John Glaser

March 18, 2014

Three years ago, the UN approved NATO action in Libya to impose a no-fly zone and head off an allegedly imminent bloodbath perpetrated by the Gadhafi regime. Days before this third anniversary, the Libyan parliament basically impeached the Prime Minister following the government’s inability to do anything about armed groups in the east taking control […]

Sheldon Richman

March 17, 2014

The conflict in Ukraine has prompted several level-headed commentators to point out that, of all governments, the U.S. government is in no position to lecture Russia about respecting other nations’ borders. When Secretary of State John Kerry said on Meet the Press, “This is an act of aggression that is completely trumped up in terms […]

John Glaser

March 17, 2014

Bill Kristol is not shy about his fetish for war. His latest piece at the neoconservative Weekly Standard borders on self-parody in the way that it openly longs for a return to a time when Americans were eager to send the U.S. military off on unnecessary, imperialistic adventures. Kristol is frustrated by the “war-weariness” of […]

Andrew Woodbury

March 17, 2014

With tensions in Crimea continuing to swell, so too has friction between the United States and Russian governments. On Monday, President Obama issued an executive order instituting travel bans and freezing the assets of Russian government officials believed to be responsible for Moscow’s military action in Crimea. The President further condemned Russia’s actions as clear […]

John Glaser

March 17, 2014

More than 90 percent of Crimean voters have voted to join Russia. Putin and the rest of Moscow are praising the power of democracy, however disingenuously, and Obama and all of Washington are condemning the referendum as an illegal act. As has been true throughout this whole crisis, the U.S. position is fundamentally hypocritical. When […]

Medea Benjamin

March 13, 2014

When I boarded the plane to Cairo, Egypt, to make sure everything was in place for the women’s delegation headed to Gaza, I had no reason to think I’d end up in a jail cell at the Cairo airport and then violently deported. The trip was in response to a call from women in Gaza […]

John Glaser

March 13, 2014

Imagine you commit a heinous crime. Then imagine that, once facing charges in court, you’re allowed to withhold incriminating evidence brought forth by the prosecutors, keeping the jury in the dark about the details of your lawbreaking. Further, imagine you commit more crimes while on trial and imagine the judge enables and covers up these […]

Ramzy Baroud

March 12, 2014

Something sinister is brewing around and below al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem, and it has the hallmark of a familiar Israeli campaign to strip the Mosque of its Muslim Arab identity. This time around, however, the stakes are much higher. The status of al-Aqsa mosque is unparalleled within the context of Muslim heritage in […]

John Glaser

March 12, 2014

The key to being taken seriously in Washington is to condemn other countries for their failures, crimes, and shortcomings and to praise the United States of America. One should never entertain the notion that the U.S. should be condemned for human rights abuses on the world stage. At least, that’s what the rhetoric leads you […]

John Glaser

March 12, 2014

Imad Abdullah Hassan, a Yemeni detainee in Guantanamo that has spent 12 years in a cage without ever being charged with a crime, is suing President Obama. He says the forced feeding he has been subjected to in order to disrupt his hunger strike amounts to torture. At The Atlantic, Conor Friedersdorf lists some of […]