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THE ROVING EYE
China: We don't
do shutdowns
The bumper-to-bumper debt gridlock in Washington leaves no room for US President Barack Obama to pivot to Asia as he is forced to give regional summits in Indonesia and Brunei a miss. That leaves Chinese President Xi Jinping to bask, unrivalled, in center-stage glow. The no-show only reinforces perceptions that US foreign policy is in a mess - and that while the US does shutdowns, China brings cash to the table. - Pepe Escobar
(Oct 4, '13)
SYRIA'S CIVIL WAR
Moscow seeks full-spectrum US engagement
An element of the tectonic shift in Syria sees Free Syrian Army "moderates" engage Damascus in jaw, not war, as President Bashar al-Assad emerges as the only figure capable of rolling back the al-Qaeda. The growing strength of groups linked to al-Qaeda puts the US and Russia (and also Iran) on the same page, and presents an opportunity for the Kremlin to build on "common achievements" and focus White House eyes on fronts beyond Syria's civil war. - M K Bhadrakumar
(Oct 4, '13)
How to win a lost war
If you decide to go to war you have to decide to win. The question after Iraq and Afghanistan is what does it mean to win a war? The answer in the 21st century: coming out on top in the political narrative to communicate superiority in the battle space of policy, morality and the conduct of warfare, regardless of the military outcome. - Andreas Herberg-Rothe
(Oct 4, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
Breaking American exceptionalism
What if the US government actually shut down to mourn the passing of Breaking Bad, arguably the most astonishing show in the history of television? It would be nothing short of poetic justice - as Breaking Bad is infinitely more pertinent for the American psyche than predictable cheap shots at Capitol Hill. - Pepe Escobar
(Oct 1, '13)
Middle East turns
a deaf ear to the US
The United States' authority in the Greater Middle East was slumping well before Barack Obama entered the Oval Office. The process has accelerated in the wake of the Arab Spring, with Egyptian generals, Saudi princes, Iraqi Shi'ite leaders and Israeli politicians now regularly defying Washington's diktats. The role reversal is a far cry from the pacified region neoconservatives envisioned. - Dilip Hiro
(Oct 1, '13)
Obama moves on Iran, Putin keeps Syria
Russian triumphalism over the UN resolution on Syria's chemical weapons contrasts with US President Barack Obama's inaudible sigh of relief at the weekend that he can avoid military action - for the present at least - and focus on the feelgood Iran file. Yet amid celebrations that Washington and Moscow actually agree on something, a dark foreboding is simmering away. - M K Bhadrakumar
(Sep 30, '13)
BOOK REVIEW
How the West denied China's law
Legal Orientalism: China, the US and Modern Law by Teemu Ruskola
This important book traces the remarkable hold Orientalist views demonizing China as lawless still have on political and cultural narratives about China's laws and legal institutions. It argues that at a time the word needs more accurate knowledge of Chinese legal concepts, present-day reforms equating to a "self-Orientalism" make that unlikely. - Dinesh Sharma
(Sep 27, '13)
Obama: A hapless and wandering minstrel
Prospects for the Geneva process on Syria may be looking less dismal today than at dawn in New York on Tuesday. Yet, what lingers after President Barack Obama's United Nations speech is the sense of a lone superpower in a diminished role as a hapless regional power, unable or unwilling to assert itself. An era seems to be ending. - M K Bhadrakumar
(Sep 26, '13)
SPEAKING FREELY
Libya: Still Gaddafi's fault?
Western media decrying a lack of support for Libya's nascent democracy blame poorly run institutions created by former dictator Muammar Gaddafi rather than the chaos that has followed "Operation Odyssey Dawn". At the forefront of critics seeking deeper US engagement are lobbyists for energy firms bemoaning the fact that an anticipated rebuilding bonanza is yet to materialize. - Dieter Neumann
(Sep 26, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
Rouhani surfs the new WAVE
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani came to the United Nations, listened "carefully" to US President Barack Obama officially recognize the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei's fatwa against nuclear weapons - and then called for a global coalition for peace to replace coalitions for war - in effect a call for a World Against Violence and Extremism. Now for the heavy lifting ... - Pepe Escobar
(Sep 25, '13)
US, Iran trade cautious overtures at UN
US President Barack Obama and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani both put diplomatic cards on the table at the United Nations. The real action begins on Thursday in the nuclear arena, when US Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif meet for the highest-level formal encounter of the two countries since 1979. - Kitty Stapp
(Sep 25, '13)
SPEAKING FREELY
Putin wins the war on terror
Russian President Vladimir Putin's policy of combating jihadists wherever possible and his will to put Russia's full diplomatic and military weight behind his fight against terror are in stark contrast to the Obama administration's focus on dialogue and humanitarian actions. Russia's international prestige is growing as it outplays the US in a fight it started but seems unable to finish. - Riccardo Dugulin
(Sep 24, '13)
The gospel according to Vladimir Putin
The deepest challenge Vladimir Putin made to "American exceptionalism" while chastising the US over its Syria strike plan was towards the concept's theological roots. For the United States, a country that sees itself as a "shining city on a hill", mandated by providence, the Russian president's reminder that "God created us all equal" bordered on heresy. - Ninan Koshy
(Sep 23, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
Obama-Rouhani: lights, camera, action
Though a meeting with Barack Obama at the UN next Tuesday is by no means certain, it's well-established that the stage is set for President Hassan Rouhani's administration to talk directly to Washington about Tehran's nuclear program. The question is whether Obama will have the "heroic flexibility" to face 34 years of history and stare down the spoilers. - Pepe Escobar
(Sep 19, '13)
SPEAKING FREELY
Toxic agenda-setting in Washington
While the Obama administration beats the war drum and produces dubious proof that Bashar al-Assad gassed his own people, a potentially larger tragedy is brewing at the site of Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant. The 300 tonnes of radioactive water leaking every day from the destroyed plant into the Pacific could directly impact about a third of the world's population. - Jonny Connor
(Sep 19, '13)
SPENGLER
US plays Monopoly,
Russia plays chess
As Russia's president carefully gauges how each Syria maneuver impacts on Moscow's spheres of interest, the US administration continues to view geopolitical real estate in isolation. The big prize is a restoration of Russia's great power status, and as American popular revulsion over foreign intervention intensifies, Vladimir Putin can simply wait as the clock runs down. - Spengler
(Sep 16, '13)
Paving the way for the Road to Damascus
What Syria is really about involves water rights, pipelines, nation-state reconfigurations, militarized economies ... and on, and on. Somewhere well down the list are chemical weapons (perhaps), but these suit war-waging, propaganda-propounding elites. In the face of their criminal and deadly simplifications, it's high time we restored fear-mongering in America to its rightful place as a privilege that must be earned. - Norman Ball
(Sep 13, '13)
Putin eyes Obama's Iran file
As even Fox News says Vladimir Putin deserves a Nobel prize for the "deft diplomatic maneuvers" that handed his struggling American counterpart a Kremlin-embossed way out of the Syrian crisis, the Russian president has set his sights on a move that would up the ante for a gong: taking another dog-eared file out of Barack Obama's hands and turning it into a Moscow-backed peace plan for Iran. - M K Bhadrakumar
(Sep 13, '13)
And then there
was one
Even if global economic power has become, thanks to a rising China, more "multipolar", no actual state seriously contests the United States' role on the planet. It's taken a couple of decades since the Soviet Union collapsed even to be able to consider what that really means: delusional thinking of the first order as, from 9/11 to the Syrian crisis, Washington re-imagines the world. - Tom Engelhardt
(Sep 13, '13)
JOHN PILGER
Enemy whose name we dare not speak
Regardless of diplomatic attempts to delay an attack on Syria, the United States' objective has nothing to do with chemical weapons and everything to do with wiping out the last independent states in the Middle East. Barack Obama accepted the war crimes of the Pentagon of his predecessor, George W Bush, and militarism camouflaged as democracy.
(Sep 12, '13)
Cheers and jeers greet Obama's bear hug
President Barack Obama's decision to embrace a Russian proposal to place Damascus' chemical-weapons arsenal under international control and delay a congressional vote on the use of military force against Syria has brought praise and condemnation from across the political spectrum. - Jim Lobe
(Sep 12, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
Al-Qaeda's air force
still on stand-by
It was 12 years ago today that, according to the official narrative, Arabs with minimal flying skills turned jets into missiles to attack the US homeland in the name of al-Qaeda. 9/11 elevated them to Ultimate Evil status. Twelve years on, the President of the United States wriggles on a Syrian hook, and the amorphous "al-CIAeda" eagerly awaits the US Air Force to clear the road to Damascus. - Pepe Escobar
(Sep 11, '13)
OBITUARY
Ronald Coase: A respectful dissent
The late economist Ronald Coase showed how individuals and firms in the private market can do a better job at most things than government regulators. But we should keep in mind that markets are never better than the people who trade in them. - Spengler
(Sep 10, '13)
SPEAKING FREELY
A post-9/11 view of John Adams
Although his strategies helped keep American free from the whims of European powers and their trans-Atlantic Wars, second president John Adams' search for national security through peaceful neutrality has been long forgotten by modern America. The US has instead embraced the partisan strife and perpetual war footing he rejected. - Dallas Darling
(Sep 10, '13)
Congress to the
rescue on Syria?
From the manipulations that led to a "slam dunk" war in Iraq to the revelations of whistleblower Edward Snowden on the scale of United States spying, enough of the world is ticked off with the United States for a "coalition of the willing" to be the failed dream of a waning power. True to form, expect this week's congressional debate on Syria to yield little of value beyond entertainment. - Andrew J Bacevich
(Sep 9, '13)
Suppose we gave a war ...
Air Sea Battle, US military's latest grand doctrine and megaboondoggle, is not, absolutely not, about war with China, which just happens to be the one power at which the related plans can be targeted. But just suppose the PRC fails to respond with fangs drawn ... just suppose ... - Peter Lee
(Sep 6, '13)
Obama dips toe in Syrian Rubicon
For the first time through the two-year old Syrian conflict, and against all expectations, the United States has mentioned the necessity of its commander-in-chief having the option to put "boots on the ground". Whether Barack Obama ends up deploying troops in Syria, the demarche that he should have such a choice underscores that iron has entered into the president's soul.
- M K Bhadrakumar
(Sep 4, '13)
SPEAKING FREELY
Obama challenges pathology of power
US President Barack Obama's decision to seek congressional approval before using military force against Syria has been dismissed by his opponents as symptomatic of a lame duck presidency, even "red lines" turning to a "yellow streak". But as he veers from a gun-ho path, he is challenging the pathology of presidential power. - Dallas Darling
(Sep 3, '13)
Manila, Beijing, and UNCLOS: a test case?
Manila's request for international arbitration over competing territorial claims with Beijing in the South China Sea prompts the question of whether right or might will determine their fate. China's refusal to cooperate also makes it a compelling and deeply Asian test of whether the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea or diplomacy will play the lead role in securing a peaceful settlement. - Alex Calvo
(Sep 3, '13)
Washington frets over Saudi ties
As the Obama administration wrestles with its reaction to the bloody aftermath of the coup in Egypt, officials and analysts worry about US ties with Saudi Arabia. While the oil-rich kingdom's strong support for the junta includes a pledge to make up for any withdrawn Western aid, tough language from Riyadh against Washington's condemnation of the coup is perhaps more worrisome. - Jim Lobe
(Aug 23, '13)
Manning backers vow to fight 35-year term
Supporters of Bradley Manning, the US army private jailed for 35 years for leaking classified information, will try to convince President Barack Obama to commute the "tragic" sentence. The debate that has raged for three years over whether Manning is a whistleblowing national hero or traitor looks set to continue regardless of their success or failure. - Jared Metzker
(Aug 22, '13)
Pacific pivot sparks US-China arms race
The rosy military-to-military relations on show as Chinese Defense Minister Chang Wanquan visited the US this week are belied by a new conventional arms race between the two nations that revolves around the Asia-Pacific. While Beijing is spending billions on an area-denial strategy encompassing, land, sea and space weapons, Washington is lavishing more on its "networked, integrated" AirSea Battle tactic. - George Gao
(Aug 22, '13)
Leaderless movements
for a new planet
From proposed tar-sands pipelines in Lake Michigan to fracking wells in Ohio, demands on the US green movement are peaking at a time it lacks charismatic leaders. This absence is actually a triumph of political evolution that will prove the movement's saviour - all-encompassing fights for humanity's future require an engaged citizenry. - Bill McKibben
(Aug 21, '13)
SPENGLER
World learns to manage without the US
The pipe-dream of an Egyptian democracy led by a Muslim Brotherhood weaned from its wicked past has popped - but official Washington has yet to waken up to the fact or listen to old hands who recognize what is afoot. That leaves other powers - specifically a condominium of Russia, China and Saudi Arabia - to do their best to contain the mess as America blunders on.
(Aug 19, '13)
Rouhani dampens Iran's Third World fire
Critics of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani are concerned that his diplomatic style are will undermine the Third World leadership role Tehran nurtured under his predecessor Mahmud Ahmadinejad. Though Ahmadinejad's fiery pronouncements often cost Iran international support, his efforts to empower the disaffected and the excluded generated solidarity. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi
(Aug 13, '13)
COMMENT
The US-Russian cold-shoulder war
Any talk that new Cold War is opening between the US and Russia is nonsense. The frostiness between respective presidents amounts to "Cold-Shoulder War" and will not prevent the two nation's getting down to serious business, even as relations between Washington and Moscow are not as important to the rest of us as they were before the Berlin Wall came down. - Robert E Hunter
(Aug 13, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
Vlad the Hammer vs Obama the Wimp
As Barack Obama predictably throws another tantrum over Russia's part in the Edward Snowden affair, Vladimir Putin can sense a wimp in the White House like a polar bear hunting a seal. It suits Vlad the Hammer just fine that nobody in Washington has articulated a policy other than demonizing a Russian president who is otherwise engaged in the push for a new strategic reality. - Pepe Escobar
(Aug 9, '13)
The post-terror terrorism of war
Heightened terror alerts from the US State Department serve as a reminder that terrorism originates from imperialism and military aggression against the poor and helpless. With the War on Terror a recipe for disasters far more destructive than rational minds can perceive, new thinking is needed to create peace; but that won't emanate from leaders intent on a never-ending war. - Mahboob A Khawaja
(Aug 8, '13)
The spy and the patriots
American Revolutionary War hero and spy Nathan Hale - executed by the British in 1776 - would likely be as bemused by today's labyrinthine US security state as current intelligence "employees" would be by Hale's devotion to his country. In searching for spies who demonstrate Hale's true ideals today, only two names spring to mind - Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden. - Tom Engelhardt
(Aug 8, '13)
Welcome to the
post-constitution
Times are bad for the United States when Vladimir Putin's Russia is a place of asylum for an American dissident like Edward Snowden and the land of the free (or more precisely, "the homeland") is doing a reasonable job imitating aspects of the old Soviet gulag in its treatment of whistleblower Bradley Manning. Yet it's quite possible that worse is still to come. - Peter Van Buren
(Aug 6, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
Snowden: our man in Moscow
Wolf in sheep's clothing Barack Obama can huff and puff all he likes at Russia's granting of asylum to Edward Snowden, but short of an Abbottabad-style raid, the safehouse isn't going to blow down while the whistleblower enjoys the fruits of Vladimir Putin's international obligations. Settling into life outside Moscow airport, Snowden has exploded the myth of Full Spectrum Dominance by the president of the United States. - Pepe Escobar
(Aug 2, '13)
A spy who tried to scale Kremlin wall
Russia's recent policy successes in Syria doubtless flavored the discussions of chief of Saudi intelligence Prince Bandar bin Sultan in Moscow this week. The Kremlin knows only too well Bandar's skills in the dark arts - think Afghan jihad in the '80s - and this was one spy it was prepared to portray (with unusually public coverage) as very much out in the cold. - M K Bhadrakumar
(Aug 2, '13)
Dangerous liaisons threaten Pacific balance
That a "balance of relations" in the Asia-Pacific favors US above Chinese interests was reaffirmed by their leaders' summer summit. The ballast in the bilateral relationship matters little when set against the dangerous dynamics that would rock the boat should Washington or Beijing press countries in the region to choose between them. - Satu Limaye
(Aug 1, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
Manning guilty, war criminals on the loose
The young Bradley Manning faces a lifetime behind bars after the delivery of a (predictable) guilty verdict in his show trial for spying. The US government went no holds barred, and failed, to prove that Manning had helped al-Qaeda. Events in Iraq this week show it's the US government that has actually enabled al-Qaeda, while the real culprits are still on the loose. - Pepe Escobar
(Jul 31, '13)
Rouhani pick sends positive signal
Reports that Hassan Rouhani, Iran's president-elect, will choose the country's former ambassador to the United Nations as his foreign minister are helping speed the ongoing thaw between Tehran and Washington. Mohammad Javad Zarif is seen as a pragmatist who can help create conditions for direct talks to begin. - Jim Lobe
(Jul 30, '13)
SPEAKING FREELY
America: the powerful and the powerless
If alive today, historians from the past would be baffled at how America, perhaps once the most powerful force in moral and intellectual discourse, became a nation devoid of the most basic principles in global political affairs. Paranoid and vengeful politicians have incapacitated a nation that is now so obsessed with power it risks suffering the fate of fallen empires. - Mahboob A Khawaja
(Jul 29, '13)
Where have all
the dreamers gone?
Since 500 years of history came to an end with the collapse of the Soviet Union, one imperial power has steamrollered its single way of life into a Flat Earth. As revolts and growing turmoil across an increasingly crippled planet show the way into darkness and fear, but also new hope, what the world needs now is a resurgence of dreamers to rival the daring and lost political art of Martin Luther King. - Ira Chernus
(Jul 26, '13)
When Iraq invaded the United States
When world history is presented as a calendar of anecdotes, US war-making features on almost every page, with momentous dates such as the August 6, 1945, Hiroshima bombing and the March 20, 2003, Iraq invasion impacting back and forth across humanity's age of rule. Seen in fragmentary glimpses, the storms of bombs and professional fear-mongering are still traumatizing. - Eduardo Galeano
(Jul 25, '13)
SPEAKING FREELY
US pivot risks Asia-Pacific cold war
As the US "rebalancing" to the Asia-Pacific accelerates a militarization of regional allies, US-backed governments are also increasingly trying to convince their populations that China is the principal enemy. By drawing more countries to its strategic vision in the region, Washington is creating blocs whose interactions could sow the seeds of global conflict. - Ninan Koshy
(Jul 23, '13)
SPENGLER
First things last
As national suicide by infertility becomes the new normal, demographics looms large for people of religion for whom fertility and faith are inextricably linked. Religious conservatism and its twin pillars of classical political philosophy and natural law theory are in need of a rethink, and no other venue is better suited to the task than First Things, the monthly journal of religion in the public square.
(Jul 22, '13)
The 'alternative' discourse on Asia's rise
Asian countries neighboring China are concerned about its recent territorial aggression in the South and East China Seas, and India's border, yet are alarmed that the dominant discourse points to increasing militarization and conflict. Regional determination is growing to create the regional institutional mechanisms to avert the negative impacts of China's rise and instead showcase the positive aspects of the China success story. - Namrata Goswami
(Jul 22, '13)
A world where everything is for sale
Western nations will say certain oppressive and corrupt Gulf rulers must be propped up for reasons of regional stability or strategic security, despite the inevitable impact on their own reputations. Naturally the real reason is personal or corporate benefit, but what really frustrates is when one-time leaders of the US or UK peddle the good name of former offices in return for lucrative "consultant" roles. - Hossein Askari
(Jul 22, '13)
Prometheus among the cannibals
Millions of people, from prime ministers to computer hackers, are watching a live espionage movie in which former security contractor Edward Snowden is the protagonist and perhaps the sacrifice. It's been a moving show so far of one man against the machine. If you've ever been to the local multiplex, you can't for a second doubt where global sympathies lie. - Rebecca Solnit
(Jul 19, '13)
SPEAKING FREELY
Tsarnaev and the politics of Rolling Stone(s)
If herostratic fame was part of alleged Boston marathon bomber Dzhokar Tsarnaev's motivation, the teenage suspect got it by appearing on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. The magazine's decision is revealing of US society's fascination with perpetrators of violence instead of their innocent victims. - Dallas Darling
(Jul 19, '13)
How to be a rogue superpower
In the Cold War years, the US famously used to open it arms for what were once called "Soviet dissidents". Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden's struggle to take asylum shows a new totalitarian beast is in the making, tattooed with "nowhere is safe if you breach US secrecy". We just don't know yet know exactly how far the new rogue superpower is willing to go. - Tom Engelhardt
(Jul 17, '13)
Report undermines US's Osama glory
While the Abbottabad Commission's report into the Osama bin Laden killing focuses on Pakistan's own failures, its findings - that the raid could only take place in somewhere local governance had "completely collapsed" - also detract from the glamorous image of the mission projected by Americans, as seen in Zero Dark Thirty. - Ramzy Baroud
(Jul 16, '13)
Surveillance
dystopia looms
In the years following the United States' 1898 occupation of the Philippines, Washington pacified its rebelious people in part by fashioning the world's first full-scale "surveillance state" in a colonial land. From those beginnings, via the illegal counterintelligence operations to harass anti-Vietnam War activists, US military surveillance efforts now project a near future even more dystopian than the present. - Alfred W McCoy
(Jul 15, '13)
SPEAKING FREELY
China plots strategic coup in the Pacific
Far from piecemeal aggression, China's assertiveness in the East and South China Seas is a direct, if subtle, challenge to the international order the United States created in the western Pacific after World War II. Unless the US upholds treaty obligations, the region will soon resemble the Chinese system of vassal states under the Ching Dynasty. - Richard C Thornton
(Jul 15, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
The China-US 'Brotherhood'
The latest US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue talk fest now underway in Washington comes with local punters believing Beijing has weakened since its post-financial crisis heavy lifting days. Don't bet on it. With Barack Obama trapped in a Middle East Brotherhood net, Chinese leader Xi Jinping sees good pickings in Pakistan, Iran, Syria, Iraq - not to mention Pipelineistan and the South China Sea. "Fragile"? You wish. - Pepe Escobar
(Jul 11, '13)
Political violence and privilege
Violent right-wing extremism doesn't scare Americans; American Muslims do, even as right-wing extremists have committed far more acts of political violence since 1990. That law enforcement across the country feel compelled to target Muslim communities disproportionately to conservative Christian groups confirms what American Muslims know in their bones: to be different is to be suspect. - Matthew Harwood
(Jul 11, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
Snowden: towards an endgame
The Edward Snowden script of the The Spy Who Remains in the Cold (of Moscow airport's transit area) could become Our Man in Caracas after Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro acknowledged receipt of an asylum request. It's up to Moscow to make that happen, though there is still no guarantee Snowden won't be whacked, sooner or later, by a CIA contractor. - Pepe Escobar
(Jul 9, '13)
Touching base(s):
a classic runaround
The United States has numerous bases around the world, in a variety of sizes and for many functions. And the military has a count of all locations - but cannot count them. It has lists of where all US troops in Africa are based, but not a list of bases. And even showing interest can lead to a prolonged wait in immigration on re-entry to the US. This is US tax dollars at work keeping US taxpayers thoroughly in the dark. - Nick Turse
(Jul 8, '13)
Tracing the roots of social rebellion
Unrest in Turkey not only reflects the evolution of grassroots environmental and social movements, but also challenge the aggressive modernizing steps taken by strong states determined to win international acceptance as major powers. As Ankara is discovering along with authorities in Brazil, technological advancements can help the underdogs of yesterday become the makers of tomorrow. - Sreeram Chaulia
(Jul 8, '13)
The lonely flight of Edward Snowden
Unlike past whistleblowers who, perhaps naively, expected the US government to act constitutionally and reverse an authoritarian course, Edward Snowden knew the full weight of the security machine would swing into action against him. While Washington will paint him as an attention-seeker, his act of sacrificing a normal life for that of a fugitive in pursuit of truth suggests a hero more than a traitor. - Peter Van Buren
(Jul 3, '13)
Close encounters
of the low-tech kind
The use of undercover American agent provocateurs to entrap and provoke citizens into breaking the law is a threat to American liberties on the same scale as the oppressive surveillance revealed by Edward Snowden's whistleblowing. That the "terrorists" targeted by such tactics encompass anyone who opposes government policies - including environment and social movements - makes the affront to democracy even worse. - Todd Gitlin
(Jul 1, '13)
Obama steps into China's African shadow
United States President Barack Obama and his entourage of business leaders have trade and investment in their sights on their wide-ranging tour of Africa. Wherever they go, Chinese money has probably been there first, and the specter of Beijing's flourishing influence in the region is a vital subtext. - Narayani Basu
(Jun 28, '13)
America's Edward Snowden problem
Whimpering arguments from Washington that Edward Snowden is a traitor seeking refuge in bastions of repression aim to shift the global focus from "US persecution of whistleblower" to "creepy tyrannies flouting international law". There's still time to reel Snowden in and give him a fair hearing, but that looks unlikely; the Obama administration is betting it can get Americans to stop caring about his awkward revelations. - Peter Lee
(Jun 28, '13)
SPEAKING FREELY
The warrior and democratic society
The concept of the "democratic warrior" is rising as soldiers connect their warrior ethos with modern society and its liberal political goals across the world. While at first glance the concept appears self-contradictory, the potentially conflicting value systems can resolved through following classical republican virtues. - Andreas Herberg-Rothe
(Jun 25, '13)
Epic effort to save the Wild West
A quest to underline the importance of wildlife corridors linking America's west has prompted explorer John Davis to undertake a gruelling 9,650-kilometer trek from Mexico to Canada. While Davis' "landscape connectivity" hike highlights an evolution in conservation, the real political struggle is between traditional mining and grazing interests and those who believe recreation and tourism can become alternative economic engines. - Chip Ward
(Jun 25, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
Our man in Quito
The Edward Snowden saga moves fast forward, still fraught with danger, but nearing game, set and match for the runaway revealer of the global scope of US secret surveillance. The Ecuadorian capital, Quito, looms on the horizon as his (final?) port of refuge as Snowden leaves behind him a now passport-less trail of geo-political chaos, with Hong Kong, Beijing (and now Moscow?) gleefully thumbing their noses at Washington. - Pepe Escobar
(Jun 24, '13)
SPENGLER
Kierkegaard is needed
more than ever
The bicentennial of Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard's birth passed last month unremarked, in an age where his teaching that we cannot deny passion is needed more than ever. As today's Europeans die out for lack of interest in their own lives, Kierkegaard's philosophy reminds us that the same fate awaits Americans absent a renewal of impassioned institutional commitment to the sanctity of the individual.
(Jun 24, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
The Chimerica dream
Chinese President Xi Jinping's dream for his country's future does not include ruling even the Asian part of the world, but the prospect does mean it impinges on Washington's own dream for the Pacific future. A strategic adjustment by both sides could help further cooperation towards a "Chimerica" - but that would imply the US was capable of acknowledging "core" Chinese national interests. - Pepe Escobar
(Jun 21, '13)
Kiribati undercuts marine protection claims
A steadily expanding tuna fishing industry in the Pacific island of Kiribati belies its claim to have created the world's most effective marine protected area. As the government says millions of dollars in financial compensation would be required to ban fishing in the marine zone, conservationists are split over how to protect the world's last major population of skipjack tuna from depletion. - Christopher Pala
(Jun 21, '13)
THE TERROR DIASPORA
US spreads blowback nightmare
As the war in Afghanistan winds down, the United States military has greater incentive and opportunity to project power ever deeper into Africa. US destabilization of the continent has already sparked the spread of terrorist outfits like wildfire (from none before 9/11), and now it's creating what increasingly looks like a blowback machine. - Nick Turse
(Jun 20, '13)
SINOGRAPH
Common folk aren't
US's cyber-targets
Furor over US surveillance ignores that even second-rate powers have for decades been capable of recording every citizen's calls. The real target of monitoring is governments. For the the US, China is the biggest cyber-spying threat. Yet by simply selling secrets to Beijing, Washington could hook China into US technological development, minimize the risk of leapfrogging - and make some money. - Francesco Sisci
(Jun 18, '13)
The making of a global security state
Hassan Rouhani's surprise election as Iranian president leaves US analysts cautiously optimistic about a possible Tehran-Washington detente, while pro-Israel forces reject any idea his presidency will produce substantive change. Some suspect Rouhani will push for a nuclear deal, and say Washington must be prepared to make concessions that convince Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to go along. - Tom Engelhardt
(Jun 18, '13)
In praise of darkness (and light)
In the desert, the emotional, moral, and religious overtones of darkness are overturned as shadow and shade give respite to the menacing blaze of day. Similarly, in the 24-hour long days of Iceland, the light of interrogation and analysis never fully fades and darkness has to be sought out or created in elaborate visual art such as sheetrock labyrinths. - Rebecca Solnit
(Jun 14, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
See you on the dark side
The Edward Snowden-leaked National Security Agency Power Point presentation PRISM, as expressed in its Dark Side of the Moon-ish logo, is a graphic expression of the ultimate Pentagon/neo-con wet dream; the Full Spectrum Dominance doctrine. In the age of Total Information Awareness, the lunatics are in all our heads - and they won't be leaving anytime soon. - Pepe Escobar
(Jun 13, '13)
Intra-Asian security ties 'good for US
Following the meeting of President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, a report urges Washington to take a more active role in putting together security ties in Asia in ways that include Beijing in any multilateral activities while remaining "vigilant against threats of entrapment from adventurous allies and partners". - Jim Lobe
(Jun 13, '13)
World less peaceful than five years ago
The world has become less peaceful than it was five years ago, and while the Middle East and nearby countries - from Syria to Sudan, Iraq to Yemen - epitomizes that trend, South Asia is the least peaceful region. The impact of all this violence comes at a cost - at least US$9.5 trillion, according to a report, or nearly double the value of the world's total food production. - Jim Lobe
(Jun 12, '13)
Dystopian secrecy fuels clueless wars
Bradley Manning, WikiLeaks' source inside the US Army, has done more to make Americans safer than the Navy SEAL unit that assassinated Osama bin Laden. As his trial proceeds to its foregone conclusion, the greatest threat to the United States is not terrorism but secrecy and the clueless foreign policy that Manning helped expose.. - Chase Madar
(Jun 12, '13)
SPEAKING FREELY
US and China could use a go-between
At a time when US-China relations are crying out for an independent mediator, the world is bypassing the United Nations and resolving issues at multilateral and bilateral state levels. A strong path to peace is the selection of a third-party arbiter from among approved states or organizations to strengthen the principle of strategic cooperation. - Brett Daniel Shehadey
(Jun 12, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
Digital Blackwater rules
It's a no-brainer how a young IT wizard came to release ultra-sensitive secrets of the US intelligence-national security complex in the biggest leak in American history. Gung-ho privatization of spying has created a "Digital Blackwater" industry around the National Security Agency headquarters in Maryland. It took only one private contractor to bring the rules of state discipline out of the shadows. - Pepe Escobar
(Jun 11, '13)
How to pre-convict an American Muslim
From manufactured "plots" and outsourced "confessions" to mental tortures designed to skirt the boundaries of legality, domestic US justice for terror suspects has evolved to match the Guantanamo detention center's grey system of pre-punishment and pre-conviction. In the world of special administrative measures, the George W Bush-era of "taking the gloves off" is still being pushed to the limit. - Victoria Brittain
(Jun 11, '13)
Spy vs spy in the cyber age
Beijing's hand may or may not be behind Edward Snowden's decision to seek refuge in Hong Kong and his disclosure of details of a vast US intelligence program to mine domestic Internet data, but the revelations dented whatever impact President Barack Obama hoped to make on his counterpart Xi Jinping in their weekend discussion of cyber attacks between China and the United States. - Brendan O'Reilly
(Jun 11, '13)
US-China shadow boxing at Shangri-La
A few rungs lower than the presidential confab, China used the Shangri-La dialogue in Singapore to mount a charm offensive targeting the US "rebalance" in Asia. Suggestions of "peace, development, cooperation and win-win" were quickly followed with hints that Beijing may carry out tit-for-tat maritime surveillance. The US hit back forcefully, and it was left to emerging regional players to seek equanimity and restraint. - Abhijit Singh
(Jun 11, '13)
Pacific Ocean's survival at tipping point
Unless the world does more to combat the pollution, overexploitation and acidification threatening the Pacific Ocean, the consequences for the economies and food security of Pacific island countries will be devastating. Deep sea mineral exploration projects are also raising temptations that could undermine the collaborative approach needed for successful future ocean management. - Catherine Wilson
(Jun 10, '13)
Graduation speech for the class of '66
The post-post-docs of life who graduated in 1966 need a graduation speech today that will inspire one last round of activity in world where nothing in the American way of war - not Abu Ghraib, nor CIA torture, nor drone assassinations - is news after the imperial darkness they saw in the Vietnam years. The essential message is: just begin! - Tom Engelhardt
(Jun 7, '13)
COMMENT
Accentuate the positive
China and the US can minimize the potential for conflict by increasing the economic linkage that distinguishes their relationship from other historical power contests. But a new, more positive interdependence is required. A good place to start is with a better alignment of China's need to invest is $3.3 trillion reserves with US states' needs to finance infrastructure renewal. - Bill Mundell
(Jun 6, '13)
US-CHINA SUMMIT
Humble pie for Xi on Sunnylands menu
China's Western critics, expecting US President Barack Obama this weekend to surrender to Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping's panda-like charm at their summit in the Californian sunshine, are in for a big surprise. Xi is cognizant of the fact that right now the United States holds the advantage in the evolving US-China relationship, and he will think seriously about validating American concerns over cyber-threats. - Peter Lee
(Jun 6, '13)
US steps ahead
in race to disaster
The Cuban missile crisis, that "most dangerous moment in history", drove home that apocalyptic vision and capability had shifted from the province of God to the realm of humanity. From that dirty win for J F Kennedy to the march towards environmental destruction, the American compass wins out and is leading the world to disaster, in spite of clear alternatives. - Noam Chomsky
(Jun 5, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
Meet the 'Friends of Jihad'
That about 70% of the Syrian people support President Bashar al-Assad is something the "Friends of Syria" prefer to trample under the nearest Persian rug. As Western governments - notably Britain and France - "lead from behind" to play the Sunni-Shi'ite divide, all they are promoting is perpetual petro-war by proxy. - Pepe Escobar
(Jun 5, '13)
Petty burglars of the Malacca Strait
Japan under Shinzo Abe is courting strategic Asian countries such as Myanmar, India and Sri Lanka, forwarding the "Indo-Pacific" concept that could come to define the US's "rebalancing strategy". China is accusing the prime minister of cashing in on the transient India-China disharmony, but Beijing is planning its own charm offensive - and it can recruit the region without a containment strategy - MK Bhadrakumar
(Jun 4, '13)
The Cold War redux?
Since the Cold War ended, the United States has stepped up weapons sales to undermine its rivals and destabilize regional power balances. As seen in Syria, the trend is also prompting Russia to engage in arms sales to advance its strategic goals. We may be witnessing the beginnings of a new cold war in two key regions of the planet - with arms deals the harbingers of this unnerving development. - Michael T Klare
(Jun 3, '13)
Moscow remembers Charlie Wilson's War
While there was no Texan belly dancer, the subterfuge and ideological drive seen in Senator John McCain's flight to Syria had heavy overtones of the 1980s tour by Charlie Wilson to secure arms for the Afghan mujahideen. McCain's maneuver aligns well with Europe removing an arms embargo and wavering US resistance toward boots on the ground, but this time Russia could respond in kind. - M K Bhadrakumar
(May 31, '13)
UK pays price for MI5 courting terror
Links between the alleged killers of a British soldier in London's Woolwich district and the al-Qaeda-backed Al Muhajiroun group likely came as no surprise to the British intelligence service, MI5, which has spent years co-opting Al Muhajiroun members to forward US-UK energy security objectives. Rather than the "self-radicalizing" cells London is blaming, MI5's ruthless pursuit of commercial interests ultimately sowed seeds of the attack. - Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed
(May 30, '13)
Naming a nameless war
George W Bush's "Global War on Terror" ended long ago, banished from the lexicon of his successor, while Barack Obama's pledge last week to give new definition to the scope of the now nameless conflict doesn't stand scrutiny. Washington seems in as little hurry to come up with a name as it does to end the war. Names and dates matter, and might actually explain what's going on. - Andrew J Bacevich
(May 29, '13)
Obama narrows scope of war on terror
Barack Obama announced a new policy to limit the conditions for drone strikes against terrorist suspects. Groups sharply critical of the US president's failure to break with George W Bush's "war of terror" gave his pledge to emerge from the legal shadows a cautious, if somewhat skeptical, welcome. - Jim Lobe
(May 24, '13)
A scar that stretches across continents
The death last week of former Argentine dictator Jorge Rafael Videla resonated with South Korean victims of their countries' past dictatorships, particularly as an Argentine human-rights group was coincidentally visiting Seoul to receive a human-rights award for work on ending Videla's impunity. Though separated by thousands of kilometers, the tales of the "disappeared" and the oppressed are strikingly familiar. - Stephanie Wildes
(May 23, '13)
SPEAKING FREELY
The sea rises in age of drone terror
The Obama administration's drone campaign in Pakistan, with its killing lists and execution boards, is reminiscent of the French Revolution's "Reign of Terror". Just like the guillotine - invented as an "enlightened" mode of killing - the unmanned weapons have ended up slaying hundreds of innocents. - Dallas Darling
(May 22, '13)
OBITUARY
A last dance with Kenneth Waltz
By the time of his death on May 12, international relations visionary Kenneth Waltz's core theories of how great powers interacted in an "international anarchy" had been eroded by the onset of a multipolar world and the increasing influence of violent non-state actors and ruthless multinational corporations. However, Waltz's gems are left to us as relics of a historic American era. - Sreeram Chaulia
(May 21, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
Assad talks, Russia walks
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad wasted a golden opportunity in an interview to explain to the Western public, even briefly, why petro-monarchies Saudi Arabia and Qatar, plus Turkey, have the hots for setting Syria on fire. While he was talking, Russia was walking, sending a message it is ready to go where the Pentagon and others fear to tread. - Pepe Escobar
(May 20, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
Catfight - and it's US vs EU
Forget about the Pentagon "pivoting" to Asia; nothing compares with the catfight developing between the United States and European Union over a free-trade pact proposed by Brussels, feared by many in Europe, and now pursued with a vengeance by Washington. Much lies in the hands of a European determined to be a personal winner in this transatlantic tussle, whatever its revolutionary potential. - Pepe Escobar
(May 17, '13)
UN asks Westerners: What's bugging you?
The culinary delights of bugs and insects are well-known to Asians for their flavor and nutritional value, but, with notable exceptions, tend to disgust Westerners. They should just get over their reservations, says the UN, as insects are the food of the future. - Heather Maher
(May 17, '13)
Where's all
the money gone?
Set foot just about anywhere other than the Chinese, Russian, and Iranian parts of the Eurasian landmass, and you're likely to find some kind of US base, installation, or shared facility. Private contractors have made fortunes off that global garrison, raking in US$385 billion to build and support American bases abroad since 2001. - David Vine
(May 16, '13)
SPEAKING FREELY
Dogma costs Islam innovative edge
Although Islam has been called the "Enlightenment of the East", that movement in the West established natural theology and destroyed faith as a universal category of social interaction; to the East, Islam established a religious-social imaginary. Today, the West is trying to project a secular universalism founded upon democracy, while Muslims exhibit signs of dystopia in a modern and post-modern world. - Nicholas A Biniaris
(May 14, '13)
Kerry couldn't set Moscow River on fire
Surprising perceptions of a "breakthrough" on Syria emerged from the shadow play and low expectations shrouding United States Secretary of State John Kerry's visit to Moscow. While a shift in the US demand that President Bashar al-Assad should quit as a prelude to peace talks was significant, new challenges confront both sides: not least Washington will struggle to convince its Gulf allies to join the Syrian leader at the same table. - M K Bhadrakumar
(May 9, '13)
And then there was one
The "Asian pivot" attests to United States' unease over China's challenge to the "unipolar" world since the collapse of the Soviet Union granted the US dubious dominion. But there's another aspect of imperial gigantism to get worked up about: while the rise and the fall of empires have been part of human history for thousands of years, they are fusing into one process connected to the decline of the planet itself. - Tom Engelhardt
(May 8, '13)
SPENGLER
Snaking the Scotch
The most successful Christian communities embrace the State of Israel, while the least successful ones abhor it. A recent report by the Church of Scotland, itself a dying echo of a once-notable institution, merely reflects in its criticism of Israel's territorial claims the collapse of its own former congregation into the narrow, ethnic concerns of a failed and disappearing people.
(May 6, '13)
Caucasus jihadis feel Boston shocks
The Chechen nationality of the Boston Marathon bombers will likely intensify US plans to deny support to jihadis fighters in Syria, since militants from the North Caucasus have been filling the rebel's ranks for months.
Recent claims from the resistance inside Russia undermine a "one size fits all" Washington approach to global jihad.
- Dmitry Shlapentokh
(May 3, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
The Syria-Iran red line show
The Bushist Obama "red line" as applied to Syria and Iran is becoming a tad ridiculous. Prevailing "wisdom" in Washington is that the limits in place for Syria (like the US-Israeli fabricated hysteria on chemical weapons) must be enforced with the same color-coded spin used for Iran. There is no "red line", just a hue and cry to drown out hardcore weaponizing of Israel and the Gulf petro-monarchies. - Pepe Escobar
(May 2, '13)
Irrational rhetoric fuels illegal wars
The anti-Islam circus in the US received another boost following the Boston Marathon bombings, with the political jugglers and media acrobats who preach hate to all Muslims indirectly ensuring the public are a willing audience for any hegemonic US act in the Middle East. The vitriol of the spectacle is not without cool calculation. - Ramzy Baroud
(May 2, '13)
Washington's nuclear hypocrisy
That the United States has been dogged in its efforts to punish Iran and North Korea for alleged atomic ambitions would appear to back President Barack Obama's 2009 commitment to a world free of nuclear weapons. Look beyond these two cases, say to India and Israel, and the non-proliferation edifice begins to crumble. - Michael Walker
(Apr 30, '13)
Japan stirs Campbell's US 'pivot' soup
Kurt Campbell, architect of the US pivot to Asia, may be ruing the tendency of US partners to usurp the (increasingly nuanced) grand plan by creating trouble for national and domestic political reasons, secure in the knowledge that the United States must back them up. As Japan's adventurism over its islands dispute with China gets out of hand, US discomfort is palpable. - Peter Lee
(Apr 26, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
A post-history strip tease
Beyond neoliberalism and/or a desire for social democracy, reality tells us is that an internecine global civil war is at hand. From Washington's Asian "pivot", to regime change in Iran, to Western fear of China, to the growth of neo-fascism in Europe and the pauperization of the Western middle class. What the world sorely needs now is a touch of Burt Bacharach. - Pepe Escobar
(Apr 26, '13)
Boston shock may push Obama to the right
In terms of foreign and domestic policy, the first terror strike on United States soil since 9/11 has weakened Barack Obama's presidency and increases pressure on him to veer to the right. A concerted effort to use the Boston attack to press a defensive White House for a more hawkish anti-Iran agenda is indicative of an attempted policy coup. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi
(Apr 24, '13)
Field of nightmares in the homeland
''Build it and they will come,'' was the homespun message motivating Kevin Costner's character in the movie Field of Dreams. ''The homeland is the battlefield'', post-Boston marathon, is the chilling twitter de jour, and it means that Washington's decision more than a decade ago to send its secret forces out to hunt random jihadis such as Anwar al-Awalki has now come hauntingly home to roost.
- Tom Engelhardt
(Apr 24, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
Orwell does America
With still so many unanswered questions regarding what took place in Boston after the bombing there, it's time to look at an extra, possible Top Ten list of absurdities. And with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev already convicted by the corporate media - though still officially only a ''suspected'' terrorist - we can declare ''Welcome to Police State USA'' - where at least everyone still has the right to shop till they drop. - PepeEscobar
(Apr 23, '13)
Boston blasts won't revive US-Russia reset
Repercussions of the Boston Marathon bombings are most expected on United States' ties with Russia. Conversations in the aftermath between Presidents Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin were cordial enough, but do not indicate new life in the ''reset'' that has taken a beating in the past couple of years. And the Chinese could be correct that Boston events may have little to do with US-Russia relations, but reflect domestic issues. - M K Bhadrakumar
(Apr 22, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
The FBI Boston-
Chechnya charade
The Boston bombing was major blowback. That much is certain. The question is, what level of blowback? Are we looking at some Caucasian terra-rists inspired by hate of the US of A, or more credibly a US home-grown black-ops gone rather awry? ''Disappearance'' of photo evidence tells its own story. - Pepe Escobar
(Apr 22, '13)
FILM REVIEW
Educating a Girl can save the world
A new documentary that tells the story of nine girls, each from different countries and who were "born into unforgiving circumstances" and dream of a real education, furthers a link between girls' schooling and poverty and progress levels established by past sociological studies. Girl Rising underlines that female education is an economic issue with the potential to transform societies. - Dinesh Sharma
(Apr 17, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
How Bowiemania buries Thatcherism
In 1979, the year Margaret Thatcher came to power, David Bowie foretold the zeitgeist she came to embody. Today, as the British muster pomp and circumstance to mark her departure, the old order that stole - and steals - the world still dominates. Inspired by Bowie, we can be heroes ... - Pepe Escobar
(Apr 17, '13)
Arms spending rises in developing world
Since the 2008 global financial crisis, 18 of the 31 countries in the European Union have cut military spending by more than 10% in real terms. The United States also plans cuts to its still high military budget. The reductions have been substantially offset by increased spending in Asia and elsewhere in the developing world. - Thalif Deen
(Apr 16, '13)
US creates enemy-industrial complex
Hair-raising media coverage of North Korea's threats glosses over the reality that the country can't mount warheads or perhaps even fuel its air force - a typical example of the US creating "enemies" to generate fear and keep the national security machine fed with currency. The strategy also keeps the public blind to the fact that America's deadliest foe is itself. - Tom Engelhardt
(Apr 16, '13)
The paradoxes
of the Pacific pivot
Washington insists its Pacific pivot will promote stronger economic, diplomatic, and cultural engagement with the region and beef up its military presence. However, budget cuts mean the promised increase in US capabilities will become a reduction, while the pivot is worsening regional tensions. These facts raise doubts the pivot actually exists except on a rhetorical level. - John Feffer
(Apr 15, '13)
Thatcher leaves legacy of division
The death of Margaret Thatcher, British prime minister from 1979 to 1990, was greeted around the world with the same mix of praise and distaste bordering on hatred that marked her time in office. In Asia, she was remembered for her role in handing Hong Kong back to China, where she was hailed as ''an outstanding politician''. Views in Hong Kong were more ambivalent.
(Apr 9, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
The South also rises
A commodity boom driven by China and improving Latin American finances in the early 2000s were the genesis of the Global South finally defying decades of economic oppression institutionalized by the West. The political front that has since emerged is too weak to counter the military hegemony of the United States and NATO, but it still offers an alternative to a stagnant world of neoliberal imperialism. - Pepe Escobar
(Apr 5, '13)
Coalition frays on eve of Iran nuclear talks
China and Russia are increasingly at odds with their other P5+1 partners (the US, Britain, France, plus Germany) on the eve of talks with Iran over the Islamic Republic's nuclear program, according to Javier Solana. The European Union's former top foreign policy official says fears of a spike in energy prices due to additional Western sanctions are driving the rift. - Jim Lobe
(Apr 2, '13)
Korean cloud obscures Almaty talks
Washington is grappling with "clear and present danger" from North Korean provocations, a fact that is not lost on Tehran, which senses the crisis has handed it additional chips in in this week's round of nuclear diplomacy in Kazakhstan. Under the cloud of Korea, there are plenty of indications that the US will let another opportunity for an Iranian endgame pass it by. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi
(Apr 2, '13)
SPEAKING FREELY
How Christians lost their anarchist spirit
That the Gospels are filled with tales of Jesus and his disciples committing acts of civil disobedience or launching revolutionary non-violent campaigns seems hard to fathom given that today's Church hardly expounds the philosophy that governments are responsible for society's ills. A deeper exploration of early Christianity's anarchist leanings suggests the movement lit the Great Fire of Rome. - Dallas Darling
(Apr 2, '13)
Obama walks Mid-East
high wire, eyes closed
US President Barack Obama is walking on a tightrope when it comes to Israel, Palestine, and Iran. As his recent trip to the Middle East shows, he is treading a thick line between reality and fantasy, and his peacemaking balancing act could come crashing down, exposed as a myth.
- Ira Chernus
(Apr 2, '13)
US, China and playful AfPak frogs
US Secretary of State John Kerry is learning bit-by-bit the secrets of the Asian bazaar and the frustrating problem of keeping live toads on the balancing scale. Mollifying Afghan President Hamid Karzai - even if that did not serve US interests - was one thing. Keeping the Big Frog, the Pakistan military, from then upsetting the pan was quite another. And the Big Frog is the one Washington needs the most. M K Bhadrakumar
(Mar 28, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
BRICS go over the wall
Atlanticist, Washington-consensus fanatics who say the BRICS grouping is on its deathbed are blind to the reality that its members - while protecting the global economy from casino capitalism - will increasingly take a political role in a multipolar world. As the North is overtaken by the global South at a dizzying speed, all stagnant and bankrupt Western elites can do is cling on for grim life. - Pepe Escobar
(Mar 26, '13)
The ever-destructive fantasy of air power
Drone warfare gives a new twist to a story nearly as old as flight itself; the ability of air supremacy to deliver decisive triumph over helpless enemies. Yet as airstrikes on al-Qaeda and its affiliates show, drones are neither surgical nor decisive. The dream of air power remains a capricious and destructive fantasy. - William J Astore
(Mar 25, '13)
US maintains pressure on Iran
The United States' tough negotiation strategy in Istanbul shows that Washington is intent on keeping the pressure on Iran at any cost, above all, by deleting the option of serious sanctions' offer as a part of a quid pro quo with Tehran. Some options after all have a tendency to bump off others below the table. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi
(Mar 21, '13)
Neo-cons shocked by loss of awe
Divides in the Republican Party between defense hawks and those who believe the Pentagon shouldn't be exempt from budget cuts underline growing resistance to the neo-conservative vision of a benevolent US hegemony as favored by the group who sought "regime change" in Iraq a decade ago. That debacle isn't the sole source of the split. - Jim Lobe
(Mar 20, '13)
COMMENT
Who did you rape in the war, daddy?
Veterans often tell us it's never okay to ask if a soldier killed somebody "over there" and they almost never offer up accounts of murder, assault, torture, or rape unsolicited. The obscenity of war, in Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan, stays buried - and everyone suffers for their silence. But these are questions that need answers, so we all take part in shouldering the truth. - Nick Turse
(Mar 20, '13)
World fails to make a reckoning
Bombings in Baghdad appeared to commemorate the invasion of Iraq. Elsewhere, particularly among Washington's foreign policy elite, the remarkable lack of interest in the anniversary may be explained by the fact that the war was an experience many, including its defenders, would prefer to forget. After all, the balance sheet doesn't look very good. - Jim Lobe
(Mar 20, '13)
US global leadership slumps, again
In countries facing social upheaval and conflict in Africa, South Asia and Central Asia, approval of the US's "global leadership" role has slipped, while in those enjoying stability it has recovered. The trend reflects a growing disillusionment with the ability of President Barack Obama to enact real global change, with ratings plunging to their lowest right before his re-election.
- Dinesh Sharma
(Mar 19, '13)
<IT WORLD>
China cyber-war: Don't believe the hype
Anyone hoping for a reset in US-China relations might feel a twinge of disappointment at Washington's decision to hype Chinese cyber-intrusions. If a measured escalation was its aim, the Obama administration was hijacked by the sequestered US military and security industry's desire for more power and profit. Besides, occupants of the White House throw cyber-stones too. - Peter Lee
(Mar 15, '13)
CULTURE
The conquest of nature and what we lost
Animals have succumbed to the identities pinned on them by man, becoming a plague of anthropomorphized pets or labels for marketing frozen-food and a far cry from their position as agents of nature or symbols of culture in millennia of human existence. That the "beasts" live at ease within the great chain, in concert with the tides and in the presence of death, is a lesson almost lost on humanity.- Lewis H Lapham
(Mar 15, '13)
US 'rebalancing' to Asia still a priority
US National Security Advisor Thomas Donilon, in a major policy address, put US heft behind South Korea against the provocations of the North and criticized China over the threat from cyber-attacks. Amid growing tensions and concerns about the White House's intense focus on the Middle East, the intended message appeared to be that the Asian "pivot" remains on track. - Jim Lobe
(Mar 13, '13)
SPENGLER
US exceptionalism
a matter of faith
Claims that the era of American Exceptionalism is over are exaggerated at best. What has made the United States radically different from all other big industrial nations during the past generation is a fertility rate above replacement, and religious folk are the last who seem determined to keep it that way. The question is not what we forecast, but whether we will keep faith.
(Mar 12, '13)
Mission unaccomplished
United States' troops first entered Baghdad a decade ago next month. From that inglorious point to the moment in December 2011 when the last American combat unit slipped out of Iraq in the dead of the night, the mission was madness. And still there is a refusal to look defeat in the face and to recognize the invasion for what it was: the single worst foreign policy decision in American history. - Peter Van Buren
(Mar 12, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
The Fall of the House of Europe
The great Dante set out for his 14th century Italian (and European) contemporaries the descent that awaited them after they shuffled off life's coil. His modern day descendants, alas, must cope without the wisdom of his Virgil to guide a way through the terrors as the European project belches anger and avarice on its way to (possibly yet more violent) self-destruction. - Pepe Escobar (Mar 11, '13)
UK's war on terror targets the vulnerable
The post-9/11 dragnet for Muslims in Great Britain has silently evolved into a hidden war of continual harassment against the largely helpless relatives of suspects or former detainees. Exploiting the stigma of "terrorism" and the specter of security threats, the British government has used experimental perversions of the legal system to dehumanize families and isolate them from the outside world.
- Victoria Brittain
(Mar 8, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
El Comandante has
left the building
Unfortunately for turbo-capitalists in Washington and Brussels, the death of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez from cancer does not signal an end to the spirit of Chavism. With his "socialism of the 21st century" and defiance of centuries-old patterns of subjugation in Latin America, El Comandante struck a chord with the Global South that's now resonating in crumbling European structures.
- Pepe Escobar
(Mar 6, '13)
Kerry, Hagel and us
While Beijing may welcome US Secretary of State John Kerry's concerns that Washington's Asian rebalancing strategy "creates a threat" where there wasn't one, past accusations from new Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel that India opened a "second front" in Afghanistan still stick in the craw in Delhi. Instead of fretting over pitfalls in the Obama-era "course correction", India and China should instead focus on creating new traction in their bilateral engagement.
- M K Bhadrakumar
(Mar 6, '13)
Glacial progress
belies climate threat
The minimal global impact of the "largest ever" climate change rally in Washington last month underlined difficulties in getting the masses behind the cause, despite the chances of human-induced weather extremes ending life on Earth as we know it. Preparation for a grim, apocalyptic future may seem pessimistic, but it's a leap of faith humanity must take. - Tom Engelhardt
(Mar 5, '13)
SPENGLER
Looking for marriage
in all the wrong places
Defenders of gay marriage style themselves as enlightened and reasonable. The well-reasoned arguments in a new book propounding a traditional concept of marriage on the basis of nature and social benefit prove them to be nothing of the sort, while in any case hedonistic heterosexuals have been hacking away at the institution for years.
What is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense, by Sherif Girgis, Ryan T Anderson, and Robert P George.
(Mar 4, '13)
A trillion-dollar concept left undefined
The cost of the technologies created in the name of "homeland security" as envisioned by president George W Bush is now approaching one trillion dollars, funds that could've revitalized crumbling infrastructure from shore to shining shore. While it's unclear if the concept's deeply flawed implementation has made Americans safer, there is little doubt it's made them poorer. - Mattea Kramer and Chris Hellman
(Mar 1, '13)
Sequestering American exceptionalism
Growing consensus in Washington that the military must be spared more sequestration cuts is predicated on the belief that the so-called world's policeman must never surrender its badge and gun. This ignores that rank unilateralism has no basis in international law and those billions could be better used to protect civilians in war zones. - Roger Peace
(Mar 1, '13) |
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