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Afghanistan: War of Necessity? Or Opportunity for Peace, Reconciliation and Development?

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:51:07 -0500

by Kevin Martin

President Obama has repeatedly called the US occupation of Afghanistan a "war of necessity", in contrast to the war of choice his predecessor waged (and of course is still ongoing) in Iraq.

While I am no mind-reader, I'm not sure the president really still believes that, or he may want to come up with a different way to describe the situation in Afghanistan and the region. Certainly there are grave problems in Afghanistan and in neighboring Pakistan that deserve attention and resources from the US, other countries in the region and the global community.

Toward Copenhagen: Do Something!

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:20:25 -0500

by Peter Rothberg & Andrea D'Cruz

As we approach the Copenhagen UN Climate Change Conference, December 7 to 18--the world's last chance to secure an emissions reductions agreement that will replace the Kyoto Protocol before it expires--activists racing against a ticking environmental bomb are channeling their energies at the UN talks and beyond. Join them.

Building a World Fit for Children

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:17:17 -0500

by Marie Staunton

To 13-year-old Mumo Katumo, the anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is an utter irrelevance. For the past year Mumo and her family have been struggling to stay alive in the drought-ridden Masinga district of eastern Kenya with little food or water and with no hope of going to school.

Mumo describes the pain of her hunger: "You go numb. You lose the ability to do anything. Sometimes I think it is like the feeling of dying."

The Big Squander

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:36:58 -0500

by Paul Krugman

Earlier this week, the inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, a k a, the bank bailout fund, released his report on the 2008 rescue of the American International Group, the insurer. The gist of the report is that government officials made no serious attempt to extract concessions from bankers, even though these bankers received huge benefits from the rescue. And more than money was lost. By making what was in effect a multibillion-dollar gift to Wall Street, policy makers undermined their own credibility - and put the broader economy at risk.

Honduran Dictatorship Is A Threat to Democracy In the Hemisphere

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:38:27 -0500

by Mark Weisbrot

A small group of rich people who own most of Honduras and its politicians enlist the military to kidnap the elected president at gunpoint and take him into exile. They then arrest thousands of people opposed to the coup, shut down and intimidate independent media, shoot and kill some demonstrators, torture and beat many others. This goes on for more than four months, including more than two of the three months legally designated for electoral campaigning. Then the dictatorship holds an "election."

Health Care, Essential to Democracy

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:29:40 -0500

by Katie Robbins & Andy Coates

Two weekends ago, after the bait and switch of a vote on single-payer for a vote on an anti-abortion amendment, we felt wizened to the possibility of unknown threats in the legislative churn on health reform. As insurance and pharmaceutical companies, Catholic bishops, and the right wing throw in dollars, lobbyists, and pressure for no votes on the final bill, it is clear we who are in the business of protecting and improving our rights to access to health care, including abortion, must remain vigilant and ready to challenge these threats.

An Inconvenient Solution

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:54:10 -0500

by Bill McKibben

Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth was one of the high points not only of the environmental movement but also of the documentary tradition in America. He figured out how to use a new medium, PowerPoint, to take the unavoidably wonkish story of global warming and make it scary, credible and manageable. It was, perhaps, as important as anything he could have done as president, and he deserved not only the Oscar but also the Nobel.

The Coal Industry's $47 Million PR Spending Spree

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:32:12 -0500

by Kate Sheppard

The coal industry's major lobby group, the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, shelled out a stunning $47 million last year on lobbying, advertising and "grassroots outreach" efforts to fight climate legislation and tout the benefits of "clean coal." Its efforts to actually develop clean coal technology, however, were a lot less impressive.

8 Steps Obama Could Take to Save Our Food System

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:09:27 -0500

by Robyn O'Brien

The landscape of health has changed. No longer are our families guaranteed a healthy livelihood, not in the face of the current rates of cancer, diabetes, obesity, Alzheimer's and allergies. In the words of Elizabeth Warren, Harvard University law professor who is head of the Congressional Oversight Panel, "We need a new model," and we need a new food system. It's our health on the line.

8 Steps Obama Could Take to Save Food:

The Administration Guts Its Own Argument for 9/11 Trials

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:50:09 -0500

by Glenn Greenwald

"What I'm absolutely clear about is that I have complete confidence in the American people and our legal traditions and the prosecutors, the tough prosecutors from New York who specialize in terrorism" -- Barack Obama, yesterday.
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The New (Green) Arms Race

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:33:08 -0500

by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Hobbled by opposition from the carbon incumbents and their short-sighted allies on Capitol Hill the Obama administration acknowledged this week that it would not return from Copenhagen with any groundbreaking commitment to control green house gases. Meanwhile, Congress is backsliding on the administration's wise commitment to impose a rational price on carbon. Behind the logjam, a treacherous U.S.

The Afghan Speech Obama Should Give (But Won't)

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:33:54 -0500

by Tom Engelhardt

Sometime in the reasonably near future, President Obama will undoubtedly address the American people on whatever decision he makes about the war in Afghanistan. Every sign indicates that he will hew to Washington's political wisdom about what a war president can do in this country.

Undoubtedly, the President's speechwriters are already preparing the text for his Afghan...

Declare Victory, Leave Afghanistan

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:00:45 -0500

by Helen Thomas

WASHINGTON -- The Nobel Peace crown lies uneasy on President Barack Obama's head as he ponders the next U.S. move in Afghanistan, with hints and leaks showering down to tell us that he will eventually send thousands more troops there.

His decision -- which could be announced soon -- was triggered by the request from Gen. Stanley McChrystal for 40,000 more troops to secure the cities and protect the citizens of Afghanistan, in addition to the 68,000 U.S. troops there now.

Tiny Tims and Our Nation's Healthcare Scrooges

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 07:23:44 -0500

by Donna Smith

Some Americans will schlep into a local theater to check out Disney's latest 3-D version of "A Christmas Carol." They'll gather up the kids and worry about whether or not it's appropriate viewing or a little too scary for the wee ones.

Other Americans are planning holiday travel and bemoaning the tribulations they'll face in airports or at shopping centers as they buy their way through the traditions of the season.

Split Up The Banks! Restore Glass-Steagall

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 07:03:51 -0500

by Dave Zweifel

Ten years ago, the Republican-controlled Congress - egged on by that champion deregulator, former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm - passed legislation that arguably did more to plunge the United States into our crippling great recession than anything else: It repealed the Great Depression era's Glass-Steagall Act.

Then on Nov. 12, 1999, an acquiescent Democratic president, Bill Clinton, signed the repeal into law.

Nobody Is Beyond Redemption

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:40:07 -0500

by Deena Guzder

At the age of 13, Ishmael and his friends began sniffing "brown-brown"--a mix of cocaine and gunpowder--and wielding AK-47s. By the age of 16, Ishmael had killed "too many people to count" by his own admission. "All I knew was how to fight and loot," recalled Ishmael.

If Ishmael had committed such atrocities in the United States, he would be sitting in a dank prison serving a life sentence without any possibility of parole.

Hell Comes Home

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:35:45 -0500

by Robert C. Koehler

There's no armor, it turns out, for conscience.

So our men and women are coming home from the killing fields wounded in their heads, used up, greeted only by the military's own meat grinder of inadequate health care and intolerance for "weakness."

Nuclear Power’s Megafraud

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:23:10 -0500

by Pierre Tristam

Energy independence is the new creationism; nuclear power its deity. As the head glow for nuclear's new dawn, you can't do better than Aris Candris. He's president and CEO of Westinghouse Electric, the company aiming to build 14 of 25 new nuclear reactors planned in the United States. Candris also sums up everything that's wrong with the nuclear power industry's orchestrated revival-the deceptions, the manipulated numbers, the false promises and the sheer swindle of taxpayer dollars for a technology with a lethal past and an unproven future.

Massive Ordnance Problem: The Conventional Arms Control Challenge

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:10:59 -0500

by Frida Berrigan

Massive ordnance penetrator. Sounds powerful, right? This bomb is also known by its initials: MOP.

Advice on Afghanistan

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:09:29 -0500

by Ralph Nader

Dear President Obama,

You are nearing the day of decision as to whether you order the dispatch of more soldiers to Afghanistan.

Some of your advisors have urged up to 50,000 more soldiers, including several thousand called trainers of the Afghan army.

Other advisors have urged more caution, notably the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan and former general, Karl W. Eikenberry, who opposes more soldiers so long as the Afghan government remains grossly dysfunctional.

Let Them Eat Zoloft

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:24:15 -0500

by James Ridgeway

As the Senate takes up health care reform, we're sure to be treated to yet more scenes of our elected officials bending over backwards to kiss the gold-plated butts of the pharmaceutical and insurance industries. So far, just about every new turn in the health care battle is confirming what many have known for some time: The US health care system is run largely for the benefit of these corporate giants, rather than for the American people, and no piece of legislation is likely to change that fact.

The Weekly Standard's ACLU Smear Indicts Only Itself

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:01:26 -0500

by Glenn Greenwald

Even for The Weekly Standard, this bitter, juvenile McCarthyite attack on the ACLU by Thomas Joscelyn sputters with so much fact-free, impotent, and self-defeating rage that it's hard to believe it was printed. Right in the headline, it oh-so-cleverly smears the ACLU as "Al Qaeda's Civil Liberties Union"; it ends by proclaiming the group to be "al Qaeda's useful idiots"; and it's filled in the middle with all sorts of trite innuendo circa read more

Affectionate Jousting with Michael Tomasky

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:53:57 -0500

by Katrina vanden Heuvel
My good friend Michael Tomasky has a blog over at The Guardian...
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History Promises Disaster in Afghanistan for Blind America

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:42:39 -0500

by John R. MacArthur
If President Obama has ever heard of William L. Shirer, chances are it's in connection with Nazi Germany. Nowadays, you can't make assumptions about what people under 50 know and don't know, but it's a safe bet Obama recalls Shirer's most famous book, "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich," even if he hasn't read it.
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The Trap of Green Consumerism

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:49:35 -0500

by Raj Patel
I often get asked whether I think fair trade is a bad idea, and my response is usually "it's much better to buy fair trade than to buy unfair trade - but if you care about farmers, ask them what they want." In general, I'm not favorably inclined toward green consumerism.
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In a Chilly London November, War and Remembrance

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:44:14 -0500

by Michael Winship
In Great Britain, Remembrance Sunday falls on the second Sunday of November, the one closest to November 11th, the anniversary of the end of the First World War in 1918. Once, the world called November 11th Armistice Day. Now, here in the States at least, it is Veteran's Day.
As coincidence and travel itineraries would have it, twice over the last four years I've been in London on Remembrance Sunday. This time, my girlfriend Pat and I were on our way home from Greece, stopping off for a couple of days to see old friends.
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Afghan Lessons from the Iraq War

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:41:29 -0500

by Ray McGovern
You don't have to go back 40 years to the Vietnam War to feel the sting of déjà vu. Returning to the Iraq War just three years ago will suffice.
Last week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates summed up the administration's dilemma on Afghanistan in a single question: "How do we signal resolve and at the same time signal to the Afghans and the American people that this is not open-ended?"
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The Worthiness of Banker Charity

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:38:37 -0500

by Jim Hightower
"Repent," the preacher cried out, startling those who heard him.

This was no street evangelist ranting at the passing crowd, but the archbishop of Canterbury, head of the Church of England. His sharp admonition was pointed directly at a particular set of sinners, who undoubtedly had never given any thought to the morality of their actions: the barons of global banking.
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Obama’s Bad Case Against Single Payer

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:34:45 -0500

by Alan Nasser
The Obama administration has broadened the scope of what it wants to dismiss as unrealistic, utopian and unpragmatic, i.e. as for all practical purposes impossible. These claims have typically been accompanied by the assurance that “This is not something that Americans would go for – it’s not the American way.” Obama’s case against a single payer health care system is a conspicuous case in point. His position on this issue features weak arguments and serious factual errors.

The Alleged Impossibility of Universal Health Care
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The Architecture of Apartheid

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:15:28 -0500

by Sarah Lazare & Clare Bayard
The word "Revenge" is scrawled in Hebrew on a Palestinian school in Hebron. The windows are covered with screens and the play yard obstructed with more screens tipped with barbed wire, to obstruct the stones regularly pelted down by Jewish settlers. The space between the school and the neighboring building is blocked off with large, wooden slabs, to ensure that Palestinian school children do not encroach into settler territory. Nearby checkpoints and cameras placed on rooftops serve as constant reminder that these kids' every movement is monitored and contained.
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