The U.S. military and the Barack Obama administration have been thrown into confusion by the attack on two Pakistani military posts near the border with Afghanistan Saturday morning, even as the attacks provoked the Pakistani government and military leadership into much stronger opposition to U.S. policy in the region. The decision to attack by helicopter …
Continue reading “Pak Border Post Attack a Big Loss for US War Policy”
The Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement, for all its flaws, is a genuine expression of the growing recognition in the United States that the government no longer serves the interests of the people. It has been described as an American version of the “Arab Spring,” driven by a sense of popular alienation from the elites …
Continue reading “Neocons Preoccupied With Islamic Conspiracy Theories”
A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference. – Thomas Jefferson The United States has entered a period of unparalleled tyranny for the nation, and a shotgun blast of it is hitting us this week. No longer is …
Continue reading “War on Terror Keeps on Giving”
Can the president use the military to arrest anyone he wants, keep that person away from a judge and jury, and lock him up for as long as he wants? In the Senate’s dark and terrifying vision of the Constitution, he can. Congress is supposed to work in public. That requirement is in the Constitution. …
Continue reading “Can Congress Steal Your Constitutional Freedoms?”
Scenes from Tehran Tuesday of bearded Iranian youth swarming over the walls of the British embassy evoked memories of the 1979-81 hostage crisis that created the image of Iran as a pariah state. But the incidents vary in ways that are more worrisome for international peace than the seizure of the U.S. embassy by radical …
Continue reading “Iran’s Growing Isolation a Dubious Win for the West”
Malaysia rejected an Iraqi request to return a former lawmaker who stood accused of terrorist acts. Mohammed al-Daini had been critical of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government and exposed secret jails. He claimed the charges were politically motivated, and very little evidence against him had been gathered by the time he fled Iraq.
At least eight Iraqis were killed and eight more were wounded in new violence.
Many people have the misconception that sanctions are an effective means to encourage a change of behavior in another country without war. However, sanctions and blockades are not only acts of war according to international law, they are most often the first step toward a real war, starting with a bombing campaign. Sanctions were the …
Continue reading “The Folly of Sanctions”
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee and a victim of torture in the Vietnam War, is considered a moderate on issues relating to “war on terror” detainees. This time he has paired with a moderate Democrat, Carl Levin, chairman of that same committee, to insert in the 2012 …
Continue reading “Moderation in Following the Constitution Is No Virtue”
It’s just as easy for a nuclear disarmament advocate as a hawk to believe that a state such as Iran that has not only established a nuclear energy program but also experimented with nuclear weapons until 2003 is still developing them. Nevertheless, however much Tehran may experience lust in its heart for nuclear weapons, the …
Continue reading “No, Really, Iran Isn’t Developing Nuclear Weapons”
Buried in the annual defense appropriations bill is a provision that would give the President the power to use the military to intern anyone – including American citizens – indefinitely, and hold them without charges or trial, anywhere in the world, including on American soil. The provision essentially repeals the longstanding Posse Comitatus Act, which …
Continue reading “Setting the Trap” 
