When the U.S. media holds debates about the state using torture to gather evidence or intelligence, the questions tend to be framed hypothetically, as if it is a practice the government might possibly resort to in the future. Robert Pallitto’s collection of official documents destroys this misperception. In reality, torture has been used by government actors in the United States since colonial times.
Besides defending itself, Iran has another reason for retaliating against Israel — and it’s not the destruction of the Jewish state.
A substantial part of that re-invention is the capacity to ask tough questions of powerful officials.
In every aspect of human existence, change is a constant. Yet change that actually matters occurs only rarely. Even then, except in retrospect, genuinely transformative change is difficult to identify. By attributing cosmic significance to every novelty and declaring every unexpected event a revolution, self-assigned interpreters of the contemporary scene — politicians and pundits above all — exacerbate the problem of distinguishing between the trivial and the non-trivial.
Many Afghans were pleased about the NATO airstrike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.
The U.S. does not wish to be seen as responsible for “losing” Egypt to Islamists in the coming elections.
The Egyptian military is using tear gas on protestors in Tahrir Square that’s made in the U.S.A.
Many of those calling for Israelis to boycott stores with Israeli-Arab employees no doubt supported the anti-boycott, divestment, and sanctions law for Israel and the settlements.
North Korea and Burma have been the beneficiary of foreign policy initiatives by China and the United States respectively.
Anyone who claims that the fate of the climate talks is bound to the fate of the Occupy movement better expect a bit of skepticism in return. Now, if it were Occupy and the Climate Justice movement, that would be a different story! Both are complex social movements, and both are driving hard for economic justice. Their overlap is inevitable. But the negotiations themselves? What have they to do with economic justice? What have they to do with the great divide between “the 1%” and “the 99%”?