By Jocelyne Cesari The attack of The Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham (ISIS) on Mossul and its march on Baghdad has taken the international community by surprise and raised the possibility of another US intervention in Iraq, with the hope it could prevent the downfall of the country into a sectarian war. Such […]
Torture: What’s Race Got to do with It?
By Rebecca Gordon June is Torture Awareness Month, so this seems like a good time to consider some difficult aspects of torture people in the United States might need to be aware of. Sadly, this country has a long history of involvement with torture, both in its military adventures abroad and within its borders. A […]
Torturing for the Nation
By Ariel Dorfman via Tomdispatch.com According to an Amnesty International Poll released in May, 45% of Americans believe that torture is “sometimes necessary and acceptable” in order to “gain information that may protect the public.” Twenty-nine percent of Britons “strongly or somewhat agreed” that torture was justified when asked the same question. For someone like me, […]
America Has Gained Almost 1 Million Healthcare Jobs Since Obamacare Was Passed
Ask any Republican about the link between the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and job growth in America and they’ll tell you that Obamacare is ruining our economy and robbing good people of jobs. Of course, that just isn’t true. According to Forbes…
Dear GOP: Captured Benghazi Suspect Says He Was Inspired By Video
Abu Khatalla, the captured suspected ringleader of the September 11, 2012 Benghazi attack, says it was the much-discussed video that inspired him to act. What he did in the period just before the attack has remained unclear. But Mr. Abu Khattala told…
Absolutely Nothing: A Veteran’s Savage Indictment of the Iraq War
Tragically, all we’ve fought for in Iraq, all that 4,500 American lives were shed to gain, is on the cusp, potentially, of vanishing. – Mitt Romney, “Ideas Summit,” 6/13/2014 All we fought for in Iraq. All we fought for in Iraq is on the cusp…
Opportunities Abound in Iraq to Reset US Middle East Policy
By Kirk J. Beattie The crisis induced by ISIL’s advances in Iraq presents tremendous opportunities for the United States, and the U.S. government should move quickly to take full advantage. ISIL represent the worst of the worst forces involved in the Iraqi imbroglio. Its members’ values are totally at odds with those of an enormous […]
Fracking Threatens US Water: AP
The Associated Press has been doing a bang-up job of covering fracking issues lately, and over the weekend they released a bombshell fracking report that set fire to the tubes. The new fracking report focuses on oil and gas fracking wells that are classified…
Why were Wall Street & Banking not Reformed after 2008? Congress!
Why haven’t any big bankers been prosecuted for their role in the housing crisis that led to the Great Recession? These finance executives took part in “scandals that violate the most basic ethical norms,” as the head of the IMF Christine Lagarde…