Commentaries Archives - Page 340 of 837

Iraq, Elections, and the Costs of War

by Erik Leaver | Oct 31, 2006

For the first time in recent history, a foreign policy issue is at the top of the electorate’s mind as they head to the polls. Clearly the Iraq War loomed over the mid-term elections before October rolled around, but with the U.S. death toll reaching its highest mark since November 2004, reports arguing the Iraqi death toll now tops 655,000, new estimates on the cost of the war reaching 1 trillion dollars, and Bush’s PR team quickly putting window dressing on his vow to “stay the course”, the elections are being called a referendum on Iraq.

Poll: Fewer Guns, More Talk

by John Feffer, Miriam Pemberton | Oct 27, 2006

Five years ago the Bush administration launched its war on terror without end. About 90% of Americans applauded. The administration has been ramping up the fear to win elections ever since. This strategy is no longer working. Soon the talk shows and editorial pages will be chewing over exit polling to opine about the impact of the war on the election. But it’s already clear that decisive majorities of Americans have had enough of a militarized, unilateral foreign policy.

Free Market Famine

by John Feffer, Anuradha Mittal, Frederic Mousseau | Oct 26, 2006

In the summer of 2005, the world rocked to Live Aid concerts, and the Make Poverty History Movement celebrated developed countries’ fresh commitments toward the International Development Goals (IDG), development assistance, and debt cancellation at the G8 summit in Gleneagles.

Support Peace or Ill Kill You!

by John Feffer, Valery Oisteanu | Oct 24, 2006

The Perils of Globeerization

by John Feffer, Chris O'Brien | Oct 24, 2006

The world’s cup runneth over with living beer traditions. But this vast repository of cultural brewing capital is under attack by global corporations. The top five brewing companies, all of which are American- or European-owned, control 41% of the world market. Perversely, economists and politicians calculate the conquest by industrial breweries as economic growth while the value of small-scale traditional brewing goes uncounted. Much will be lost if this global ÂbeerodiversityÂ is lost to the forces of corporate-led homogenization.

Breaking Up That Old Gang of Mine

by John Feffer | Oct 18, 2006

George Bush’s most steadfast backer in the March 2003 preventive war invasion and occupation of Iraq has been British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The Bush-Blair Âdynamic duoÂ act is, however, about to end. Blair is soon to resign his post in favor of the Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown.

Postcard From Singapore

by Sameer Dossani, Emily Schwartz Greco | Oct 17, 2006

It’s 2 a.m. on a Saturday night. I’m in a Singapore police station. No, this story doesn’t involve alcohol. Fortunately neither the death penalty nor caning is likely. The story begins earlier on September 16, when I arrived in Singapore, the site of the annual meetings of the World Bank and IMF, from neighboring Batam, […]

Operation Enduring Freedom: A Retrospective

by John Feffer, Stephen Zunes | Oct 17, 2006

It has become a given, even among many progressive critics of Bush administration policy, that while the U.S. war on Iraq was illegal, immoral, unnecessary, poorly executed, and contrary to America’s national security interests, the war on AfghanistanÂwhich was launched five years ago last weekÂwas a legal, moral, and a necessary response to protect American national security in the aftermath of 9/11. Virtually every member of Congress who has gone on record opposing the Iraq War supported the Afghanistan War. Similarly, a number of soldiers who have resisted serving in Iraq on moral grounds have expressed their willingness to serve in Afghanistan.

The Taliban is Back

by John Feffer, Stephen Zunes | Oct 13, 2006

On the fifth anniversary of the launch of the U.S.-led war against Afghanistan, the Taliban is on the offensive, much of the countryside is in the hands of warlords and opium magnates, U.S. casualties are mounting, and many, if not most, Afghans are actually worse off now than they were before the U.S. invasion.

Sprouting from Inequality: The Root of the Middle East Crises

by Bonnie Bricker, Erik Leaver, Adil E. Shamoo | Oct 12, 2006

“The origin of tyranny is iniquity, and springing from a poisonous root, it is a tree which grows and sprouts into a baleful pestilent growth, and to which the axe must by all means be laid.” As true as this was to John Salisbury in the twelfth century, it remains the same in the 21st century, and it forms the basis from which many of the crises in the Middle East have sprung.