Peace and Security
Our Biggest Terrorist Threat
Acts of terror like the ones committed at the Boston Marathon are reprehensible and lack moral or logical explanation. They rock us to our core. They also unite us in common purpose. Victims and their families seem to become our own loved ones. We want to ease their...
Saber-Rattling on the Korean Peninsula
North Korea has a dramatic flair for stringing along the world. Whether it's reactivating a long-dead plutonium reactor in the face of mounting sanctions or forcibly suspending one of the last major cooperative efforts with South Korea, Pyongyang seems intent on a...
Stopping the Senseless Carnage
It was a confusing week, dominated by the Boston Marathon bombing, the evil act of two young men who had been welcomed into this country and had repaid the kindness with unspeakable cruelty. Then, for grim comic relief, letters believed to contain the deadly poison...
Holy Smokes
Let’s Lace Up and Keep Running
I started running about four years ago to lose weight. At first I hated it. My lungs burned and my head hurt and every footstep felt like sledge hammers pounding on my calves. I persisted out of stubbornness. I'd bought a good pair of shoes and I didn't want to waste...
No Progress on Gun Control to Report
Yes, I know I said I wasn't going to write any more columns on gun control, largely because the exercise is: Futile. A waste of time. Unproductive. But with Congress taking up the issue again and Washington awash with hypocrisy amid rumors of progress, it is a time...
On Tax Day, Consider the Hidden Costs of War
April 15 isn't just Tax Day. It's also known as the Global Day of Action on Military Spending. People around the world mark the occasion by protesting the vast resources allocated to militaries, often at the cost of human needs. According to a new report issued by the...
Our Empire Addiction
Bribe and gun And dagger lurk, For us to make Our empire work. Ruling the world, as our government does, is tricky. Uncle Sam can never relax. The moment resisters in some subservient country, like Pakistan, sense weakness, they test him. He can't afford to be seen as...
Futile Military Financing
One of the more regrettable things that Uncle Sam does with your tax dollars is sending $3.1 billion in military aid to Israel every year. He'll be doing that until 2018 — and probably after, unless Americans decide enough is enough. When President Barack Obama...
A Tortured History
NATO forces have refused to turn Afghan prisoners over to some local jails due to concerns about the torture committed in many of those detention centers. After a dozen years of U.S. efforts to export democracy to Afghanistan, that's just one example of why this...
