Hawkish Voices Urging Action Against Russia Didn’t Lose Any Credibility After Cheerleading Iraq War
March 21, 2014
The most bellicose commentators on the current situation in Ukraine are pretty much exactly the same crew who zealously cheer-led for the illegal and deranged invasion of Iraq in 2003. Disappointingly, nobody thinks it appropriate to bring this up…as if it doesn’t affect their credibility in the slightest. The immediate consequences of the war of Iraq […]
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Sanctions Don’t Work, But They Do Make Obama Look Tough
March 21, 2014
Commentators across the spectrum support Obama’s recent executive order allowing economic sanctions to be placed on Putin’s “inner circle.” The fact that hardly anybody opposes this is instructive. To put it simply: sanctions don’t work. The well known political scientist Robert Pape years ago examined 115 cases of economic sanctions over almost 80 years and found […]
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ACLU: NSA’s PRISM Program is Doubly Illegal
March 21, 2014
The executive branch’s Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) issued a report back in December that was devastating to the Obama administration’s claims that NSA surveillance is both legal and effective in providing security. The report concluded that, in fact, the bulk collection of phone records under Section 215 of the FISA Amendments Act […]
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The US Promises to Go to War For More Than 54 Countries
March 20, 2014
There are 54 different countries on Earth that the U.S. is legally obligated to militarily protect and defend if they get into their own conflicts. Below is the State Department’s list of them (via Micah Zenko): NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY A treaty signed April 4, 1949, by which the Parties agree that an armed attack against […]
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To Oppose Russia and Maintain US Power, Washington Allies With Unscrupulous Characters in Ukraine
March 20, 2014
If you quickly survey the media coverage and political rhetoric surrounding the Ukraine crisis, you find there is nothing easier than to condemn Russia for its opportunistic and illegal incursions into Ukraine’s sovereign territory of Crimea. And this is correct: it is very easy to see these acts as unfair and unlawful. Russian troops, deceitfully […]
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Pakistan Knew About Bin Laden’s Hideout and Protected Him, NYT Reporter Confirms
March 19, 2014
After the killing of Osama bin Laden, Pakistan vehemently denied any knowledge that the most wanted terrorist operative in the world had lived in a protected compound in Abbottabad just a few short miles from Pakistan’s military academy. Nobody really believed them. Senior U.S. officials would, when asked by the press, give the Pakistani government […]
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US Makes ‘Enemies of the Internet’ List
March 19, 2014
Over at PolicyMic, Eileen Shim cites a recent report from Reporters Without Borders that names the U.S. in its annual “Enemies of the Internet” list: Reporters Without Borders did not name entire governments on its list, but rather focused on the individual agencies that censor the Internet. Last year’s revelations regarding the National Security Agency (NSA)’s […]
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Vice News on Crimea
March 18, 2014
The short documentary news pieces from Vice News on the situation in Crimea have been very enlightening, as reporter Simon Ostrovsky is on the ground and speaking to real people, instead of the uninformed punditry we hear on both U.S. and Russian propaganda outlets. They are very interesting. Here are the latest two.
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Useless Bluster: Biden Warns US May Conduct Military Exercises in Baltics
March 18, 2014
Vice President Joe Biden, who has been traversing Europe in the aftermath of the pro-Russian referendum in Crimea, announced on Tuesday that the U.S. “may consider rotating units of its ground and naval forces through the [Baltic] region for training exercises.” This is meant as a show of force ostensibly to demonstrate America’s military commitment to […]
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