Missile defense hasn’t outlived its usefulness because it never had any.
Republicans Perpetuate Myths About Missile Defense to Keep Cold War Alive
read more
NATO
Four More Years: Europe’s Meltdown
Back in the 1960s, the U.S. peace movement came up with a catchy phrase: “What if the schools got all the money they needed and the Navy had to hold a bake sale to buy an aircraft carrier?” Well, the Italian Navy has a line of clothing, and is taking a cut from a soft drink called “Forza Blu” in order to make up for budget cuts. It plans to market energy snacks and mineral water. Things are a little rocky in Europe these days.
To ISAF, Committing Atrocities Means Only Having to Say You’re Sorry
The definition of insanity is continuing air and drone strikes and expecting the results to be different each time.
The Pentagon’s Obesity Problem
America has a problem with portion control. U.S. restaurants serve enormous entrees, convenience stores sell “Big Gulp” cups of soda, and Americans routinely compete to see who can eat the most hot dogs or pizzas or chicken wings in ten minutes. It’s not just the quantity. It’s also the quality. Americans get as much as one-third of their calories from junk food. No wonder that Americans are fatter than citizens of any other developed country, with the obesity rate twice that of many European nations. The Pentagon has the same problem with portion control.
Missile Defense: Ever the Fly in the Ointment of U.S.-Russia Relations
That NATO missile defense in Europe as protection from Iran, not Russia, is a tough sell.
NATO vs. Rogues?
Institutions rarely vote themselves out of existence. Not if they still have money in their budgets. Large institutions in particular have an almost genetic propensity to cling to life even after their reasons for being have vanished. That’s why I don’t expect NATO, which will gather in Chicago later this month, to suddenly declare game over and disband – even though the alliance’s rationale has become wafer-thin. The Soviet Union is no more, al-Qaeda is a spent force, and NATO members are rushing for the door in Afghanistan. Indeed, most of Europe is cutting back on military spending, and the debt-saddled region has a diminished appetite for intervention.
Body Counts in Libya Could Prove Embarrassing
Most of the deaths in Libya occurred after the UN Security Council authorized the NATO sorties.
Strategic Dialogue: Libya after Gaddafi
In this strategic dialogue, Michael Berube and David Gibbs reply to each other’s initial essays on the legacy of the NATO intervention in Libya.
Syria’s Revolution Will Succeed
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime must step down immediately—without Western military intervention. Certainly, the Syrian people deserve support to protect them from the brutal and barbaric onslaught of the Syrian’s security forces. But such assistance and safe haven should come from Arab countries and Turkey. Help from other Arab or Muslim countries would be less offensive to the Syrian people, would be less likely to entail an occupation force, and would likely be less long-lasting than an intervention by Western countries.
Libya for Libyans
I write in late December 2011, as the United States finally withdraws combat troops from Iraq, and the likely Republican nominee for president in 2012, Mitt Romney, criticizes President Obama for his “precipitous” withdrawal. Nearly nine years in Iraq in a disastrous war of choice is apparently not enough for dead-ender hawks like Romney, who, undaunted by the long debacle, continue to insist that the United States should leave up to 30,000 troops in the country–perhaps in partial fulfillment of John McCain’s suggestion that the United States remain in Iraq for 100 years.