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.
The Libyan people face major challenges in deepening democracy in a country that is oil rich, deeply divided and dependant on NATO for its victory against Gadhafi.
After 20 years of failed U.S. diplomacy based on protecting Israel’s occupation, the need to move to a new diplomacy rooted in international law and human rights remains a vital necessity.
Ten years and two wars later, Americans face the monetary and psychological costs of both militarism and Wall Street materialism, effectively bankrupting the country; not to mention the casualties of war at home, and in Afghanistan and Iraq.
A recommitment to King’s inspired vision might just be the best thing that could ever come out of the horrendous death and destruction of 9/11: a commitment to live, a commitment to love, and a commitment to peace and social justice.
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..."
While the US focuses on consolidating its permanent military presence in Afghanistan, designed to guard and exploit Central Asian energy reserves, its earlier rational "to fight terrorism" is a faded memory. Afghanis, meanwhile, continue to lose their lives and humanitarian conditions worsen.
The success of Libya's uprising will have a great deal to do with the willingness of its leadership to break its dependency on the United States and NATO.
The United States managed to avert a default, and that is good news. But the partisan battle in Congress sent the stock market plunging, and the decision by Standard & Poor’s to downgrade the country’s credit rating has made matters far worse.
Events in Libya and Syria have again brought the legitimacy of armed humanitarian intervention and so-called “responsibility to protect” into question.
U.S. foreign policy still fails to incorporate the lessons learned from the Tet Offensive. The refusal to admit goals weren't achieved in Afghanistan is frustrating to say the least.
Debate over the 10-year-plus war in Afghanistan tends to focus on how and when it "can be won," obscuring the fundamental question of whether it was morally acceptable in the first place. Now as the US gets closer to consolidating its imperial presence in the region for decades to come, the high cost to the Afghani people continues to be ignored.
Human rights standards may not be met in this trial, but the more essential purpose is to prove there's no going back to the days prior to the Tahrir revolution.
American newspapers lead the new angle of biased critisim on Turkey. Such a shame because Ankara has proven to be an independant regional influence in the Middle East, with its own brand of soft power diplomacy.
