Asia: On the Rocks

Island disputes are a big thing in Asia. Japan and China both claim the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands. Japan and South Korea tussle over Dokdo/Takeshima. Japan and Russia still haven’t definitively sorted out who owns the Kuriles/Northern Territories. You’d think that these...

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The Theology of American National Security

Originally posted at TomDispatch. In April 2003, with Baghdad occupied by American troops, the top officials of the Bush administration were already dreaming of building bases in Iraq that would be garrisoned more or less in perpetuity. Everyone was too polite to call...

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Doctor’s Note

I've been having some minor but intrusive health problems lately, and today is one of those days – and so, unfortunately, I won't be writing a column. But never fear, I'll be back on Monday, so stay tuned – as we used to say back in the era of television...

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Time To Erase Israel’s Green Line

About fifty students sat on the concrete floor of a makeshift shack, absorbing the desert heat as they listened to Salim talk about the imminent destruction of Umm al Hiran and Atir, two unrecognized Bedouin villages located twenty minutes from my apartment in...

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Obama in the Middle East: From Bad to Worse

President Obama's post-election promise of a "new dawn of American leadership" began in earnest five months into his first term with an important speech in Cairo June 4, 2009, appropriately titled, "A New Beginning." He started his oration by...

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