Peace and Security
Ruled by Rifles
The Pentagon and the National Rifle Association have a lot in common these days. They’re in love with guns. They maintain powerful lobbies. They refuse to acknowledge the dangerous consequences of their policies.
The Tragic U.S. Strategy in Afghanistan
Albert Einstein famously defined insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” If that doesn’t accurately describe the more than nine-year-old U.S. war in Afghanistan, I don’t know what does.
National Insanity
A Nation of Laws?
The failure of the U.S. war strategy in Afghanistan to contain the anti-government insurgency has led the Obama administration to expand the undeclared war in Pakistan. According to the Long War Journal, the number of U.S. attacks in Pakistan, using unmanned Predator drones, has gone from five in 2007 to 117 in 2010.
The Glory of War
Some 32,000 Americans have been maimed in Iraq and another 8,000 so far in Afghanistan. And for what?
Unmanned Drones
Enough Already: Close Gitmo
In January 2009, as one of his first acts as president, Obama signed an executive order that committed the United States to closing the prison within a year and ending the practice of torture.
WikiLeaks Proves Need for Stronger Whistleblower Protections
Hysteria and anger over WikiLeaks have led to calls in Congress to widen the scope of espionage law violations. Essentially, this serves as a warning shot to future whistleblowers. But the experiences of other truth-tellers show why this is a mistake.
Guns are a Guy’s Best Friend
Many fantasies plague the five-member majority of our out-of-control Supreme Court. One is that law enforcement in most of the U.S. has pretty well collapsed.
WikiLeaks: Caveat Lector
WikiLeaks dumped a quarter million “secret”- State Department cables with our overseas embassies. The cache didn’t contain top secret, limited distribution, or other intelligence products. Nor were cables released from such government agencies as the Department of Defense, Department of Commerce, or National Security Council that also play important roles in policy formation and may have strongly divergent views.
