The Pragmatism of
Ethnic Cleansing

Barack Obama's election victory has inspired a windfall of comment, most of it euphoric, with some grumbling from the political Right and the small quarters of the Left that remain unimpressed, so I am hesitant to contribute to the chatter. There is one element of...

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Beware the New Globalism

Gigantism is the handmaiden of modernity, or so we have been led to believe. In literature, future utopias are almost always characterized by a world government, on the grounds that presumably the people of earth have evolved beyond the narrow confines of nationalism...

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Wednesday: 3 Iraqis Killed, 7 Wounded

Updated at 7:05 p.m. EST, Dec. 10, 2008Today is the third and last day of Eid observances and reports should return to normal tomorrow. Only three Iraqis were killed and seven more were wounded today. It is likely that more attacks did occur, but many Iraqi...

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Tuesday: 4 Iraqis Wounded

Updated at 7:10 p.m. EST, Dec. 9,2008Eid observances continue in Iraq so reports of violence remain low. Only four injuries were reported throughout the country. No Coalition deaths were reported. Meanwhile, the U.S. military refuses to honor an Iraqi court order to...

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The Imperial Transition

Did you know that the IBM Center for the Business of Government hosts a "Presidential Transition" blog; that the Council on Foreign Relations has its own "Transition Blog: The New Administration"; and that the American University School of Communication has a...

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The Silent Winter of Escalation

Sunday morning, before dawn, I read in the New York Times that "the Pentagon is planning to add more than 20,000 troops to Afghanistan" within the next 18 months – "raising American force levels to about 58,000" in that country. Then I scraped...

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Hawks Campaign to Preempt Iran Talks

Anticipating the ascent of President-elect Barack Obama to the Oval Office, groups of hawks, among them neoconservatives, have begun to offer public advice on just exactly what the new administration should do to deal with Iran. Accusing Iran of a covert plan to...

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Backtalk, December 8, 2008

The Meaning of Mumbai I am an Indian and I am against going to war with Pakistan over these attacks, but I have many reservations about your article. Your theory seems to be that the West (which, really, I suppose means America) wants to use India as a tool to expand...

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If Only US Law Applied to the US Government

The U.S. government does not have a monopoly on hypocrisy, but no other government can match the hypocrisy of the U.S. government. It is now well documented and known all over the world that the U.S. government tortured detainees at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo and that...

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Mumbai and Obama

In international politics, events can precipitate crises few had expected, although the elements of crisis may have been lying apparently dormant. Just a few weeks ago, Newsweek's John Barry could write a piece suggesting that whatever domestic economic problems he...

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