On this Memorial Day, the U.S. Role blog would like to salute the men and women of the U.S. armed forces who have made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of our country. Because this blog is specifically devoted to the U.S. role in the world, I would like to honor those who are buried far […]
Embedded video from <a href=”http://www.cnn.com/video” mce_href=”http://www.cnn.com/video”>CNN Video</a> Nandan Nilekani, Co-Chairman of Infosys and author of Imagining India, spoke with Fareed Zakaria about India’s economic potential on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS. Nilekani argues that India’s democracy is a strength in economic development, the country’s population is an asset not a liability and its “strategic opportunity is […]
The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse has disclosed the ugly face of hypocrisy and bigotry of the Roman Catholic Church. For the children who were raped, beaten, and treated like animals, or what the Second Vatican Council refer to as ‘People of God’, the revelations in the report is yet another example of acute […]
“I believe the best service to the child is the service closest to the child, and children who are victims of neglect, abuse, or abandonment must not also be victims of bureaucracy. They deserve our devoted attention, not our divided attention.” – Kenny Guinn (American educator, businessman and two-term Governor of Nevada from 1999-2007) Children […]
Last week, award-winning journalist Amira Hass was arrested after returning from four months of reporting in the Palestinian Authority. Hass, who reports for Ha’aretz newspaper, was not held long after being arrested, but her case highlights a major problem for journalists in the region: access. Or lack of. It’s illegal for Israeli journalists to go […]
Embedded video from <a href=”http://www.cnn.com/video” mce_href=”http://www.cnn.com/video”>CNN Video</a> United States President Barack Obama recently nominated Republican Utah Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. as the next ambassador to China. President Obama reached into the Republican ranks for a key foreign policy position and likely removed one of his strongest potential challengers in the 2012 presidential campaign. During the […]
KISS – the engineer’s way of designing things that work. Solving the climate change crisis with nuclear fission plants to power the separation of oil from the billions of tons of tar in which it’s embedded – and destroying hundreds of thousands of acres of forest to get at the tar – is not a […]
…Drove my Chevy to the levy but the levy was dry.” Those words ring with such prophetic irony now – that is if the levy had been retaining a history of American automobile prowess. Or that’s at least what one might feel after reading Kendra Marr’s 18 May Washington Post article titled, “As […]
It was said during the presidential campaign that closing the Guantanamo detention center was one of the things the new president could do to immediately change the view of the U.S. role in the world for the better. After his election victory, President Obama immediately signed an executive order to do just that (I think […]
Just yesterday, New York City was the target of a failed terrorist plot. It’s a jarring reminder that terrorists are still out there, thinking about how to do Americans harm. For inquiring minds who want information from an authoritative voice on terrorism, take a look at The Shadowland Journal. The blog includes postings and writings […]
Yesterday, the Czech Republic hosted a joint EU-China summit that was originally scheduled for December. The meeting was delayed then because of French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s meeting with the Dalai Lama. This time, China made clear to tell the EU to stay out of its internal business. 2 main topics were on the agenda: the […]
In a move that went widely unreported last week, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled a plan that would allow additional drilling within state waters in an attempt to help ease California’s fiscal troubles. California had banned new exploration activity within state waters (an area that roughly extends nine miles from the coast) since the 1969 […]
FBI Director Robert Mueller told U.S. lawmakers Wednesday that the threat posed by harboring terrorist at U.S. detention facilities was a threat on par with that posed by high-ranking gang leaders. “The concerns we have about individuals who may support terrorism being in the United States run from concerns about providing financing, radicalizing others,” Mueller […]
The meeting between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is now history, and it appears that both leaders gained something from the meeting. President Obama secured assurances from the Israeli leader that new peace talks will begin soon and Prime Minister Netanyahu won a timetable for progress on dealing with Iran’s nuclear program. Despite […]
There are few photos of the Iraq war as poignant and iconic as that of Marine Lance Corporal James Blake Miller. The photo, known as the “Marlboro Marine”, was taken by Los Angeles Times photojournalist Luis Sinco. The war-weary Marine with a cigarette dangling from his mouth in the battle of Fallujah in 2004 is […]