All Commentaries
War Fatigue and the Un-Critical Critics of War
From Iraq to Afghanistan to Libya, the first decade of the 21st century has solidified the U.S. reputation as the energizer bunny of war. While these conflicts continue to rage on, there are a growing number of signs that even the United States has a limit to how much war it is willing to wage.
Obama’s Expanded Militarism
Last month’s release of the National Strategy for Counterterrorism has brought much joy to many foreign policy liberals. Finally, the ghosts of the Bush administration have been exorcised. Finally, the president speaks of law and allies instead of war and an “axis of evil.” Coupled with the recent announcement of a timetable to end combat operations in Afghanistan, liberals have taken heart at the apparent shift in national security strategy. Such sentiments are understandable given the foreign policy quagmire of the past decade.
Freedom Flotillas Will Sail Until Blockade of Gaza Is Lifted
Though Freedom Flotilla II was intercepted, it vows to regroup and fulfill its obligations to the besieged people of Gaza and to the hundreds of thousands of ordinary people around the world who funded and organized this act of solidarity.
Haiti’s Recovery Ultimately Contingent on Education
If education were made more of a priority, Haiti’s future would look much brighter.
Third Prize: You’re Fired
In the movie Glengarry Glen Ross, Alec Baldwin walks into the office of underperforming salesmen and shakes them to their core. He’s the guy from the head office, and his motivational speech has a whiff of sulfur to it. The top prize for sales that month, he announces, will be a new Cadillac. The second prize: a set of steak knives. As for the third prize, he informs them with a certain twinkling malice, “You’re fired.” One of the salesmen in the audience, Ed Harris, leans back in his chair — he’s not buying it. Baldwin takes off his watch, puts it on Harris’s desk, and says that it costs more than the Hyundai that Harris drove to work. “I made $970,000 last year,” Baldwin practically spits at him. “That’s who I am. And you’re nothing.”
Iran Missile Tests Timed to Capitalize on Gates’s Acknowledgment U.S. Tired of War?
It may have been a coincidence but the latest round of Iranian missile tests came seven days after the outgoing US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates acknowledged that Americans were “tired of a decade of war.”
Martelly: Haiti’s New Hope
Since the catastrophic January 2010 earthquake, Haitians have seen little improvement in their standard of living. More than 500,000 people remain displaced, the cholera epidemic worsens by the day, the living conditions for women and girls in tent camps are increasingly dangerous, there’s been lack of progress on issues of governance and land tenure, and the ineffectiveness of foreign aid have stalled Haiti’s recovery. Haitians are disillusioned with themselves, their government, and the international community.
Myanmar May Be Closer to Becoming Burma Again Than You Think
Increased fighting by Myanmar’s ethnic minorities, along with low morale in the Myanmar army, suggest that the brutal government might not be as invulnerable to overthrow as previously thought.
China Eclipsing U.S. in Global Reach, Poll Finds
And the United States is seen more favourably by the global publics than China, according to the survey. Despite declines in the U.S. image in many countries over the past year, the median percentage that offered an overall favourable assessment of the U.S. was 60 percent, eight points higher than China’s percentage rating.
Obama’s Bush-League World: Is the Obama National Security Team a Pilotless Drone?
Only recently, the Obama administration leaked news that it wasintensifying its military-run war against al-Qaeda in Yemen by bringing the CIA into the action. The Agency is now to build a base for its drone air wing somewhere in the Middle East to hunt Yemeni terrorists (and assumedly those elsewhere in the region as well). Yemen functionally has no government to cooperate with, but in pure Bushian fashion, who cares?