President Barack Obama has reversed a few of the Bush administration’s most egregious policies violating human rights and international law, such as the announced closure of the detention center in Guantánamo. But it remains to be seen to what extent he will lead the military toward respect for human rights, and change the institutional impunity to which American commanders and U.S. military allies have become accustomed.
Dear President Obama, You ask for patience we ask you “how much longer?” Iraq is still burning. Rosalie Yelen
Editor’s Note: This commentary was adapted from the report "Why the Lugar-Casey Global Food Security Act will Fail to Curb Hunger," by Annie Shattuck and Eric Holt-Giménez. (Food First Policy Brief No. 18. Institute for Food and Development Policy. Oakland, California.)
Not long ago, excitement over American imperialism reached levels not seen in a century. "People are coming out of the closet on the word ’empire,’" the right-wing columnist Charles Krauthammer told The New York Times in early 2002. Neoconservatives were on the rise in Washington, and their leading propagandists were not shy in making the case for aggressive expansionism.
Dayl S. Wise was drafted into the US Army in 1969 and served in Vietnam and Cambodia in 1970 with the First Air Cavalry Division. After six months in country, he was wounded while on a reconnaissance team. Upon his discharge he studied engineering and worked as a draftsperson and design engineer for many years. Wise is a member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War and Veterans for Peace, and recently returned to school to become a teacher. He has self-published two collections of poems by veterans,The Best of Post Traumatic Press 2000 and Post Traumatic Press 2007.
For Molly
Trevor Paglen is a writer and “experimental geographer” holding a Ph.D. in geography from Berkeley. His thought-provoking visual artworks deliberately blur the lines between social science, contemporary art, political theory, and activism. Constructing unusual but meticulously researched reinterpretations of our world, Paglen is an artist whose work is so radically new that it forces viewers to redefine what constitutes art.
This is part of a strategic dialogue on Pakistan and counterterrorism. See Fouad Pervez’s initial argument here and Sharad Joshi’s argument here.
This is part of a strategic dialogue on Pakistan and counterterrorism. See Fouad Pervez’s opposing argument here, and their respective responses here.
This is part of a strategic dialogue on Pakistan and counterterrorism. See Sharad Joshi’s opposing argument here, and their respective responses here.