The New York Times backs the administration and Gen. Petraeus’s policy of softening up the Taliban with a pounding before talking with its representatives.
The New York Times Backs the Administration’s Tenderize-the-Taliban Policy
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War & Peace
WikiLeaks: Canada’s Harper Embodies American Right’s Worst Tendencies
Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper, whose Conservative Party took a commanding majority in nationwide elections last week, has built his political success on a platform of his country’s supposed Arctic sovereignty, pro-business economics, and dodging action on climate change.
Pakistan Makes It Hard to Defend From the “They Don’t Value Human Life” Libel
Pakistan seems oblivious to the threat that expanding its nuclear-weapons program poses.
Afghanistan under the Knife
It was a primitive form of surgery. Almost ten years ago, the United States and its allies stuck a knife deep into Afghanistan in an attempt to remove two malignancies, al-Qaeda and the Taliban. One of those, Osama bin Laden’s crew, is nearly gone. The Taliban, after going into remission for a brief period, has come back.
The knife remains in the patient. With bin Laden gone, the debate has intensified: what to do with the knife?
Bin Laden Had Jumped the Shark Anyway
With his severity and grandiosity, bin Laden had outlived his tactical, strategic, and philosophic usefulness to jihadists.
Bin Laden: Death by Verb
How we define Osama bin Laden’s death matters.
Responsibility to Protect Gives Way to Targeted Assassination and Regime Change in Libya
The messaging used to sell the invasion of Libya to the American people — that NATO was taking up the ‘responsibility to protect’ — painted a thin veneer over lurking geopolitical motives.
Yemen on the Edge
Since Obama came to office in January 2009, U.S. security assistance to the Yemeni regime has gone up 20-fold. Despite such large-scale unconditional support, however, the 32-year reign of autocratic President Ali Abdullah Saleh may finally be coming to an end. Yet the Obama administration has been ambivalent in its support for a democratic transition in this impoverished but strategically important country.
Addle-Brained Islamic Extremists Take Revenge on Muslims for bin Laden’s Killing
It’s difficult to understand how blowing up Pakistani militaries avenges bin Laden’s killing by U.S. forces.
What if the U.S. Actually Attempted to Seize Pakistan’s Nukes?
If the United States decided to take over Pakistan’s nuclear-weapons program, it could escalate into war.