Diplomacy advocate and war skeptic Chuck Hagel is reported to be President Obama’s first choice for Secretary of Defense. Hagel would work to end the war in Afghanistan, avoid war with Iran, and cut the Pentagon budget. Right-wing neocons are organizing a smear campaign to try to scuttle the nomination. Urge your Senators to speak…
The Obama-hating Neocon Right is trying to “Swift Boat” the expected nomination of Chuck Hagel to be Secretary of Defense by making up a fantasy scare story that Hagel—a former U.S. Senator from Nebraska, long-respected moderate and thoughtful voice on foreign policy, and decorated Vietnam combat veteran—is “anti-Israel.” The real reason the neocons hate Hagel…
In early December 1914, Pope Benedict XV called for a “Christmas Truce” in the First World War. Leaders on all sides were forced to respond to the Pope’s call. No formal truce was agreed, but across the trenches of the Western Front many soldiers on all sides observed the Christmas truce the Pope had called…
The people of Haiti are fighting a deadly cholera epidemic introduced by UN troops that has killed thousands and sickened hundreds of thousands more. [1] Since the UN accidentally caused this catastrophe, it has a special responsibility to help Haitians stamp out killer cholera for good. Press reports have suggested that announcement of a UN…
Didn’t they learn anything last time? In 2008, the Israeli military invaded Gaza, claiming they were going to destroy Hamas. They didn’t destroy Hamas – politically, they made it stronger – but they did kill a thousand Palestinian civilians and destroy a lot of Palestinian civilian infrastructure, some of which was never fully rebuilt due…
As you are well aware, there’s been a disturbing lack of public debate so far about U.S. policy on drone strikes. Guess what? The Washington Post editorial board agrees. In a new editorial, they say: “the means and objectives of drone attacks — and the Obama administration’s steps toward institutionalizing the system — deserve much…
The United States may be drawing down its longest war, but its second longest war seems to have just begun. November 3 will mark the tenth anniversary of the US’s secret war of targeted killing—but according to a three-part series published in the Washington Post last week, US officials have no plans to draw this…
Just Foreign Policy supporters urged Bob Schieffer to ask a question on drones—and he did! During Monday night’s presidential debate, moderator Bob Schieffer asked a direct question on a candidate’s drone strike policy, which is more than had been raised in any previous debate this election season. Unfortunately, Schieffer only asked Mitt Romney the question—and…
During the last two presidential debates, the foreign policy discussion—what little there has been—has largely centered around the murder of four members of the US embassy staff in Benghazi. But while these four deaths were certainly grievous, the killing of hundreds of civilians in Pakistan from US drone strikes has so far been ignored—and that’s…