What’s labeled “cuts” aren’t necessarily actual cuts. They could just as easily mean slower increases.
Don’t Believe Defense Cuts Until You See Them
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North America
The Ideology that Drives the Republican Party
The press, politicians, and pundits have apparently uncovered the driving force behind the current conflict over the debt ceiling: ideology. The New York Times suggests that Republican ideology has doomed any possibility of compromise, that ideology has trumped economics, and Reuters similarly asserts that ideology overshadows the debt talks. Yet no one has asked, let alone described, what precisely is the Republican Party’s anti-tax, small government ideology, an ideology that tumbles over into foreign policy and domestic alike.
U.S. and Mexican Governments Continue to Brush Aside Perspectives of Drug War Victims
Public confidence in the Mexican army and judiciary has declined considerably. Meanwhile, 73 percent of Latin Americans perceive corruption among public officials as a widespread problem.
What Does Lowballing the Number of Dead Iraqi Civilians Tell Us About Ourselves?
It’s shameful how threatened officials and the media are by accurate estimates of how many civilians died in the Iraq War.
A Visit from the FBI
In October 2010, I took my car to my mechanic in Santa Clara for an oil change. As the mechanic was elevating the car on the hydraulic lift, I noticed that there was something like a piece of string or wire coming out from the back. Then, when the car was fully elevated, I noticed this black device under the back of the car. I asked the mechanic to pull it out, and he handed it to me. He was somewhat freaked out.
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.
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?
Israel and the Futility of Attacking Iran: Interview with Abolghasem Bayyenat
Given the largely conflicting political identity of the two governments which in most contexts has defined conflicting foreign policy interests for the two countries , the United States views its relations with Iran as a zero-sum game and will thus struggle to contain Iran’s growing power and influence in the region, even if this would mean swimming against the tide and creating unnecessary costs for its foreign policy in the region.
Obsolete Pentagon Programs Among Beneficiaries of House Funding Increases
When the economy goes south, congress persons cling to defense programs and jobs for their district.