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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)
THE ROVING EYE
News from Kyrzakhstan
US Secretary of State John Kerry's inadvertent outing of the country of Kyrzakhstan, took geographers and political analysts by surprise, while opening up new possibilities for the Global War on Terror, and adding a new dimension to the Great Game and the US pivot to Asia. - Pepe Escobar
(Feb 27, '13)
Hagel's win a defeat for interventionism
Chuck Hagel has overcome a neo-con campaign of unprecedented scale to block his candidacy as US secretary of defense. The hawks were so distracted by complaining about his skepticism of the effectiveness of military action, "nation-building" and counter-insurgency strategies, that they failed to oppose deep budget cuts at Hagel's new home, the Pentagon. - Jim Lobe
(Feb 27, '13)
 'Clean' Grillo stirs
Italy's political mess
The strong support for comedian-turned-politician Beppe Grillo in Italy's general election is not a joke. He has secured real political space, and the cloak of his "clean" image will be sought by rivals such as poll leader Pierluigi Bersani as they seek to secure power and navigate the country in the coming, very difficult months - when Italy could become a larger, failed Greece or worse, with the future of Europe also at stake. - Francesco Sisci
(Feb 26, '13)
Waterboarding US redefines torture
From being punishable with stiff jail sentences during US colonial rule of the Philippines in the 1900s, waterboarding has undergone an Washington-led makeover - accelerated during the Vietnam War - to help it become the "enhanced interrogation technique" of today. As morality in the treatment of captives goes into reverse, it seems the only thing separating America from "evil" foes is terminology. - Nick Turse
(Feb 26, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
And the Oscar
goes to... the CIA
As poetic justice, the Ben Affleck-directed (and George Clooney co-produced) Argo snagging the Best Picture Oscar makes sense. A patriotic Hollywood saving the CIA and a certified Hollywood ending proved irresistible. But Argo is really for pussies. Django Unchained best captures the United States as still the Wild West. Next up for Quentin Tarantino's dark arts? Obomber Unchained...
- Pepe Escobar
(Feb 25, '13)
SPENGLER
Vatican wars and the
fight
for China's soul
Scandal surrounding the Roman Catholic Church in the run-up to the election next week of a new pope is a distraction from a real scandal - the belief that God holds one people above others - that still finds support in Latin America and Africa. That is one reason why the election of a pope from a self-confident Asia would be better for the Church. The other concerns the greatest battle of the 21st century: the fight for the soul of China.
(Feb 25, '13)
Washington debates the pivot to Asia
Liberal critics of the US Asian pivot rue the consequences of putting the containment of China at its heart, and see it as a misreading of Beijing's bellicose rhetoric. Defenders of the strategy in Washington have lost its true purpose - to cover up a strategic retreat from disaster in the Middle East and Southwest Asia - and underestimate the ability of China and its neighbors to establish a new regional order. - Walden Bello
(Feb 21, '13)
Dumb and dumber
As America's leaders repeat their mistakes endlessly - using tactics ranging from surges to counterinsurgency to special operations raids to drones - everything remains repetitively the same. Simply keep your eye on where the latest drone bases are being set up (in Saudi Arabia or in Niger, for example) and you can trace the further destabilization of the planet. - Tom Engelhardt
(Feb 19, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
The illusory state
of the Empire
US President Barack Obama used the State of the Union address to conjure up the
illusion of America as a controlling force in the world, while keeping his
actual foreign policy cards close to his chest. The smoke and mirrors belie the
political role of the US back in the real world and mask questions he would
never dare ask anyway. - Pepe Escobar (Feb
13, '13)
Constitution-free zone
rises on Canada border
For decades a peaceful, semi-guarded crossing, the US-Canadian border is
increasingly a national security hotspot watched over by American drones,
surveillance towers, and agents of the Department of Homeland Security. With
most of those detained being Muslims or of the "wrong" skin complexion, the
target is not just non-citizens or terrorists, but any "undesirable". - Todd
Miller (Feb 13, '13)
Paying the
bin Laden tax
Americans have been paying "the bin Laden tax" for national state security
since 9/11. Not forgetting the overlooked US$120 million for Inauguration Day,
the bill gets more onerous. Arrangements for presidential protection on that
day illustrate that the US is a new lockdown state, with a security apparatus
outside the rule of law. - Tom Engelhardt (Feb
7, '13)
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