There is no better way to support the troops than to remove them from situations unworthy of their lives.
No One Supports the Troops More Than Bradley Manning
read more
United States
Looking at FBI Entrapment
On August 28, 2008, two childhood friends from Midland, Texas, Bradley Crowder and David McKay, traveled north to join thousands of protesters at the 2008 Republican National Convention (RNC). In the company of six Austin activists, Crowder and McKay were ready for adventure, and prepared, in Crowder’s words, to protest to “change the world.” What began as a journey of hope, however, ended in sudden catastrophe.
Review: The Militarization of Indian Country
Author, activist, and two-time Green Party vice-presidential candidate (1996 and 2000) Winona LaDuke is an Anishinaabeg national, and her latest book, The Militarization of Indian Country, marks her fifth work on this subject. Only 70 pages, this short book surveys a wide range of issues related to military incursions into Native America without delving too deeply into any of them. But at the book’s end the reader will find a number of resources both online and in print to flesh out the issues raised.
The World According to Robert Gates
Calls for deep cuts in the federal deficit have returned the military budget–now more than twice the 2001 budget even before counting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan–to the fiscal chopping block for the first time in ten years. In response, former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates spent his last months in office stiffening his rhetorical defense of the Pentagon budget. His discourse reveals both the distance we have come in recent years in eliminating Pentagon inefficiencies and excesses, and the numerous dangers threatening American security around the world.
Shifting Targets: From Iran to Libya and Syria (Part 1)
Invading Libya is about the oil, Syria — eliminating the only Russian naval base in the Mediterranean and weakening Hizbollah.
The Healthy Wage War
Eighty-four percent of all income growth in America between 1989 and 2007 went to the richest ten percent of households. That dramatic increase in inequality corresponds closely with the decline of organized labor—from covering 24 percent of workers in the late 1970s to just 11.9 percent in 2010.
Development and Migration: The Missing Link
Although Obama’s attempt to reframe the debate moved discussion back into economics, he left out any structural explanation of what pushes migration in a globalized world. He portrayed U.S. companies that employ undocumented labor as rogue rule-breakers, and simultaneously exalted migrants as valuable assets while still describing them as global interlopers.
Obama’s Noble Sentiments About Afghanistan Undermined by Meager Drawdown
The dissonance between the sentiments President Obama expressed in his Afghanistan speech and his plans begs the question of how much control he has over his own foreign policy.
The Nuclear Terrorists Are Coming: Break Out the Varsity Squad!
Nuclear safety needs to share the light that Fukushima has shone on it with nuclear security. Russ Wellen at the Foreign Policy in Focus blog Focal Points.
As Cause for Hope in Afghanistan, “Light at the End of the Tunnel” Has Lost Its Luster
Even if we reach the end of the tunnel of one war, there will be a tunnel to a new war awaiting us. Russ Wellen at the Foreign Policy in Focus blog Focal Points.