President Obama's interview with al-Arabiya television is remarkable in several ways, but what strikes me the most is that it coincided with the first air strikes on Pakistan under his administration: 22 people were killed, including between four and seven...
A series of unexpectedly swift moves to begin addressing the Arab-Israeli conflict taken by Barack Obama in the week since he was sworn in as the U.S. president is being hailed by many regional specialists who were deeply frustrated by George W. Bush's relative...
When U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates accused Iran of "subversive activity" in Latin America Tuesday, it raised the question whether he is trying to discourage President Barack Obama from abandoning the hard-line policy of coercive diplomacy toward Iran...
Updated at 8:15 p.m. EST, Jan. 28, 2009U.S. President Obama is meeting with defense officials at the White House today to discuss drawdown plans just as early polling begins in Iraq. Meanwhile, at least seven Iraqis were killed and another 10 were wounded in light...
Updated at 8:10 p.m. EST, Jan. 27, 2009At least three Iraqis were killed and 10 more were wounded in the latest violence. A couple of the attacks appeared to be election-related, but an expected uptick in such attacks has not yet been seen. No Coalition deaths were...
President Barack Obama is to be commended for his planned closure of Guantanamo and covert CIA prisons as well as his instructions that no United States agency will exceed the U.S. military's guidelines on interrogation, but he does not go far enough. Transparency and...
Prosecute George W. Bush for Illegal Acts Mr. Eland, You have omitted, whether intentionally or not, one of the most significant impediments, from Obama's point of view, to a full-scale investigation of Bushco war crimes and, in the Valerie Plame case, outright...
"And so, to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity,...
A few days after the inauguration, in a piece celebrating the arrival of the Obama administration, New York Times columnist Bob Herbert wrote that the new president has clearly signaled: "No more crazy wars." I wish. Last week – and 44 years ago –...
In the latest issue of the Nation magazine, Jonathan Schell has written a piece, "Obama and the Return of the Real," that should stand as a manifesto for sanity in our times. In it, he considers just how self-inflicted our present catastrophic situation, from economic...
