All Commentaries
We’re Not Broke
These revenue-raisers and spending cuts would narrow the federal budget deficit by $881 billion per year, nearly eliminating it altogether.
Enrique Pena Nieto and Mexico’s Drug War Opening
On December 1, Enrique Peña Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) assumed the Mexican presidency amid a flurry of protests against the party, whose previous 70-year rule defined the country’s authoritarian past. Yet it’s difficult to imagine that the new president’s term could be worse than the unmitigated disaster of his predecessor’s, which was marked by a dramatic militarization of Mexico’s drug war, widespread human rights abuses, and tens of thousands of deaths.
Burma’s Buddhists Determined to De-romanticize Buddhism for West
Even the most peaceful of religions produces violence.
The U.S. and Central & South Asia: Four More Years
It is time to bring the 21st century’s version of “the Great Game” to an end.
Changing the Rules
The rules aren’t broken—they’re fixed. They have created a social and economic system that does not work for the majority of the world’s people. The world’s 1,226 billionaires have more combined wealth than 3.5 billion people – half the entire planet’s population. The richest 10 percent of the world’s population takes 90 percent of the world’s income.
Hamas Helped, Israel Handicapped by Threats to Their Respective Publics
Fundamental differences exists between Hamas in Gaza in 2012 compared to 2008.
Hitham’s Tale
In the latest eight-day conflict, six Israelis were killed by Palestinian rocket fire. In Gaza, however, Israeli bombs killed 179 Palestinians—a substantial portion of whom were civilians, including several dozen women and children. One of them was Hitham’s oldest child, who was visiting relatives in Gaza.
Endangering Women Human Rights Defenders
While a significant chunk of USAID spending goes to education and health programs, pockets of aid enlarge the already bloated military budgets of recipient governments. The result: less security and more violence against women, particularly women human rights defenders.
Theft Is Not the Only Threat Militants Pose to Pakistan’s Nuclear Weapons
During hostilities, unified authority is critical.
Syria and the Semantics of “Civil War”
The semantics of war have been thoroughly debated over the years—one man’s terrorist, as they say, is another man’s freedom fighter. And just as calling the participants in wars by different names affects our feelings toward them, so what we call each war itself is also very important.