Steven Hill: Muslims, Christians, and Jews live in relative harmony here, yet it’s as if its too-jumbled history pulses within the walls, the monuments, the winding streets, indeed within each individual Turk now inhabiting this ground zero zone.
The Company We Keep
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Stanley Kutler: Once again, we have bet the mortgage on one leader, no matter how inept and corrupt he might be. Karzai is playing off various sides, eagerly accepting the largesse and patronage of at least two governments, each with its own interests.
Continued Foibles in Iraq and Afghanistan
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Ivan Eland: In both Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States has been blinded by desired TV images of having the locals sport blue thumbs—emphasizing democratic elections versus an increased appreciation for individual rights.
A Big Fool Says to Push On
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Ann Wright: On the eve of the beginning of the tenth year (October 7) of the U.S war in Afghanistan, Bob Woodward’s new book “Obama’s War” about presidential decision making on the war in Afghanistan is pretty scary reading. It sounds to me like folk singer Peter Seeger’s song about the Vietnam war “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy,” describes the U.S. war in Afghanistan.
The Taliban: Forced Into Negotiation While Winning?
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Ivan Eland: Although David Petraeus, the top American commander in Afghanistan, recently peddled the notion that senior Taliban chieftains had made contact with senior Afghan government officials about the possibility of starting reconciliation talks, such talk of peace in our time is likely to be hype.
End Illegal War: Support Bradley Manning
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Ann Wright: Just as Daniel Ellsberg blew the whistle on the lies of the US leaders of the Vietnam War, Manning is accused of blowing the whistle on the illegality of today’s wars. What will our response to the information Manning is charged with releasing be? Can we make today’s Pentagon Papers lead to an end to illegal and wasteful wars abroad and the return of our troops home?
Los Angeles Launches Nation’s First Israel Divestment Campaign
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Linda Milazzo: Many Americans, myself included, feel a sense of guilt at being unwitting pawns in Israel’s forty-year occupation and systematic torture, deprivation, and dare I say, ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. Many Americans are further incensed that our legislators have voted annually to award Israel, a wealthy and thriving nation, 3 billion of our tax dollars which go directly into its military.
Assessing the Iraq War
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Ivan Eland: The Iraq War was not only disastrous, it was one of the worst strategic blunders in the history of U.S. foreign policy. President Obama should not renegotiate the status of forces agreement with any government in Iraq.
Middle East Peace Process – Reality or Charade?
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In the questionable likelihood that the Jerusalem settlement issue can be finessed, the “negotiations” could continue over the year President Obama has allotted for a settlement but without a firm commitment to end the occupation, no “peace process” is going anywhere.
On the Art of Exit: Iraq and Afghanistan
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John Peeler: Obama appears determined that the wars not overwhelm his domestic agenda, even as, pragmatically, he cannot walk away from either without exposing himself to withering political attacks. If Bush saw himself as a war president, Obama wants to be a reformer with two wars to manage.
An Unsanitized Look at the Origins of the Iraq War
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Joseph Palermo: Saddam’s human rights record was not an adequate justification to go to war and the Bush Administration did not seriously try to make it one, until long after the war began and all the other plausible justifications had been proven false.
US Combat Ends in Iraq, But Covert Operations Begin
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Tom Hayden: While the Obama administration struggles to keep its pledge to end the Iraq war, a behind-the-scenes plan is developing in which the Baghdad regime “invites” the American military to stay.
Main Effect of the WikiLeaks Documents Is Political
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Ivan Eland: So the only thing the WikiLeaks documents reveal is how persistent the post-9/11 war and nation-building fever continues to be among the foreign policy elite—even in the face of the dismal results on the ground for almost a decade and a majority opinion in America that the war is not worth fighting.
State of Denial: After the Big Leak, Spinning for War
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Norman Soloman: And if, these days, “U.S. troops in the field” are not as inclined to express “frustration at having to fight a war without sufficient resources,” the latest boosts of Pentagon outlays for war in Afghanistan merely reflect the unhinged escalation of a war effort that should not exist.
Ending Gaza Blockade Might Help Israel as Much as Gaza
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Ivan Eland: In the wake of Israel’s botched attack on a Turkish ship bringing relief to Gazans from Israel’s (and Egypt’s) economic blockade of Gaza, the Israelis have responded to intensely negative world opinion by relaxing the blockade. That move may help Israel as much as Gazans. Ending the counterproductive economic embargo and blockade would help both parties even more.
Brad Sherman’s Middle-East Town Hall Rife With Fear and Aggression
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Linda Milazzo: Not surprisingly in this election year, Brad Sherman is ginning up his Jewish constituency (who usually vote), and Jews in general (who usually donate), with his unrelenting support for Israel – including Israel’s controversial boarding of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla’s Mavi Mara and its killing of eight Turkish citizens and one Turkish American citizen – an act internationally condemned by all nations except Israel’s steadfast ally, the United States.
The Second Coming of Petraeus
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Ivan Eland: With the justified firing of Gen. Stanley McChrystal and his replacement with Iraq water-walker David Petraeus, it’s as if people are hoping for a second coming of Jesus in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, the replacement may be similar to the second coming of the water-walking Joe Gibbs as coach of the Washington Redskins.
Taliban’s Time Horizon Longer Than America’s
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Ivan Eland: The only solution is to cut the U.S. losses and leave Afghanistan for good. The good news is that removal of U.S. occupation forces from a Muslim land might actually reduce blowback anti-U.S. terrorism around the world.
Turkey’s Policy Toward Iran Is Worth Emulating
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Ivan Eland: The sad truth is that if Iran wants a nuclear weapon, it will likely eventually get one. So the United States should quit wasting valuable political capital beseeching, threatening, and horse-trading with China, Russia, and other UN Security Council members to incrementally ratchet up likely futile multilateral economic sanctions against I
Top Officer Says Military Takes Brain Injuries ‘Extremely Seriously’
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T. Christian Miller: Officially, military figures show that about 115,000 soldiers have suffered mild traumatic brain injury since 2002. But we talked to military doctors and reviewed unpublished studies that suggest far more soldiers could have sustained such wounds. While most recovery quickly, estimates suggest that between 5 percent to 15 percent go on to develop cognitive problems.
A Campaign To Divest From Mideast Apartheid
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David Love: In many ways, the handling of the flotilla tragedy mirrors Israel’s policy of Occupation of the Palestinian territories: inhumane treatment and a disproportionate use of force against those who have been labeled as terrorists.
Israel’s Talking Points, the Media, and the Cement Missile Threat
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Carl Bloice: The purpose in this case is to underscore the contention that the cruel blockade of Gaza is to prevent the smuggling of arms and weapons-making material into the enclave. It is not and never has been. The aim of the blockade is to make life miserable for the 1.4 million Palestinians there in the hope of undermining the Hamas government, which was duly elected four years ago. Gaza is being held for ransom. That’s collective punishment and it’s against international law.
The Right to Exist: Who Has It? Where Is It? Why?
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GAry Coseri: The Zionist state demands the right to exist as a Zionist state—a non-signatory of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, bristling with nuclear weapons. Did Yahweh come out of the clouds and declare that this state alone can break all the rules of international decorum with impunity, without censure?
Imagine
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John Peeler: But suppose there were no violence by the activists, just a refusal to comply with what they held to be an illegal seizure of their ships in support of an illegal blockade and an illegal occupation. The Israeli government and military are manifestly completely unprepared for that. They know only how to respond to Palestinian violence with disproportionate force.
Israeli Attack’s Silver Lining?
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Ivan Eland: The one silver lining to Israel’s unconscionable attack on a humanitarian flotilla is that its reprehensible collective punishment of Gazans through blockade likely will be made politically “unsustainable.”
Israel’s Calculated Brutality
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Jim Fuller: Israel’s perpetual claims to victimhood, and a supposedly resulting right to brutalize the people of Gaza, Lebanon, and any other peoples it chooses, have worn through at last, at least in the finally opened eyes of a large and growing minority in this country. The claim is a tactic, not a truth.
Winograd Questions Harman’s Silence on Israeli Assault
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Congressional Candidate Marcy Winograd (CA-36) questions why her opponent Jane Harman chooses to remain silent in the aftermath of an Israeli assault on the Free Gaza flotilla carrying 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid to over a million Palestinians imprisoned in Gaza.
Obama’s Policy Toward Yemen is Failing on Food
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William Lambers: President Obama and Secretary Clinton have both stated how a strong, stable Yemen is a vital national security priority. The Senate, citing Al Qaida’s presence, has emphasized the same through a resolution. But where is the food?
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