War, Children: It’s Just a Welfare Check Away

When pundits name-check “the welfare-warfare state,” we usually mean, and are usually understood to mean, something along the lines of “bread and circuses at home, military adventurism abroad.” That’s as good a definition as any, I suppose, and certainly an accurate...

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Syria: Let’s You and Him Fight

The usual suspects are at it again -- doing their damnedest to escalate a war they have no intention of either fighting in or paying for themselves, and to involve you in it. US Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Joe Lieberman (of the "Connecticut for...

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Syria: There Are No ‘Good Guys’

Well, OK, yes, there are some “good guys” in Syria: People trying to live their lives in the midst of civil war, doctors treating the wounded, and, yes, almost certainly some who are genuinely fighting for freedom. But neither of the two sides of that civil war are...

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Manning Prosecutors: The Enemy is Us

Having held Private First Class Bradley Manning prisoner for nine months, under conditions tantamount to torture and beyond doubt intended to break his will, the US Army recombobulated its allegations against him on Wednesday, adding 22 counts to an already lengthy...

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Let My People Go

As I write this, the Egyptian state seemingly totters on the brink of collapse. One last push from what appears to be a genuine, spontaneous popular uprising may be all it takes to send “president for life” Hosni Mubarak into exile or to a wall with (perhaps) a...

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The Valley of the Shadow of WikiLeaks

Leave it to the U.S. Department of “Defense” to continue fighting a war it's already irretrievably lost. On Friday, the Pentagon “asked” online whistleblowing facilitator WikiLeaks to “do the right thing” by erasing all classified U.S. government documents from its...

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