Month: February 2013

Why Are We Still on the DMZ?

North Korea has just pulled off an impressive dual feat — the successful test both of an intercontinental ballistic missile and an atom bomb in the 6-kiloton range. Pyongyang’s ruler, 30-year-old Kim Jong Un, said the tests are aimed at the United States. So it would seem. One does not build an ICBM to hit … Continue reading “Why Are We Still on the DMZ?”

Towards a Christian Zionist Foreign Policy

Countries frequently define themselves by what they believe to be true. When reality and belief conflict that definition might well be referred to as a "national myth." In the United States many believe that there exists a constitutionally mandated strict separation between religion and government. In practice, however, that separation has never really existed except … Continue reading “Towards a Christian Zionist Foreign Policy”

Obama’s Secret Court for Killing

President Obama willingly admits he dispatched CIA agents to kill an American and his teenage son and the son’s American friend while they were in a desert in Yemen in 2011. He says he did so because the adult had encouraged folks to wage war on the United States and the children were just “collateral … Continue reading “Obama’s Secret Court for Killing”

Obama Could Go it Alone: Bring All the Troops Home, and Stop the Killing

President Obama said during his State of the Union address that he would focus on things he could do alone — without having to depend on a badly divided, partisan Congress. And the powerful imagery he summoned in support of voting rights — real, implementable voting rights, based on the example of a 102-year-old voting … Continue reading “Obama Could Go it Alone: Bring All the Troops Home, and Stop the Killing”

Obama’s Drone War Could Legally Kill Americans But Not Anywhere

Although so far, President Obama seems to have less warlike inclinations than George W. Bush (perhaps damning by faint praise) – getting out of Iraq, finally scheduling to mostly pull out of Afghanistan, and going against all national security advisers by refusing to lethally arm Syrian rebels – in one area he seems more bellicose. … Continue reading “Obama’s Drone War Could Legally Kill Americans But Not Anywhere”

Why the War on Terror Endures: Spawning Terror Over There

Believe the War on Terror has been an unmitigated disaster? Find it difficult to wrap your head around the Long War’s long list of horrors? Think the Obama administration and Congress’s willingness to wage the War indefinitely is murderous myopia? Think again: the War on Terror is good at any number of things. It shifts … Continue reading “Why the War on Terror Endures: Spawning Terror Over There”

A Conspiracy of Stupidity

You could, of course, sit there, slack-jawed, thinking about how mindlessly repetitive American foreign and military policy is these days. Or you could wield all sorts of fancy analytic words to explain it.  Or you could just settle for a few simple, all-American ones.  Like dumb. Stupid. Dimwitted. Thick-headed. Or you could speak about the … Continue reading “A Conspiracy of Stupidity”

How Sweet It Is!

The much-awaited Senate Armed Services Committee hearing – and vote – on Chuck Hagels’ nomination as Secretary of Defense finally arrived, and once again the neo-McCarthyites stole the show. Unfortunately for them, their numerous curtain calls failed to yield bouquets of flowers. Instead, their reenactment of the Jerry Springer Show exposed them for what they … Continue reading “How Sweet It Is!”

Four Killed in Iraq Violence

One M.E.K. member died of injuries sustained in a Saturday rocket attack on the Iranian dissident group’s temporary home at Camp Liberty. The death brings the total number of fatalities to seven. Gunmen in Kirkuk killed an elder of the al-Obeid tribe. In Mosul, gunmen killed a taxi driver. A police officer was killed in … Continue reading “Four Killed in Iraq Violence”