In a brilliant creative action, an art collective with the help of enthusiastic locals unfurled an enormous poster in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of a young girl who lost her parents and two younger siblings to a drone strike in August 2009.
5 reasons the already obscene national security budget is larger than it appears
When President Obama released his budget for 2015 on Tuesday, which included $495.6 billion for the Pentagon, the likely suspects screamed that the sky is going to fall. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Buck McKeon said the funding level is so low that it’s “immoral,” while the notorious climate denier Sen. James Inhofe — who is a ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee — declared that: “Today our enemies don’t fear us and our allies no longer respect us.” Strong words. Also, completely disconnected from reality.
The Human Toll
March 2011 issue Sojourners In December, as the United States entered the 10th year of what President Obama called the "good war" in Afghanistan, I traveled to Kabul to take stock of the human toll of the increasingly bloody occupation. From the moment I landed in Kabul’s airport, I noticed its distinctive smell -- a … Continue reading The Human Toll
The Tragic U.S. Strategy in Afghanistan
Union Daily Times, SC; Worthington Daily Globe, MN; Fayette County News, GA; Asheville Citizen-Times, NC; News Eagle, PA. A shorter version was published in the Peoria Journal Star, IL. Distributed by OtherWords and Featurewell. Albert Einstein famously defined insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” If that doesn’t accurately … Continue reading The Tragic U.S. Strategy in Afghanistan
Record levels of violence in Afghanistan do not equal progress
Waging Nonviolence, Common Dreams, Counterpunch, Huffington Post, The Indypendent, Sojourners Greetings from Afghanistan. I arrived here now almost a week ago and there is so much to share about this experience that it’s hard to know where to start. I’d like to offer a few random observations about Kabul that I’m sure will make more sense upon … Continue reading Record levels of violence in Afghanistan do not equal progress
Lessons from the election
December 2010 Platypus Review In a strange way, the debate over whether the American left should support the Green Movement in Iran resembles the arguments that took place in progressive circles before the 2008 presidential elections in the United States, and that reemerged in the recent midterm elections. Those in the Obama camp either believed … Continue reading Lessons from the election
A Lesson on Nonviolence for the President
Foreign Policy In Focus, Common Dreams, Antiwar.com, ZNet In Oslo last week, President Barack Obama ironically used his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize to deliver a lengthy defense of the "just war" theory and dismiss the idea that nonviolence is capable of addressing the world's most pressing problems. After quoting Martin Luther King … Continue reading A Lesson on Nonviolence for the President
According to Obama Global Capitalism Is an ‘Abstraction,’ Not Worth Protesting
Alternet, Huffington Post, Common Dreams, ZNet On the eve of the G-20 summit last week, President Barack Obama gave a long interview to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, in which he said that even during his days as a community organizer in Chicago he was never a big fan of mass protests. With the clear intention of … Continue reading According to Obama Global Capitalism Is an ‘Abstraction,’ Not Worth Protesting
Obama: Listen to Iraqi Opinion
January 5, 2009 Foreign Policy In Focus, Alternet, Common Dreams In discussing his plans for the Iraq War during the presidential campaign, one group that Barack Obama seldom, if ever, mentioned as supporting his proposed policy was the Iraqi people. Obama's campaign website, which differs only slightly from his transition website, lays out very clearly … Continue reading Obama: Listen to Iraqi Opinion
Eric Stoner 