Archive
Justice, Vengeance, and Osama Bin Laden
U.S. agents killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, apparently without cooperation from the government in Islamabad. The al-Qaeda leader was responsible for great suffering; I do not mourn his death. But every action has causes and consequences, and in the current moment all are dangerous. It’s unlikely that bin Laden’s killing will have much impact on the already weakened capacity of al-Qaeda, which is widely believed to be made up of only a couple hundred fighters between Afghanistan and Pakistan — though its effect on other terrorist forces is uncertain. Pakistan itself may pay a particularly high price.
The Lineup: Week of May 2-8, 2011
This week’s OtherWords editorial package features two commentaries on possible GOP presidential contenders: Marc Morial on Donald Trump and Donald Kaul on Michele Bachmann.
No-Doctrine Obama
For the political zoologist, the equivalent of finding a new species is identifying a new doctrine. Do all the zigs and zags in U.S. foreign policy in the last two years add up to a coherent Obama Doctrine?
Trump Employs Birther Issue as a Weapon of Mass Distraction
A recent CBS/New York Times poll found that 25 percent of Americans and 45 percent of registered Republican voters believe that President Obama wasn’t born in the United States. Another 22 percent of Republican voters say they don’t know.
U.S. Silences on the Arab Spring are Deafening
The U.S. response to the democratic uprisings sweeping the Middle East and North Africa is as notable for its silence as its uneven support for the Arab Spring.
Colombia Free Trade Deal Could Boost Cocaine Exports
Manuel Esteban Tejada was a teacher in the Colombian province of Cordoba, near the Panamanian border. Unfortunately for him, he was also a union member. On January 10, paramilitary gunmen broke into his house at 6 a.m. and shot him multiple times, killing him.
Bachmann May Surprise Us Yet
Hey! How about some love for Rep. Michele Bachmann?
Are You Ready for a Brave New World of Food?
A Dutch entomologist has seen the future of food, and–surprise!–it’s not where or what you might think it would be. “The Netherlands,” the professor says, “wants to be in the forefront of food.”
Arab Spring Forecast
America’s Housing Paradox
As the Bible pointedly reminds us, rains fall alike upon the just and the unjust. Nowhere is this axiom more pointed than in securing a place to live. Sure, maybe some of those luckless homeowners who fell victim to the Great Mortgage Scam were indeed trying to pull a fast one on their creditors–but most folks were simply plodding nobly through the American Dream. It didn’t matter. Honest or shady, Wall Street took them all down.
