THINKING BEYOND WAR AND VIOLENCE
According to the Australian national anthem, “our home is girt by sea”. So much sea in fact, that our not-so-tiny island has a whopping 22,293 miles of coastline.
Civil-Military Affairs
To go or NOT to go to war with Iran
Israeli Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, is on his way to the United States to argue, again, for a war with Iran. Plenty of US officials including the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey, National Security Adviser Tom Donilon and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper have also been in Israel to discuss …
Military Budget Cuts: No Big Deal or Excellent Opportunity?
Secretary Panetta is set to come out with his new “strategy” to offer his assessment on how to cut the military budget. The question remains: will it be the same old or will he have the courage to mandate what truly needs to be done to build a stellar military for America’s future national security …
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Iran and the Nuclear Weapons Club
Iran hedged its bets and lost. By turning a blind eye to this week’s violent assault on the British embassy, which had the distinct odor of spin, the regime plowed right over the edge of an already teetering tipping point. Outrage over the behavior of the international community and its endless war-drumming rhetoric and sanctions …
US Response to Gaddafi’s Death Sets Bad Precedent
“We came, we saw, he died,” said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in one of the most flippant and least diplomatic comments heard in recent history. She, of course, was referring to the violent death of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. She completely dismissed any calls for justice; there were no declarations by her or any …
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War, Weapons, and Secretary Clinton on Eggs and Tomatoes in Syria
US Condemns Attack on Envoy in Syria reports Al Jazeera. “More violence!” I thought. Apparently Secretary of State Hillary Clinton shared my initial shock declaring, “We condemn this unwarranted attack in the strongest possible terms.” Whew, that is intense, but then I found out the envoy was “attacked” by eggs and tomatoes. The American Ambassador, …
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Today’s Take: Ten years after 9/11: Will we ever get beyond war?
It is often hard to gauge how a person will react during a crisis let alone one like September 11th. After such a destructive and devastating event, a person’s first instinct is to fight back hard and fast making whoever is in the way feel the agony. Punishment or revenge no matter who it affects …
Today’s Take: Ten years after 9/11: Will we ever get beyond war? Read More »
Today’s Take – As the World Turns
This week’s earthquake is all but a distant memory. After covering it incessantly for several hours, showing the horror of the tremor that knocked chairs over and shook the CNN newsroom, most news stations went back to their continuous coverage of “the almost fallen” “yet to fall” “inevitable fall” of Qaddafi and his regime in …
Today’s Take – Muddle in the Middle East, GOP Gods and more…
The Muddled Middle East We start today with the news that one more repressive government, this time in Libya, is gone – well more or less. So far it seems as though The National Transition Council (NTC) spokesperson Mustafa Adel Jalil, is in control control and saying all the right things about equality, peace, justice …
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America’s New Diplomacy: Ambassadors turn into Activists
US Ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, got together with his French counterpart and decided to take a trip down to the besieged town of Hama. It is true that the Assad family is unacceptably terrorizing its people for wanting to change many of the current governing policies in Syria, but is it the role of …
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