From CostofWar.org Costs of War: 225,000 Lives and up to US$4 Trillion from Watson Institute on Vimeo.
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Memo: Proper Journalists Ought to be Subservient to Power
Journalist Sam Husseini was suspended from The National Press Club for asking a Saudi Prince a tough question. His punishment indicates precisely what is wrong with journalism in this country. At his blog, Husseini offers the transcript of the exchange. His part may...
Provision Shifting Terrorism Cases to Military Domain Probably Won’t Pass
This week, a Senate committee approved revised language in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 that would attempt to cement in place a system of military tribunals for terrorism suspects, including those caught on American soil and potentially including...
Is this what democracy looks like?
This Reuters reporter went into an Iraqi barber shop to ask Iraqis if America gave them democracy. Here is a compilation of their responses: "OK, we have democracy. We can talk freely with no fear. We can demonstrate and vote freely. All these are available, and all...
South Sudan Bravely Rejects US Military Aid
...at least, we can surmise this from the country's recent release of 53 child conscripts from its army. They must know Obama cares about stimulating job prospects for children in the world's most horrifying countries to be a human being.
Guantanamo, Bagram, and Another Hope(less) Presidential Campaign
Marcy Wheeler has written quite a piece on Adnan Farhan Abd Al Latif, a Yemeni detainee at Guantanamo in danger of being jailed for life and deprived of habeas corpus rights because of Obama's tyrannical policy of indefinite detention. At issue is a Yemeni...
Palestinians Ride in the Front of the Bus
Actually, they were merely on the bus as it entered Jerusalem, which is confrontation enough. Free and democratic Israel has such a convoluted and restrictive system of permitting for Palestinians going anywhere that Arabs living in what are considered Jerusalem...
The Future Affordability of US National Security
That's the title of a timely paper by MIT researcher Dr. Cindy Williams [.pdf]. The summary points: 1. The United States currently devotes about 4.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) to national defense and another 1.5 percent to broader security efforts,...
Panetta: Iraq Can Defend Itself (With US Guns, Butter, and Presence)
Josh Rogin reports that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta this morning told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Iraq is ready to defend itself. Oh goodie. So this means we won't have to be giving the Iraqi government $2.4 billion in aid each year? And the State...
US Support for “Counter-Terrorism” in Turkey
I have a piece in the news section today about U.S. drones being deployed in Turkey in support of Ankara's fight against the Kurdish separatist rebels (Kurdistan Worker's Party/PKK). This, despite ongoing investigations by rights groups into whether the Turkish...
