Why is the United States so reluctant to negotiate with other countries and so prone to leap immediately to the option of using force or chicanery in lieu of a more deliberative foreign policy? It might partly be because we Americans are not very good at the subtlety...
Bombers Return to Baghdad; 78 Killed, 116 Wounded
Was Twitter Censored by the Venezuelan Government?
The media is our window on the world – but what if that window is dirtied and blurred? How can we really know what’s happening in, say, Venezuela, where an increasingly authoritarian government with Marxist inclinations is up against a rebellion by middle-and-working...
Drone Killing the Fifth Amendment
Originally posted at TomDispatch. Imagine this: a president and his top officials as self-professed assassins – and proud of it, even attempting to gain political capital from it. It’s not that American presidents have never been associated with assassination attempts...
Sadr Quits Politics As Attacks Leave 58 Dead, 42 Wounded
Iraq Clashes, Attacks Leave 49 Dead, 36 Hurt
70 Killed, 29 Wounded in Security Operations Across Iraq
America and France Rekindle Their Foreign Affair
It’s official America has finally forgiven France. This is big news, particularly after such a messy breakup over America’s infatuation with remaking the Middle East. That fixation on Iraq turned into an international affair when France spurned America’s...
Utah – Achilles’ Heel of the Surveillance State
The movement to end the Surveillance State is finally getting serious. With the failure by Congress to rein in the NSA – although the heroic Rep. Justin Amash nearly succeeded in doing so – activists on the state level are mounting a campaign that promises to hit Big...
The Dangerous Seduction of Drones
Senior Obama administration officials say our government is sharply scaling back its drone strikes in Pakistan. That’s a step in the right direction. It would be even better if the entire U.S. program of targeted killings in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia were...


