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Foreign Policy Conservatives - Just So Naive by David Schorr, democracyarsenal.org | August 14, 2012
You have to give the Cold War nostalgists at least some credit: what they lack in practicality, they make up for in bluster and pure tenacity. Reading conservative critiques of President Obama on national security like Henry Nau's new National Review Online piece is like going through the looking glass, where success is failure and failure is success. Nau's argument about the relationship between military forces and diplomatic objectives is worth dissecting -- if only because it typifies all the weaknesses of conservatives' case. Their theory says America can whip other nations into line through a combination of military muscle, thick-skinned disregard for others' interests or concerns, and stubborn insistence on getting our way. It's a new twist on an old proverb: build a more bullheaded foreign policy and the world will beat a path to lay down and be your doormat. read more »Romney and Ryan Project Vague Foreign Policy by William Pfaff, truthdig.com | August 14, 2012
Mitt Romney’s selection of Paul Ryan as his running mate for the American presidency confirms that this campaign is going to be mainly about domestic issues—barring a not-impossible Israeli attack on Iran between here and there. It is likely to count for zero that is intelligent concerning American foreign policy during the next administration. Yet foreign affairs will be the most important issue of all to address as the United States staggers forward into the void. Neither Mitt Romney nor Paul Ryan seem close to the hawkish ideology that gave the United States its present military deployments in Asia and Central Asia, and now increasingly in Africa. But they seem to have no clear intellectual position at all, which is to say that they might easily become the instruments of others with aggressive ideologies of their own. read more »How Privilege-Blindness Stops Us Understanding The Roots Of Terrorism by Priyamvada Gopal, The Guardian | August 14, 2012
An independent inquiry has established that Anders Behring Breivik, the clean-cut white supremacist who methodically murdered 77 people in Norway, moved around unchallenged for three hours after detonating a car bomb, despite police receiving eyewitness accounts of an armed man in protective gear. While mass killing always has a madness to its method, white supremacists are all too often declared to be psychopathic loners, where others are seen as part of organized ideological networks. While black and, more recently, Muslim anger are widely seen as the problematic pathologies of our times, and thus subjected to the full weight of sociological, scriptural, political and even economic analysis, declared white rage is routinely relegated to the fringes, written off as the result of individual psychopathy, and eliciting passing interest only after blood is shed. read more »Is the World Too Big to Fail? by Noam Chomsky, tomdispatch.com | August 13, 2012
The democracy uprising in the Arab world has been a spectacular display of courage, dedication, and commitment by popular forces -- coinciding, fortuitously, with a remarkable uprising of tens of thousands in support of working people and democracy in Madison, Wisconsin, and other U.S. cities. If the trajectories of revolt in Cairo and Madison intersected, however, they were headed in opposite directions: in Cairo toward gaining elementary rights denied by the dictatorship, in Madison towards defending rights that had been won in long and hard struggles and are now under severe attack. Each is a microcosm of tendencies in global society, following varied courses. There are sure to be far-reaching consequences of what is taking place in both. read more »Olympic Ideals and Reality of War by David Schecter, consortiumnews.com | August 13, 2012
When the modern Olympics were first conceived, they were intended as a peaceful alternative to war. The nations of the world were supposed to lay down their arms and stop fighting during the games out of respect for the Olympic ideal. That, of course, has not happened. The Games themselves encourage patriotism without reflection, while TV companies fight a war for ratings and revenues. When you turn away from the contests and leave the sports pages to return to the news pages, you note that the games politicians play are less open and much more covert, concealed with rhetoric and labeling that makes it much harder to identify the players or watch their coaches and advisers, who stay in the shadows. It’s far more fascinating, apparently to watch Curiosity rove about Mars, than look closely at the way the battle for Syria is being portrayed. read more »War Wounds by Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times | August 10, 2012
IT would be so much easier, Maj. Ben Richards says, if he had just lost a leg in Iraq. Instead, he finds himself losing his mind, or at least a part of it. And if you want to understand how America is failing its soldiers and veterans, honoring them with lip service and ceremonies but breaking faith with them on all that matters most, listen to the story of Major Richards. For starters, he’s brilliant. (Or at least he was.) He speaks Chinese and taught at West Point, and his medical evaluations suggest that until his recent problems he had an I.Q. of about 148. After he graduated from West Point, in 2000, he received glowing reviews. Yet Richards’s intellect almost exacerbates his suffering, for it better equips him to monitor his mental deterioration — and the failings of the Army that he has revered since he was a young boy. read more »On Gun Laws, It’s Bipartisan Consensus, Not Gridlock, That’s the Problem by Amy Goodman, truthdig.com | August 10, 2012
Another mass murder, another shooting spree, leaving bodies bullet-riddled by a legally obtained weapon. This time, it was Oak Creek, Wis., at a Sikh temple, as people gathered for their weekly worship. President Barack Obama said Monday, “I think all of us recognize that these kinds of terrible, tragic events are happening with too much regularity for us not to do some soul-searching.” Amidst the carnage, platitudes. With an average of 32 people killed by guns in this country every day—the equivalent of five Wisconsin massacres per day—both major parties refuse to deal with gun control. It’s the consensus, not the gridlock, that’s the problem. read more »Washington Puts Its Money on Proxy War by Nick Turse, tomdispatch.com | August 9, 2012
In the 1980s, the U.S. government began funneling aid to mujahedeen rebels in Afghanistan as part of an American proxy war against the Soviet Union. It was, in the minds of America’s Cold War leaders, a rare chance to bloody the Soviets, to give them a taste of the sort of defeat the Vietnamese, with Soviet help, had inflicted on Washington the decade before. In 1989, after years of bloody combat, the Red Army did indeed limp out of Afghanistan in defeat. Since late 2001, the United States has been fighting its former Afghan proxies and their progeny. Now, after years of bloody combat, it’s the U.S. that’s looking to withdraw the bulk of its forces and once again employ proxies to secure its interests there. read more »Reckless Romney by Fred Kaplan, slate.com | August 1, 2012
Matt Romney is back home from his three-country world tour, and the question must be asked: Has any presidential candidate—has any American politician of stature—splashed in so many muddy puddles along the way? Does the candidate believe the things he says? Has he thought through their implications? Or is he simply pandering to the audience of the moment? In other words, is he shallow, or is he cynical? It’s an important question for someone who’s campaigning hard to be president. Romney took this trip to pass a fairly simple test: to demonstrate a bedrock comfort and competence on the world stage. He failed that test, so he should at least be clear about another trait worth knowing about a presidential candidate: his beliefs. In Romney’s case, it’s still a mystery what they are. read more »"Netanyahu has decided to attack Iran before the U.S. Elections in November by Michael Carmichael, globalresearch.ca | June 26, 2012
Netanyahu's agenda is much broader than knocking out Iranian nuclear installations for his aim is to reshape the political landscape in the USA and Israel shifting everything to the far, far right in order to create a new comfort zone for religious fundamentalists. read more »
The Latest
Obama Seeks Extra Funds for Wars, BBC News | April 10, 2009
U.S. President Barack Obama has asked Congress for an extra $83.4 billion to fund operations in Iraq and Afghanistan this year. In his official letter to the House, he said the request was his "last planned war supplemental [payment]". The supplementary money is needed to pay for the new Afghan strategy and the reduction of combat troops in Iraq. more »
'Cyberspies" Infiltrate Power Grid, BBC News | April 9, 2009
Computer hackers have embedded software in the United States' electricity grid and other infrastructure that could potentially disrupt service or damage equipment. The code in the power grid was discovered in 2006 or 2007. Department of Homeland Security Director Janet Napolitano would not confirm such a breach, but said that there has been no known damage caused by one. The U.S. more »
Pentagon Preps for Economic Warfare, Politico | April 9, 2009
The Pentagon sponsored a first-of-its-kind war game last focused not on bullets and bombs — but on how hostile nations might seek to cripple the U.S. economy, a scenario made all the more real by the global financial crisis. The two-day event had all the earmarks of a regular war game. more »
A Help-Wanted Sign for Fraud Investigators , The New York Times | March 22, 2009
Suicides Linked to 'Stressed and Tired' Force, | March 19, 2009
An increase in the number of suicides among military personnel can be traced, in part, to a "stressed and tired force" made vulnerable by multiple deployments, a military leader said. "We must find ways to relieve some of this stress," said Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, vice chief of staff of the Army, in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee. more »
Pentagon to Stop 'Stop Loss', CNN | March 18, 2009
The military will phase out its "stop loss" program, the contentious practice of holding troops beyond the end of their enlistments, for all but extraordinary situations, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced. Instead, the military will use incentives programs to encourage personnel to extend their service. more »
U.S. Moves to Replace Contractors in Iraq, The Washington Post | March 17, 2009
The decision not to renew Blackwater Worldwide's security contract in Iraq when it expires in early May has left the State Department scrambling to fill a protection gap for U.S. diplomats and civilian officials there. Two other U.S. more »
Obama to End Iraq Mission by 2010, CNN | February 27, 2009
President Obama will say in his speech at Camp LeJeune, North Carolina, that the U.S. combat mission in Iraq will end next year. "Let me say this as plainly as I can: By August 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end," Obama will say. Congressional officials said the president told congressional leaders of his plan. more »
Senate to Investigate CIA Under Bush, Los Angeles Times | February 27, 2009
The Senate Intelligence Committee is preparing to launch an investigation of the CIA's detention and interrogation programs under President George W. Bush, setting the stage for a sweeping examination of some of most secretive and controversial operations in recent agency history. more »
Looted Iraq Museum Opens, The New York Times | February 24, 2009
Well over half the exhibition halls in Iraq’s National Museum are closed, darkened and in disrepair. And yet the museum, whose looting in 2003 became a symbol of the chaos that followed the American invasion, officially reopened. Thousands of works from its collection of antiquities and art — some of civilization’s earliest objects — remain lost. more »
