give money to two of the 9/11 hijackers? Yet again, both governments are paying a high price for their unnatural friendship.

COMMENTARY

Oct 12, 2002

Cost cuts could compromise health care

WASHINGTON -- Public-spirited rhetoric usually masks intense interest-group combat in Washington, D.C., like that over pharmaceutical patents. Health insurers, which barely survived the Clinton administration's assault, are targeting drug-research firms.

COMMENTARY

Sep 22, 2002

Al Gore's amnesia on abuse of liberties

WASHINGTON -- Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore is apparently on the hunt for votes in the 2004 presidential race. He criticized the Bush administration on just about every ground at a recent dinner hosted by the Congressional Black Caucus. The greatest moment of unintended hilarity came when he said...

COMMENTARY

Sep 2, 2002

It's time to arm America's airline pilots

NEW YORK CITY - Nearly a year has passed since the worst act of terrorism in America's history. The World Trade Center site is clear, the sky above is empty. And fear of another deadly attack remains. A so-called miscommunication between pilot and air traffic controllers recently led the government to...

COMMENTARY

Aug 18, 2002

Unprovoked U.S. attack could be costly

COMMENTARY

Jul 25, 2002

Home of the brave, land of the snitches

WASHINGTON -- Washington "will do everything conceivable, everything humanly and technologically possible to preserve our way of life and our citizens," says Tom Ridge, director of the U.S. Office of Homeland Security. Unfortunately, the Bush administration seems ready to threaten our way of life in...

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.

[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

Things may look perfect to the outside world, but today's mom is fine with some imperfection at home.

How 'Reiwa moms' are reshaping motherhood in Japan

By Mai Yoshikawa

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Live like a lord or lady for a night at Ozu Castle

Live like a lord or lady for a night at Ozu Castle

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER

international-reports