Here’s a thoughtful piece that should be obvious but too often isn’t: just why it is that military occupation makes people angry, no matter how well-intentioned it may be. “Why They Hate Us: Lessons from Civil War Reconstruction”, ForeignPolicy.com, Nov. 23, 2009 Although as the first commenter pointed out, the question is when it’s worthwhile […]
You heard it here first: Neverland is the new Graceland. Man, what a week for news. It’s been a while since we had such a contrast of the important (Iran) and the junk-ridden (Transformers 2 = 2nd highest grossing opening ever). My vote for biggest story: Considering that I live in the U.S., it has […]
“Does this make me look West Wing?” The hot-spot, Central Command phase of Barack Obama’s foreign-policy tour is winding down, and so far he seems to have hit all the right political notes. Hooping it up was a particularly swift move, but even more fortunate was the fact that Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki came […]
Two great moments in quotations today, both from men with the power to influence and shape America’s economic and political situation. The first comes courtesy of Aron Wilder, the CEO of HTFC, a small firm that takes loan applications and sells residential mortgages to larger lenders like GMAC. They’re one of many direct players involved […]
Here is a link from the Boston Globe detailing ways the U.S. government could alternatively spend the amount of funds that has gone to the Iraq war. I think I would take Forbes.com’s example and outfit 4,073,333,333 people in custom-made leather underpants. That way, nearly 2/3 of the Earth’s population would be just a little […]
I agreed with this sentiment from the war’s beginning: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/23/opinion/23galbraith.html If people fear the bloodshed that will occur in federalizing the country, well hey, it’s been underway for quite some time now.
I just read this piece by Christopher Hitchens from Vanity Fair and thought I should post it: A Death in the Family It hit a little close to home, I think. I come from a liberal Irish family too and have a brother in the military, and as a result I really got the part […]
This column was deeply unsettling and thought-provoking: The Age of Irresponsibility For a President who believes so deeply in good, evil and the need for justice, why does he think a situation with no consequences isn’t going to bring out the worst in people? And for those who argue that counterinsurgencies—from the American West to […]
Understanding the logistical impossibility of maintaining the troop surge, and disregarding whether or not you really believe that the past few months’ effort has worked, I can’t quite wrap my head around this one. When you say spend months arguing that a certain strategy will work, then you believe that the strategy does indeed work, […]
This piece by Juan Cole ends on a perfect note: it’s one thing to make a disastrous mistake for the first time, but when the opportunity to predict the mistake’s consequences exists and one still undertakes the same disaster, then it goes beyond tragedy and into something worse.