“Was Shadadi’s mother and father terrorist? They were killed by the US drone. They are both over 60 years old.” -Abdul Hadi Mohammed, neighbor of al Qaeda suspect Nader Shadadi, whose father, mother and sister were killed by a US drone strike in Yemen last week. Over 100 Yemenis have been killed in such bombings… Continue reading Justice Will Be Served
Tag: war
Processing
“It feels as though that arc in American history has come to a close,” Watkins said. Acknowledging the strangeness of the analogy, he compared Bin Laden’s death to the upcoming last installment of the long-running Harry Potter movies: “It marks the end of our childhood,” he said. -Luke Watkins, a 20-year-old American, on his understanding… Continue reading Processing
“Every day we’re spending more in Libya than everything we’d like to keep in the budget. That’s turning around the Biblical imperatives and beating your plowshares into swords. You’re not going to solve the deficit with these programs. This is just mean. This is not believing the government should help poor people as a principle.”
-Jim Wallis, who is fasting to protest budget cuts
In Our Name
Obama has championed the idea of the American Caesar and made it bipartisan consensus
A Rich Embarrassment
In the final days of negotiation on the healthcare bill, President Obama twice postponed diplomatic trips to Indonesia and Australia, in order to close a deal that had engulfed the first 15 months of his presidency. The achievement noticeably improved Obama’s standing on the international stage, giving him much-needed credibility with foreign governments, but to… Continue reading A Rich Embarrassment
The Superbowl and the Super Brawl
The NFL playoffs have reached their zenith, and soon will come the Superbowl – the mother of all American Spectacles. Baseball may still be the national pastime, but football is America’s favorite sport now. Though, strangely, no other country on earth is seriously interested in it. No one will ever like it as much as… Continue reading The Superbowl and the Super Brawl
Afghanistan: Time to Leave
“If you are the 4th-poorest country in the world, you have a long way to go. When you try to train an army, they have an 80% illiteracy rate… It’s gonna take a long time.” Former White House Press Secretary Dana Perino, on Afghanistan. We’ve been fighting in Afghanistan for seven years, five months, and… Continue reading Afghanistan: Time to Leave
Back into the Light
At an alumni function last year, I spoke with a friend I had not seen in over a decade. He had spent many of the intervening years in Afghanistan with the US Army, in an intelligence unit. I asked him his opinion of “Matthew Alexander” – the anonym of the military interrogator who had just… Continue reading Back into the Light
Agitating for War
If you haven’t yet read Seymour Hersch’s new article, you need to do that now. Hersch wrote about US military incursions into Iran last year, and this is the latest update. He is a seriously connected, established journalist who consistently breaks very important stories. This is no exception: A Democratic senator told me that, late… Continue reading Agitating for War