Lucy Steigerwald

During the Bush administration, the US engaged in the torture of terrorism suspects at prisons like Abu Ghraib, and at black sites all over Europe. Arguably, torture is still occurring in some places, through actions like the force feeding in Guantanamo Bay. However, in 2009, right after he entered office, President Obama banned torture – … Continue reading “Torture, War, and No Consequences”

The midterms are over, but the lingering distraction as to their great meaning will last a few more weeks. Ebola and the Islamic State (ISIS) were put on the backburner while everyone wrung their hands over the importance of the political process at home. Once again, in spite of the laughably low approval rate of … Continue reading “Foreign Policy Is Still on Autopilot”

On October 26, The New York Times published an article on the close ties between the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and ex-Nazis after World War II. This wasn’t news, except for the fact that there were more Nazis poached by the CIA and other intelligence services, then brought to the US, and protected from prosecution … Continue reading “Federal Agencies Just Doing Whatever They Want Now”

As an October 20 piece in Stars and Stripes reminds us, the U.S. has been fighting a second war in Afghanistan without much success – that would be the one against poppy production. Poppies are the flower from which opium is derived, so the U.S. campaign against their growth is a not particularly surprising aspect … Continue reading “The Drug War Doesn’t Work Abroad Either”

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) gave us the term blowback, and then spent their career encouraging it with foreign interventions. Now, the CIA has found that another one of their habits doesn’t lead to good effects in the real world. As reported by The New York Times, in 2012 and 2013 the CIA looked back … Continue reading “CIA Admits That Funding Rebels Doesn’t Work”

Barack Obama could have been worse in terms of foreign policy. Now, worse is a silly word to use when you’re talking about life and death. It’s not going to comfort survivors to know that more people died in the last war or Hellfire missile strike than in this one that killed their loved ones. … Continue reading “Better Isn’t Good Enough When it Comes to War”

On September 25, the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) James B. Comey criticized Apple’s plans to update their operating system to exclude any kind of so-called backdoor for law enforcement access to encrypted data on Apple devices. Comey, like a true government official, urged people to think of the children if government … Continue reading “Law Enforcement Mourns Apple’s Tighter Security Standards”

On Monday, the US, with the help of five other countries, began bombing Syria at last. Officially, they were bombing the Islamic State (ISIS) but it still felt like the long-predicted attack on Syria had come. Whether the target was President Assad, or ISIS, the US was eventually going to find a reason to intervene … Continue reading “The Blank Check for War”

On Wednesday, the House of Representatives voted to arm and train the so-called moderate Syrian rebels, in order to counter the alarming spread of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The Senate is likely to approve this week as well. The existence of some folks who want to be rid of Bashar Al-Assad, … Continue reading “If We Fix the Government, ISIS Wins”

On September 11, 2014, MSNBC aired footage from 9/11 for hours, and after 13 years of being furious at the US government instead of the people who murdered 3000 people on that day, it was almost a relief to learn that video of it still disturbs. No matter what happened before or afterwards, 9/11 was … Continue reading “Never Learn Anything From 9/11”