Norman Solomon: After his Inaugural speech in January 2009, Obama has pursued policies that epitomize King’s grim warning in 1967: “When scientific power outruns moral power, we end up with guided missiles and misguided men.”
Scott Brown Should Stand Down for John Kerry
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Brent Budowsky: It appears that Senate Republicans are nominating Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) for the Congressional Medal of Honor and the Nobel Peace Prize put together.
My Five Minutes with Bill O’Reilly
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Peter Dreier: It was clear from the get-go last night that Bill didn’t want to talk about Pete Seeger. He wanted to talk about why I called him a “right-wing buffoon”
Dorothy Day, Pacifism, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki
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Walkter Moss: Dorothy Day’s opposition to warring against Japan and Nazi Germany does not mean she was unsympathetic to those who suffered from their aggression.
MLK Would Oppose Today’s Wars
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William Loren Katz: Would Dr. King have called for withdrawal from Vietnam and, had he lived, not called for a withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan? Would he have failed to see parallels that are as obvious as they are frightening?
How to Save $250 Billion: Axe “Missile Defense”
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Lawrence Wittner: By scrapping plans for nuclear weapons “modernization” and for national missile defense—programs that are both useless and provocative—the United States would save $271 billion (well over a quarter of a trillion dollars) in the next ten years.
Obama and War
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John Peeler: Obama has done, in the Libyan case, just what he said he would: with UN Security Council and Arab League authorization, he has put together a coalition to take limited military measures to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe.
All We Are Saying Is….Never Mind
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Tom Degan: Here is one of the many reasons why I love Dennis Kucinich: At least the guy is consistent – “Consistent Kucinich” – Try saying that three times fast.
Leaked Cables: Egyptian Government Stokes Fears of Muslim Brotherhood
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Marian Wang: The Muslim Brotherhood, a key opposition group in Egypt’s anti-Mubarak protests, has long argued that the Egyptian government exaggerates the Muslim Brotherhood’s positions and its likelihood of attaining power in democratic elections. As it turns out, American diplomats agree.
The International Movement That Would Bring Peace to the Mideast
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David A. Love: Ultimately, Israel must find security through some other means outside of militarism, say these two human rights fighters. “Israel has a right to self-defense, and therefore the first thing for defending ourselves is to stop torturing and killing Palestinians.”
Why Pentagon Claims MLK Would Love War on Afghanistan
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David Swanson: A poll last spring found that 85% of Kandaharis consider the Taliban “our Afghan brothers.” The poll was commissioned by the Pentagon. The same poll found that 94% favored peace negotiations, not war. So, out of the goodness of our racist hearts, we brought them more war.
The Pentagon and the King Legacy
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William Lorenz Katz: Was not Martin Luther King, Jr. reaching beyond Vietnam when he warned of “approaching spiritual death” and called for “a significant and profound change in American life and policy” and insisted “we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values.” Was he only speaking of Vietnam when he said, “War is not the answer?”
Be the Peace You Want to See on Earth
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David Swanson: I’ve never found any opponent of war who didn’t believe there was evil in the world. After all, we oppose war because it is evil. Did Martin Luther King, Jr., stand idle in the face of threats? Are you serious?
Open Web Platform for Gulf Oil Spill Beats Media Boom Ban
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Georgianne Nienaber: Shortly after the Transocean/Deepwater Horizon wellhead exploded, Benjamin assembled a volunteer group of technology and web design experts, journalists, legal and business professionals and ordinary individuals who wanted to help with the spill crisis.
What Obama Is Doing Wrong
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Judith Apter Klinghoffer: Obama is using Chicago-style strong-arm techniques at home, while kowtowing to kings and dictators abroad. To forestall big Democratic loses in the 2010 elections, he will have to reverse tactics.
African-American Presidents Can Be Hazardous to Your Health
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Jonathan David Farley: White American liberals foolishly chose not to wait to see if Obama was the kind of man who would stick to his guns when the bandits rode into town. He wasn’t. African-Americans run away from noble fights.
Obama’s Peace Prize Continues Tradition of Dubious Choices
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Only a few commentators, including the president, seemed to sheepishly realize the irony of his receiving the prize shortly after escalating one war and while continuing to fight another. You would have thought that the escalation alone would have been enough to satisfy all of the warheads at home; but to stanch the domestic fallout from being associated with too much peace, Obama, when accepting the peace award, gave a speech defending war.
Obama Speaks (Some) Truth From Power
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President Obama’s Nobel lecture might have showed us that the United States has reached a turning point: either the national security monster we’ve created is going to eat us alive by bankrupting the country or we’re going to have to shift course. We must begin to spin off the 700 or so military bases and installations around the world and focus on building a better life for our own people here at home.
How Alfred Nobel Made Rush Limbaugh’s Head Explode
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And perhaps it’s also a “deed” to be assured of what will NOT be done – no more Gitmo, no more Gitmos to follow, no more torture, no more nukes, no more threats, no more whimsical invasions of ancient lands.
Why President Obama Won The Nobel Peace Prize
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Whether President Obama is to be tolerated or followed is still playing out, but what is clear is that the world is ready to follow his lead. The world is also watching to see if Obama’s election was a sincere transition toward a different “change” mindset or a false signal while America ideologically recasts itself.
Open Letter: How to Leverage the Prize
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You should use the clout and credibility from the prize to convene serious, multiparty negotiations aimed at verifiably eliminating nuclear weapons from all arsenals, backed up with cooperative intelligence-gathering to ensure that non-state actors do not acquire or independently develop such weapons.
Can Obama Redefine the “Real” in Realpolitik? The Nobel Committee Is Betting That He Can
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Indeed, as long as the United States acts from the perspective of the world’s major imperial power, it will never be able to lead the way towards peace, even with Obama at the helm.
Empty Hands on the Climate, and What Obama Needs to Do
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Why has so little been accomplished? Because coal, shale, oil, big manufacturers, and utilities — the big old polluters (BOPs) — have beaten back anything better.
Reaction to President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize is Another “Teaching Moment”
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If the media would only cover Obama’s peace prize win with half as much enthusiasm as they did Bush’s landing on the aircraft carrier we might have made some measurable progress.
Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize Means a Lot to Asian Americans, If We All Want It
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The debate around Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize can be another boxing match between left and right or a tool to bring us together with a newfound global credibility and promise to recognize the integral role we play in the world. This is crucial not only for AAPIs but all of us.
Was Obama’s Peace Prize Political?
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The spokesperson went on to say that because Obama is contributing to the improvement of the international climate and is working to strengthen international bodies such as the United Nations, they felt it important to endorse and cultivate the principals for which he stands.
Everyone but Fox and the Taliban Applaud Obama’s Peace Prize
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I do know that when a sitting American president is named a Nobel laureate – including Obama, only Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson have been so honoured while still in office – it is a cause for rejoicing not just in the US but in the world.
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Obama, Gandhi, and King: Reflections on His Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech
Gene Rothman: we progressives need to follow King’s advice and not merely listen to, but to learn from others in the world. “Compassion and non-violence help us see the enemies point of view . . . . We may indeed see the basic weaknesses of our own . . . [and] may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of our brothers who are called the opposition.” Most significantly, he noted that it is the U.S. that is the “greatest purveyor of violence in the world.”