Gen. Stan McChrystal, United States Army, will leave active service with four stars instead of three because of a special waiver bestowed on him by President Barack Obama. One is supposed to hold four-star rank for three years before one can retire at that pay grade,...
Death by Remote
As the Barack Obama administration continues to roll out justifications for its policy of targeting U.S. citizens and others thought to be attacking U.S. troops, legal and national security experts are pondering a central question: What if there's a mistake and the...
On ‘Collateral Murder’ and Stephen Colbert
Much has been written in recent weeks about "Collateral Murder," the Wikileaks audio/video of a 2007 attack by U.S. soldiers on an unarmed reporter and other men (I'm not sure whether they were armed) in Iraq. However, I'm not writing this simply to repeat...
We Ignore War Crimes at Our Own Risk
When one sees an obviously grotesque action by the agents of one's government and speaks out about it, one can count on being immediately labeled with whatever epithet is convenient to prevent any scrutiny of the state's activities. On Monday, April 5, 2010, WikiLeaks...
Just Another Atrocity
The video released by Wikileaks showing US helicopters picking off civilians as our airmen chortle with glee is shocking everyone. Everyone but me, that is. Perhaps I'm suffering from some sort of moral exhaustion: I've just about gone numb after living through and...
Pacified Populations
If the U.S. public looked long and hard into a mirror reflecting the civilian atrocities that have occurred in Afghanistan over the past 10 months, we would see ourselves as people who have collaborated with and paid for war crimes committed against innocent civilians...
The Show Goes On
Canada’s Unfinished Mandate
"We can only hope that Somalia represents the nadir of the fortunes of the Canadian Forces. There seems to be little room to slide lower. One thing is certain, however: left uncorrected, the problems that surfaced in the desert in Somalia and in the boardrooms at...
Netanyahu Unsure How to Contain Gaza Fallout
JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finds himself embattled on several fronts as he tries so far unsuccessfully to ward off the enormous international pressure on Israel unleashed by the Goldstone report for its conduct of the war...
Fool’s Goldstone
According to a Chinese saying, if someone in the street tells you that you are drunk, you can laugh. If a second person tells you that you are drunk, start to think about it. If a third one tells you the same, go home and sleep it off. Our political and military...


