The US war in Iraq may be over, but we owe an apology grounded in the recognition of our enormous debt to the people of Iraq, a debt for which compensation and reparations are only a start.
The U.S. is 11 years into its current war in Afghanistan and still losing. We never had a chance to "win" this war of vengeance – and while few in Washington are ready to admit that, they’ve continued to revise and redefine just what "winning" might look like.
The occupy movement has achieved an incredible and much-needed shake-up of a long-standing political stasis in the US and elsewhere, but it is crucial now to highlight the connection between failed foreign policy, bloated military spending and illegal wars, and the economic crisis at home.
It wasn’t the events of September 11th that changed the world, but the events of September 12th and beyond, when the Bush administration took the world to war in response; that changed the world, and continues to threaten U.S. and global security, and shred U.S. democracy.
It might seem like cause for celebration after reading the New York Times headline, "Iraq War Marks First Month with No U.S. Military Deaths." But the smaller print on the page reminds us why celebrating is not really in order: "Many Iraqis are killed..."
Kamil Mahdi, Phyllis Bennis, Ben Hayes, Salwa Ismail, Shaheer George, Mehdi Lalou, Yao Graham
21 June 2011
Multi-media
Middle East scholars join TNI fellows in a unique and fascinating discussion of the context of the democracy uprisings in the Middle East and the way it may shape the region for future generations.
Vengeance may have been wreaked on the infamous Al Qaeda leader, but as long as deadly U.S. wars continue in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and beyond, justice has not been done.
Renewed U.S. efforts to bring sanctions against Iran are more backlash for being snubbed in favour of a tripartite deal with Turkey and Brazil than they are about nuclear proliferation. A UN Security Council coalition may be able to block U.S. pressure for sanctions that would only punish Iranian civilians.
The US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq do not improve the lives of the people living there and the cost is devastating the US economy. The sooner we acknowledge that, the sooner we can begin to make good on our real debt -humanitarian, not military- to the peoples of Iraq and Afghanistan.
President Obama is using firmer diplomatic language with Netanyahu, but there’s no evidence yet that the administration is ready to use this moment to actually change U.S. policy.
Jochen Hippler, Christiane Fröhlich, Margerte Johannsen, Bruno Schoch, Adreas Heinemann-Grüder
12 December 2009
Book
Das Friedensgutachten ist das gemeinsame Jahrbuch der fünf Institute für Friedens- und Konfliktforschung in der Bundesrepublik. Das Friedensgutachten 2009 stellt Möglichkeiten, Wege und Grenzen, Kriege und Gewaltkonflikte zu beenden, in seinen Mittelpunkt.
Obama's Cairo speech shifted the discourse, away from justifying reckless imperial hubris, unilateralism and militarism and towards a more cooperative and potentially even internationalist approach. It is the task of people across the US to mobilise and turn that new language into new policies.
