The forthcoming issue of The Atlantic contains a report on Senator Obama's foreign policy by Matthew Yglesias, the magazine's Associate Editor. The article begins: “Barack Obama has always been an independent thinker. He of course opposed the war in Iraq, and he's built a team of national-security advisers who disproportionately took the same, then-unpopular antiwar […]
U.S. holding 2,500 juveniles among detainees, according to a report filed with United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. The report indicates that some 2,500 detainees are under 18 years of age are among the many detainees being held as “enemy combatants” in facilities in Iraq, Afghanistan and the detention center in Guantanamo […]
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) ‚ A military judge on Friday postponed the first war crimes tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, saying he wants to wait until the Supreme Court makes its highly anticipated ruling on the right of detainees to challenge their confinement in civil courts.Navy Capt. Keith Allred ruled the trial for Osama bin […]
After the riots in the French suburbs in 2007 (not to mention 2005), Olivier Roy , an expert on Islam and politics , said, "what these guys want is integration." In a presentation of his book (published the same year), Secularism Confronts Islam, Olivier Roy discussed the "tools" of integration. With respect to the situation […]
Guardian columnist and veteran reporter Jonathan Steele pennedan opinion piece on Wednesday about how Barack Obama, unlike the other Presidential candidates understand the American image problem. Although it was published one day before President Bush's veiled jab at Obama's open approach to conducting diplomacy with enemies, the commentary unintentionally comes to the Senator's defense: “…The Republican nominee John McCain accuses Obama of […]
Cap-and-Trade Bonanza , "Fortune" has a Sustainability column authored by Marc Gunther and this week he's got a story on how we're going to divvy up the proceeds from the inevitable U.S. cap-and-trade program that will be on the books sometime in 2009. See A $3 trillion climate change battle. As Gunther writes, "The issue […]
“There are no seven wonders of the world in the eyes of a child. There are seven million.” -Walt Streightiff Children truly see the world through unclouded eyes, in everything they see beauty and hope. It never ceases to amaze me what the eyes of a child see that the eyes of adulthood cannot, as […]
(AP) President Bush has travelled to Israel to celebrate the nation's 60th anniversary. He met with both Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (above, the full text of their remarks can be read here) and the President Shimon Peres. He addressed the Knesset(the Israeli Parliament) and a large conference with celebrity guests Henry Kissinger and Elie Wiesel. Every […]
The gang world has always been viewed through a predominately male lens, however the gang culture seems to be in the midst of a feminine revival. Many Central America countries have spent decades fighting gang wars on their streets, leaving most with the view that it is boys who make up this violent subculture and […]
In response to Hezbollah's recent show of force against Lebanon's ruling majority, Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zibari made an interesting remark to the London-based al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper. He stated that the government's persistence in reining in the Sadrist Movement's Mahdi Militia is indicative of its determination to stop Iraq from becoming another Lebanon with a […]
Pain carries along with it a burden, sometimes visible, sometimes hidden. You and I both understand this, we have all experienced it. And undoubtedly, we too have used it to our advantage, feigning strength while at our weakest. From Hammurabi's Code to the New Testament to the Quran, women, indentured servants, and homosexuals have historically […]
The chief judge for the U.S. war crimes tribunal at the naval detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, set a June 5 court date for the self-professed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, and four other suspected co-conspirators. Marine Col. Ralph Kohlmann, who presided over the earlier trial of Australian David Hicks, […]
A classic example of the complex dynamics surrounding an “Islamic” party in a secular state is Turkey and the AKP (The Justice and Development Party), which has spent most of its recent political clout trying to remove the headscarf ban in universities. The Eurasia Daily Monitor (Jamestown Foundation) has recently reported on research that shows […]
Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is perfectly clear. Everyone has a right to an education. And yet after seven years of brutal war in Afghanistan, education and schools in the Helmand district have plummeted to an all time low as the Taliban regain momentum and influence. "Make no mistake, NATO is […]
This is a Guest Blog written by Zharmukhamed Zardykhan, an Assistant Professor at KIMEP, the Kazakhstan Institute of Management, Economics, and Strategic Research. The First World War was noted not only for its horrific physical destruction and tremendous financial ruin, but for the first time systematic international propaganda became one of the most effective means of […]