NewsTrust - Afghanistan - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Mainstream)

The real Obama scandal: fighting illegal wars in Libya and Pakistan

Thu, 16 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Michael Cohen - May. 16 (Comment) - The AP, IRS and Benghazi controversies are political sideshows. Obama's use of illegal force abroad is true concern Washington DC appears to have reached peak hysteria this week. The confluence of not one, not two, but three potential scandals involving the White House has given practically every Beltway scribe a case of the vapors as they don their Woodward/Bernstein capes and doggedly uncover the truth behind the Obama Administration's lies. What's missing, however, is actual evidence of wrongdoing. The IRS scandal is certainly the most politically toxic, but it remains unclear that anyone from the Obama Administration knew what the IRS was doing or that the agency was even targeting conservative groups for partisan political reasons. The Department of Justice's subpoena of phone records from the Associated Press is far more troubling because it offers a glimpse into the prosecutorial zeal that has defined DoJ's investigation of leaks from within the Obama Administration. Finally, there ...

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How the CIA's Bags of Cash Undermined the Afghanistan War

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Wired - By Spencer Ackerman - Apr. 29 (Opinion) - It’s the most understandable, intuitive and tempting mistake in geopolitics: secretly pay a powerful foreigner to do what you want. The CIA, like many spy agencies, has done it throughout its history, and now we know it helped undermine the America’s longest war.

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The C.I.A.’s Angry Birds

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By By MAUREEN DOWD - Apr. 17 (Opinion) - Over the winter, I heard military commanders and White House officials murmur in hushed tones about how they would have to figure out a legal and moral framework for the flying killer robots executing targets around the globe. They were starting to reali

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The President's Priorities

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - Apr. 11 (Opinion) - Debt in 2014 will hit 78.2% of the economy. President Obama is pitching his new budget proposal as a fiscal peace offering to Republicans, but the details suggest everyone should expect more conflict. The fiscal 2014 plan he released Wednesday is a very slightly modified version of his previous budgets that reduces the deficit by raising taxes and trading defense cuts for more domestic spending. The real news is that his budget ratifies much of the spending increase of the first term and tries to lock it in. He wants the feds to spend $3.78 trillion next year ($11,944 per American), which would still be 22.2% of national output nearly four years into an economic recovery. Before the financial panic in 2008, the government was spending about $1 trillion less, or closer to $2.7 trillion a year and an average of 20% of GDP—and President Bush was no slouch as a spender himself.

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Pakistan’s Precipitous Decline

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By By WILLIAM MILAM - Apr. 04 (Opinion) - Nuclear arms, sectarian violence, a too-powerful military and dysfunctional institutions make for a dangerous mix.

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The law of war does not shield the CIA and John Brennan's drone kill list | Morris Davis

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Morris Davis - Feb. 08 (Comment) - The US prosecuted Omar Khadr in Guantánamo for not being a lawful combatant. Exactly the same applies to the civilian CIA The disclosure Tuesday evening of the Department of Justice white paper on targeted killing (pdf) has sparked a lot of debate, much of it focused on the Obama administration's extraordinarily broad interpretation of what constitutes an "imminent" threat that justifies lethal force as an act of self-defense. As Senator Rand Paul (Republican, Kentucky) told reporters during a conference call on Wednesday, "only a team of lawyers could define 'imminent' to mean the exact opposite" of what the word means in the real world. There are, no doubt, many Americans alive today who should be thankful their healthcare providers did not apply the administration's interpretation of "imminent" to decide if they had crossed over the line of imminent death and said pull the plug. Some people have acquired power and profits in post-9/11 America by pandering to and perpetuating fear. As ...

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Op-Ed Columnist: Break All the Rules

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN - Jan. 23 (Opinion) - At a time when we measure our secretaries of state more by miles traveled than milestones achieved, what’s the next secretary to do? Here’s a plan.

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Opinionator | The Great Divide: Inequality Is Holding Back The Recovery

Sun, 20 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By By JOSEPH E. STIGLITZ - Jan. 20 (Editorial) - Our economy won’t come back strong unless it also becomes more fair.

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The War on Pakistan's Aid Workers

Sat, 05 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - Jan. 05 (Opinion) - Recent attacks, possibly by militants, are jeopardizing critical efforts to wipe out polio in Pakistan.

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Bradley Manning deserves Americans' support for military whistleblowing

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Desmond Tutu, Mairead Corrigan-Maguire, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel - Nov. 16 (Opinion) - Thanks to WikiLeaks, US citizens are better informed about wars prosecuted in their name. We owe Manning honour, not jail time Last week, PFC Bradley Manning offered to accept responsibility for releasing classified documents as an act of conscience – not as charged by the US military. As people who have worked for decades against the increased militarization of societies and for international cooperation to end war, we have been deeply dismayed by his treatment. The military under the Obama administration has displayed a desire to over-prosecute whistleblowing with life-in-prison charges including espionage and "aiding the enemy", a disturbing decision which is no doubt intended to set an example. We have dedicated our lives to working for peace because we have seen many faces of armed conflict and violence, and we understand that no matter the cause of war, civilians always bear the brunt of the cost. With today's advanced military technology and the continued ability of business and ...

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US and Iran: Could Romney be tougher than Obama? Unlikely.

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Christian Science Monitor - By Roshanak Taghavi - Oct. 22 (Comment) - Short of conducting a unilateral military strike or declaring war against the Islamic Republic, a Romney administration would be faced with the same legislative options on Iran as President Obama, who has already administered ...

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The Death of Peter Wielunski

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - By Robert Morgenthau - Sep. 24 (Opinion) - For every soldier killed in combat, 25 veterans are dying by suicide. It's time to broaden efforts against PTSD.

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Pakistan Opens NATO Supply Line as Clinton Says 'Sorry' - New York Times

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 22:30:48 -0700

New York Times - Jul. 03 - New York TimesPakistan Opens NATO Supply Line as Clinton Says 'Sorry'New York TimesThe secretary of state on Tuesday said for the first time “we are sorry” for the deaths of Pakistani soldiers in a November airstrike, and she said Pakistan would waive extra truck fees for supplies to Afghanistan.

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What war in Syria looks like: journalist killings, deadlier IEDs

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Christian Science Monitor - By Dan Murphy - Jun. 28 (Opinion) - Whatever restraint that was being exercised by the parties to Syria's civil war appears to have been cast aside. ...

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Under Attack

Sun, 13 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - By Michael M. Phillips - May. 13 (Dramatization) - When a suicide bomber struck a convoy in Afghanistan, a routine Marine patrol turned into a harrowing firefight. Michael M. Phillips with an eyewitness account of bravery and tragedy in the confusion of war. When the suicide bomber exploded, the world skidded to a stop. The Afghan police pickup truck, 30 yards directly behind us, disappeared in a geyser of thick gray-brown smoke. The only visible object was its hood flying through the air, a black silhouette against the murk, followed by the sound of broken glass falling. Then the smoke thinned, like the curtain rising on a stage, revealing the chaos the bomber had set loose. The pickup truck wasn't where it was supposed to be. The blast had hoisted it into the air and dropped it onto the median strip. There was a moment's hesitation among the troops next to me in the lead pickup. A lone motorcyclist emerged from the cloud, inexplicably upright and seemingly uninjured.

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Op-Ed Columnist: There Be Dragons

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Tom Friedman, NY Times - Feb. 29 (Opinion) - Throughout the Arab Middle East, the prospects for stable transitions to democracy anytime soon are dimming.

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The Forgotten Wages of War

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By John Tirman - Jan. 03 (Opinion) - Ignoring the civilians killed in America’s wars is both a moral and a strategic failing.

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U.N. Report Finds Routine Abuse of Afghan Detainees

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 08:41:09 -0700

New York Times - Oct. 10 -

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The Dead, the Dollars, the Drones: 9/11 Era by the Numbers

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Wired - By Lena Groeger - Sep. 09 (Opinion) - Ever since the Twin Towers fell, the United States has been at war. The costs of that decade of conflict have been unimaginably high: trillions of dollars spent, hundreds of thousands of lives lost. The numbers are almost too big to grasp

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United Nations: Weak leaders wanted

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - Aug. 15 (Editorial) - To save his legacy Ban Ki-moon must refresh his top team with people who understand the UN's founding principles

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Obama’s communications gap

Sat, 16 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By David Ignatius - Jul. 16 (Opinion) - A prominent Bush administration official was talking privately about Barack Obama last week: He’s probably going to win in 2012, this Republican said. He deserves credit for “going big” in the budget talks and capturing the center of the debate. But why isn’t he projecting his goals and philosophy more clearly to the country? Why does he so often seem to react rather than lead?

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America's 'detainee 001' – the persecution of John Walker Lindh

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Frank Lindh - Jul. 10 (Opinion) - In 1998, aged 17, my son John Walker Lindh travelled to Yemen to study Islam and learn Arabic. In April 2001 he went to Afghanistan. Then 9/11 happened. He was captured by US troops, tortured, and jailed for 20 years, an innocent victim of America's 'war on terror' John Phillip Walker Lindh, my son, was raised a Roman Catholic, but converted to Islam when he was 16 years old. He has an older brother and a younger sister. John is scholarly and devout, devoted to his family, and blessed with a powerful intellect, a curious mind, and a wry sense of humour. Labelled by the American government as "Detainee 001" in the "war on terror", John occupies a prison cell in Terre Haute, Indiana. He has been a prisoner of the American government since 1 December 2001, less than three months after the terror attacks of 9/11. John is entirely innocent of any involvement in the terror attacks, or any allegiance to terrorism. That is not disputed by the American government. Indeed, all accusations of ...

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Positive Disruption

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Roger Cohen - Jun. 23 (Opinion) - Even in the men’s room at Google’s sprawling New York offices there’s no respite from the cascade of new ideas feeding the behemoth. Rather than gaze into space, I found before my eyes messages about “signal widgets” and the implication of hav

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Is It "Justice"?

Mon, 09 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Slate - By Thomas Nachbar - May. 09 (Opinion) - violence can be a form of justice, and justice occasionally requires acts of violence, butr, despite their occasionally close relationship, justice and violence should never be confused...

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Bin Laden's death: 'Why kill the goose?'

Thu, 05 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Tariq Ali - May. 05 (Opinion) - A meeting with one such person in 2006, which I recounted in my last book on Pakistan, confirmed that Bin Laden was in the country and being kept safe. The person concerned told me the Americans only wanted Bin Laden dead, but that it was in Pakistan's interest to keep him alive. In his words: "Why kill the goose that lays the golden eggs?" – a reference to the billions in aid and weaponry being supplied to the army.

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