NewsTrust - War - 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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The Great Degrader

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - Apr. 27 (Opinion) - I’ve been focused on economic policy lately, so I sort of missed the big push to rehabilitate Bush’s image; also, as a premature anti-Bushist who pointed out how terrible a president he was back when everyone else was praising him as a Great Leader, I’m

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Opinion: N. Korea endgame: 3 scenarios

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

CNN - By Michael J. Green - Apr. 13 (Opinion) - Hyperbolic North Korean threats of war are not new. What is new is the intensity and persistence of those threats this time around. Add to that an untested 29-year-old leader who is suddenly a four-star general with lots to prove. How does this end? Consider these three possibilities:

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Why invading Iraq was a terrible mistake

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

CNN - By Hans Blix - Mar. 19 (Opinion) - I headed the U.N. inspections in Iraq at the time of the war 10 years ago. Today, I look again at the reasons why this terrible mistake -- and violation of the U.N. charter -- took place and explore if any lessons be drawn. Here are my thoughts.

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11 Years Later, Senate Wakes Up to War on Terror's 'Battlefield America'

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0800

Wired - Mar. 07 (Opinion) - 11 Years Later, Senate Wakes Up to War on Terror's 'Battlefield America'

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Obama’s Drone Dilemma

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 07:52:00 -0700

Slate - By Eric Posner - Oct. 08 (Opinion) - The Wall Street Journal recently reported on debates within the Obama administration about the legality of the drone war in Pakistan. State Department legal adviser Harold Koh, the former dean of Yale Law School and even more former darling of the left ...

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Mitt Romney's Real Agenda

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 14:30:00 -0700

Rolling Stone - By Tim Dickinson - Sep. 28 (Opinion) - It was tempting to dismiss Mitt Romney's hard-right turn during the GOP primaries as calculated pandering. In the general election – as one of his top advisers famously suggested – Romney would simply shake the old Etch A Sketch and recast himself as the

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First since ‘52: No talk of war in GOP speeches

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Salt Lake Tribune - Aug. 31 (Opinion) -

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Syrian rebels tried to get me killed, says Channel 4 correspondent

Fri, 08 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Ben Dowell - Jun. 08 (Interview) - Alex Thompson says crew was led to 'free-fire zone' as deaths would discredit Bashar al-Assad's regime • Read Alex Thompson's blog Channel 4 News chief correspondent Alex Thompson has claimed Syrian rebels deliberately tried to get him and his crew killed by gunfire from government forces in a bid to discredit the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Thompson alleged a small group from the Free Syrian Army deliberately guided the vehicle in which he and his Channel 4 News colleagues were travelling into what he described as a "free-fire zone" on a blocked road in "no man's land" in the vicinity of the city of al-Qusayr, because "dead journos are bad for Damascus". He also claimed UN vehicles the Channel 4 News team were travelling with later abandoned them when they were surrounded by "shouting militia". Thompson said after being led into no man's land between Syrian army and rebel forces by four men in a black car, his team were fired upon and forced to take evasive action, eventually ...

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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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The False Debate About Attacking Iran

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Nicholas D. Kristof - Mar. 24 (Opinion) - There really isn't such a debate .. credible experts are overwhelmingly on one side.

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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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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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Foreign policy: intervention after Libya

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - Aug. 24 (Opinion) - It can be said that in narrow military terms the west's action over Libya has worked, and that politically there was justification It is too early to claim that the Nato intervention in Libya has been a success in the full meaning of that word. It will be weeks before we have a sense of where Libya is heading, months before there is any certainty about its future, and years before we can properly assess the impact of the decision to use force to aid the rebels. But it can now reasonably be said that in narrow military terms it worked, and that politically there was some retrospective justification for its advocates as the crowds poured into the streets of Tripoli to welcome the rebel convoys earlier this week. The argument that we had foolishly gone in on one side in a civil war must be weakened by such scenes, which suggest that the picture of a majority wishing to see the back of Gaddafi is closer to the truth than the alternative picture of a people more or less evenly divided between ...

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In Somalia, a failure in 1992 has led to a famine today

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Nuruddin Farah - Aug. 03 (Opinion) - After the United States left Somalia, the rest of the world stood by, leaving the warlords to profit from their criminality. Al-Qaeda strengthened its presence in the country. Foreign vessels entered Somali waters and engaged in illegal fishing, which caused piracy to balloon into an ugly reality. Somalia lived on mortgaged time, leased out to criminals of one sort or another, an ideal world for terrorists to flourish.

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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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Who deserves an ICC arrest warrant more than himQaddafi - By David Rothkopf | David Rothkopf

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Foreign Policy - By David Rothkopf - Jun. 28 (Opinion) - "What about George W.T.F. Bush?" he must be asking aloud while daubing shoe polish on his moustache and wondering silently who does Tom Selleck's? "He and Cheney violated every international law on the books, invaded a country, hundreds of thousands of innocent people died, and what do they get? Presidential libraries! Book contracts! State of the art pacemakers!"

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Congress Divides on Libya, Moves Toward Key Votes

Wed, 22 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Atlantic Monthly - By Conor Friedersdorf - Jun. 22 (Opinion) - Senators John McCain and John Kerry are from different political parties, but the former presidential candidates have a lot in common: both men fought in Vietnam, voted to authorize the Iraq War, and are now pushing their colleagues to support another war of choice. On Tuesday, they introduced legislation permitting "limited use" of U.S. troops for 12 months in Libya. "It is time to authorize the president's use of force, whether he thinks he needs it or not," McCain said.

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Obama Fails to Justify the Legality of War in Libya

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Atlantic Monthly - By Conor Friedersdorf - Jun. 17 (Opinion) - Is the U.S. at war in Libya, putting President Obama in violation of the War Powers Resolution? Or does our mission against Muammar Qaddafi fall short of triggering the statute that requires withdrawal within 60 to 90 days unless Congress approves military action? The White House took up those questions Wednesday in response to House Speaker John Boehner, who demanded to know why we're still involved in the NATO-led conflict despite those bygone deadlines.

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Libya and the War Powers Act

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - Jun. 17 (Editorial) - It would be hugely costly — for this country’s credibility, for the future of NATO and for the people of Libya — if Congress were to force President Obama to abandon military operations over Libya. However, Mr. Obama cannot evade his responsibility, under the War Powers Act, to seek Congressional approval to continue the operation.

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A Day Under Fire with Anton

Mon, 30 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Foreign Policy - By By Xavier Mas De Xaxàs - May. 30 (Editorial) - Two days before Anton Hammerl was killed in Libya, I spent a few, good, honest hours of war and peace in the field with him.

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Pakistan did its part

Tue, 03 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Asif Ali Zardari - May. 03 (Opinion) - Together, our nations have suffered and sacrificed. We have fought bravely and with passion and commitment. Ultimately we will prevail. For, in the words of my martyred wife Benazir Bhutto, “truth, justice and the forces of history are on our side.”

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Is America still a serious nation?

Fri, 22 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Week - By Robert Shrum - Apr. 22 (Opinion) - Are Americans still capable of making this country serious? That is the question — the real and fundamental issue — that spans all the bitter debates now raging in Washington, and everywhere in a decidedly unhappy land.

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The Libyan mission is creeping, no doubt

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Simon Tisdall - Apr. 19 (Opinion) - With Britain sending a 'military liaison advisory team' to Libya, how many more boots on the ground will follow?

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Libya is not Rwanda

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Foreign Policy - By Paul D. Miller - Mar. 31 (Opinion) - Historical analogies are sloppy thinking. U.S. policymakers went to war in Korea and Vietnam because they wanted to avoid another Munich. Liberals believe that Iraq is another Vietnam. Paleoconservatives worry that Libya is another Iraq, while liberals fear it is another Rwanda. These are rhetorical shortcuts that partisans use to excuse themselves from having to think very carefully or learn the details of each new case. One hopes the strategists in the White House will resist that temptation, but judging from Obama's speech, they aren't.

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