The New Years experience tends to generate perspective and long-term thinking. At least, that's the case with two unlikely opinionators: The New York Times and the Taliban. Both the Times and the Taliban have made strong, end of the year historical comparisons between...
Why hasn't the Obama administration intervened militarily in Syria? If you read this site with any regularity, you'll know the answer to that. The great irony is that the major factors that make military intervention in Syria's civil war impractical, unworkable, and...
According to recently released documents, the federal government monitored the Occupy Wall Street movement from its very inception, internally referring to it as a potential criminal and terrorist threat despite acknowledging the movement's explicit rejection of...
The US government has killed 223 people in Yemen in more than 40 drone strikes in 2012, according to estimates from the Long War Journal. The Long War Journal is a project of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a neo-conservative think-tank in Washington, DC...
A Chinese think-tank (via Zero Hedge) has predicted that military conflict between China and Japan is inevitable now, thanks in part to US meddling in the Asia-Pacific region. With the rise of China as Asia's leading economic power, a Chinese government think tank...
The state structures built in Iraq by the US military occupation are now the depraved tools of repression. First among these tools is the US-trained and equipped Iraqi Special Operations Forces (ISOF). By the time Washington was preparing to draw down forces in Iraq,...
According to a recent Congressional Research Service report (via Secrecy News), the Obama administration's working policy is that US officials can disclose classified information (to reporters, and others) so long as it suits the needs of the government. The...
Although no one seems to be able to initiate a change, there is widespread acknowledgement that US-backed drug war policies in Mexico have worsened the security situation, enabled human rights abuses by the government, and has not put a dent in the drug market....
In Foreign Affairs, Michael Bröning makes an impressively weak case for directly arming the Syrian rebels. He acknowledges the unfortunate fact that aid and weapons from Arab Gulf states have "primarily reached the more extreme groups," but claims that the new...
The US is going to "substantially increase its military presence in the Philippines, increasing the number of troops, aircraft and ships which routinely rotate through the country," according to The Diplomat. For what purpose? Well, the transparent excuse US officials...
