The Battle For Haiti: Which Side Are You On?
by Carl Lindskoog
On March 31, speaking before the International Donors’ Conference for Haiti, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton proclaimed the United States’ commitment to “help Haiti and to help the leaders of Haiti lead a recovery effort worthy of their highest hopes.” At the conclusion of the conference participants from the international community had pledged $5.3 billion to […]
Health Care Reform Redux
by Geoff Johnson
Like many present-day lawmakers in the United States, the ancient Babylonian king Hammurabi gave at least some thought to the question of how to pay for health care. One section of the famous Code of Hammurabi detailed what the fall 2009 issue of Lapham’s Quarterly cheekily referred to as a “fee schedule” for doctors in […]
Tea Party Politics: Flirting with Fascism
by Justin Rogers-Cooper
The rapid national organization of the Tea Party has become one of the most extraordinary developments in American politics since the election of Barack Obama. Depending on one’s perspective, it is either a diverse movement or a confused one. In truth it is both, but only because it is a cover for more than one movement. What we […]
Future Still Uncertain for Kurdish Iraq
by Michael Busch
“Christians and other minority groups have also been the targets of choice in Kirkuk of late. While the violence there has not exhibited the same characteristics of systematized execution as in Mosul, the results have been no less horrific. Most recently, insurgent groups have carried out attacks on Christian businessmen, and have continued their practice of assassinating municipal security forces, routine violence which has claimed the lives of hundreds of police officers over the past few years.”
The Militarization of Crowd Control
by Justin Rogers-Cooper
The Group of 20 (G-20) Summit protests in Pittsburgh this past September were a threshold event. Not only were protestors detained and beaten by the police, but they were also subjected to new military-grade technologies that have pushed the boundaries of what kinds of actions are permissible for controlling large crowds of protestors, unruly or not. […]
Defending the UN
by Andrew Bast
Like beauty, the value of the United Nations lies in the eye of the beholder. Case in point, David Rothkopf’s recent screed on Foreign Policy.com (“You Can’t Spell Unproductive Without the Letters U and N”) against the world’s largest multilateral organization, the latest in a long line of vitriolic — and largely misinformed — attacks on the institution. Only a few years […]
Battle over CAFTA Rages in El Salvador
by Michael Busch
As El Salvador transitions from decades of conser– vative rule to the administration of leftist President Mauricio Funes, the country faces an international showdown triggered by a restrictive free-trade agree– ment between the United States and Central Ameri– ca. Canada’s Pacific Rim Mining Corporation is suing the government for its refusal to allow it to mine […]
Letter from Dakar
by MBusch
Beneath a half-completed section of highway overpass on the dusty outskirts of Dakar, Moussa spreads his arms widely to the concrete slab above his head. “This is what the tycoon classes want for Senegal!” he announces with theatrical triumph. “New roads for their new cars!” Then, lowering his arms, he says in a deadly serious tone, “But […]
Supply, Demand, and the Mexican Drug War
by Andrew Bast
Political analysis ANDREW BAST The war looks eerily familiar: beheadings, assassinations of police and public officials, terrorized businesspeople, extorted schoolteachers, and in five years more than 230 American civilians dead in the crossfire. All this could easily describe the battle in Afghanistan or Iraq, but the reality is closer to home, where an increasingly gruesome […]
In Midnight’s Shadow
by DNassre
DANNY NASSRE Those concerned about the fate of humanity might want to take a look at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Doomsday Clock, the publication’s symbolic warning of how close we are to destroying ourselves. Your concern might grow when you discover that the clock is currently set at five minutes to midnight (the closer […]
