Tag Archive
Afghanistan Again
After nine years of war the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan lacks support at home and is widely recognized as a drain on the domestic economy in a time of severe economic contraction. The billions of dollars in U.S. economic assistance to the Hamid Karzai government has created an unsustainable class of Afghans who are dependent… »
Obama Speaks Some Truth From Power
President Barack Obama’s Nobel lecture last Thursday in Oslo shows he understands that “peace is not merely the absence of visible conflict.” “Only a just peace based upon the inherent rights and dignity of every individual can truly be lasting,” he said. Hearing a president say this is mind blowing and illustrates the side of… »
Afghanistan, “So it Goes”
Fanciful prescriptions for “success.” Voters who value peace demoralized. Siding with war hawks to triangulate against progressives. Another $30 billion the American people will have nothing to show for.
As Kurt Vonnegut used to say, “So it goes.”
President Barack Obama has decided to prolong the debilitating American military commitment to Afghanistan. He is sending another thirty… »
Afghanistan: Presidential Double Standards and Military Power
On October 23, 1983, when Shia militants in Lebanon killed 241 American military personnel outside the Beirut airport with a suicide truck bomb, President Ronald Reagan vowed to continue the troops’ mission in Lebanon. Reagan had repeatedly claimed that Lyndon Johnson forced American soldiers to fight in Vietnam “with one hand tied behind their backs”… »
Bibi Goes to Washington
Israel’s Likudnik Prime Minister, Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu, was one of the driving forces behind the neo-conservative foreign policy doctrine of the Project for a New American Century (PNAC). PNAC called for a new “realm” in the Middle East forged through aggressive military action. Its successful prodding of the United States to invade and occupy Iraq… »