The tenth anniversary of 9/11 is becoming not only an occasion to take the national pulse, but to add up the figures spent on war.
We Could Take a Lesson From Islamist Militants When It Comes to ROI
read more
War & Peace
100 Members of Hamas Arrested Just Before UN Vote for Palestinian Statehood
Hamas arrests by Israeli security forces would seem to indicate a severe setback for Hamas’s influence in the Occupied Territories.
How Can a Junta Survive With a Weak Army?
Burma’s military continues to increase in size, but most of the soldiers are forced to join and paid poorly.
The South China Sea Conundrum
Recent months have witnessed renewed tensions over disputed territories in the South China Sea. In response to China’s encroaching military maneuvers and the country’s designation of the whole area as part of its indisputable sovereignty, several South East Asian countries have found themselves dangerously vulnerable. A murky legal regime has led to the emergence of a series of overlapping territorial claims in the area, but at the center of tensions are five key-actors: China, the Philippines, Vietnam, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and increasingly the United States.
Time to Disband NATO: A Rogue Alliance
When the Cold War ended, many believed there would be a peace dividend, nuclear disarmament, and dismantling of the war machine with industrial conversion to peaceful technology. Instead, we’ve witnessed the aggressive expansion of NATO, to include the former Soviet Republics, right up to the Russian border, which should be a wake-up call to many living in the American Empire. Many people still labor under the apparently false impression that the US is exemplary in holding up the rule of law, the sanctity of the United Nations, and human rights. After all, Americans were the good guys who defeated Hitler and made the world safe for democracy. The NATO expansion took place despite promises made to Gorbachev after the peaceful dissolution of the Soviet Union with the fall of the Berlin Wall that if he dropped his objections to the admission of a unified Germany as a full-fledged, fully armed member of NATO, the western states would freeze NATO membership and not expand any further east. Russia lost 20 million people in World War II to the Nazi onslaught, and Russian wariness of a strengthened reunited Germany participating with their former NATO foe was certainly understandable.
Saudis: “We’re Killing Too Many Civilians in Yemen? Then Give Us Drones”
The Islamist specter in Yemen is driving cooperation between the U.S. and the Saudi government with its questionable human rights record.
Did 9/11 Make Peace Passe?
Peace has never been a particularly popular word in Washington, DC. This is, after all, the home of the Pentagon and the major military contractors, not to mention all the think tanks and congressional lapdogs that lie in the king-size family bed with them. But the word “peace” has acquired such a negative reputation inside the Beltway that the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP), which saw Congress nearly ax all its funding over the summer, is now considering a name change.
To Whatever Extent Libya Is a Victory, It’s a Defeat for Nuclear Nonproliferation
States that may be developing nuclear weapons as well as those that aspire to may draw the wrong conclusions from the U.S.-NATO Libya campaign.
9/11 is No Excuse for Bashing Muslims
On the 10th anniversary of 9/11, we’ll be transfixed once more by images of the planes ramming into the World Trade Center and people, caught in the flames, leaping to their deaths. We’ll see pictures of the burning Pentagon and hear stories of the heroic firefighters and police officers who sacrificed their lives to save others.
10 Years of 9/11 Wars is Enough
The 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks is sure to bring televised images of somber reflection. Looking back is, in some ways, easier for commentators and pundits than wrestling with the current state of Washington’s so-called “war on terror.”