All Commentaries
Will Rockets or Schools Tell the Tale of Afghanistan?
Even at its most successful, a military-led counterinsurgency campaign remains inherently unsustainable.
Would Dramatic Disarmament Impress Iran or Not?
Many believe that substantive disarmament measures on the part of the West would have no bearing on any aspirations Iran may have to nuclear weapons.
Clash of the East Asian Titans
On the face of it, it is hard to explain why a minor collision between a Chinese fishing boat and a Japanese Coast Guard vessel this past September escalated to the point of Beijing and Tokyo nearly breaking off relations. But the incident mirrors policies that both nations see as vital to their self-interests. It is also connected to the aggressive U.S. push to defend its traditional power in the region.
Spitting in the Face of U.S. Troops
Anti-war protesters targeting individual troops for abuse, much less gathering at their funerals like the homophobic Rev. Fred Phelps, is as much of a myth as protesters spitting on returning Vietnam veterans.
U.S. Military Aid Far Outpaces Democracy Assistance
Desperate to secure supply routes to Afghanistan, the United States has been spending at least six times more on military aid for the mostly authoritarian states of Central Asia than on efforts to promote political liberalisation and human rights in the region, according to a new report released here by the Open Society Foundations (OSF).
The Cultural Assassinations of Baghdad
When the American tanks had completed their task breaking down the gates of the Art Museum, the first person to reach the main gallery, which was filled with hundreds of paintings by contemporary artists, was—unfortunately—a thief.
A World Made by War
After the drums of war had begun to beat, after the first headlines had screamed their World-War-II-style messages (“the Pearl Harbor of the 21st century”), I had another thought. And for a reasonably politically sophisticated guy, my second response was not only as off-base as the first, but also remarkably dumb. I thought that this horrific event taking place in my hometown might open Americans up to the pain of the world. No such luck, of course.
To the ISI, Its Hidden Agenda for the Mumbai Attacks Made Perfect Sense
Brutal as the Mumbai attacks were, the hidden agenda behind them was more logical than the one behind the invasion of Iraq.
Obama’s About-Face on Trade
On a frigid Wisconsin day in February 2008, the rapier-like rhetoric of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama slashed away at “free trade” deals that have cost thousands of Wisconsin jobs. He bemoaned the overseas flight of U.S. jobs and connected viscerally with thousands of mostly blue-collar workers at a rally at an imperiled General Motors plant in Janesville, Wisconsin that would ultimately close 10 months later.
Not-So-Magical Realism
Writing about it didn’t, alas, prevent it from happening.
In the late 1940s, Gore Vidal lived in Guatemala, where he shared a house with the writer Anaïs Nin, lived on the cheap, and wrote Dark Green, Bright Red. Published in 1950, this undeservedly obscure novel describes how the operatives of the World Banana Company work behind the scenes in an unnamed Central American country to help a smooth-talking dictator depose a president committed to land reform and free elections.