We’re running a petition at MoveOn in support of President Obama’s choice of Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense. Guess who signed? #2426 Robert Bergdahl Dec 23, 2012 Hailey, ID My son is an Army SGT serving in Afghanistan Bring them home now! Robert Bergdahl is the father of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, currently held by…
When the Israeli military sharply escalated its attacks on Gaza and threatened a ground invasion in late October, the demand for ceasefire entered mainstream public and media discourse in relation to the conflict immediately. The same thing happened when the Israeli military attacked Gaza in late 2008, as it did when the Israeli military invaded…
Since President Obama took office, the war in Afghanistan has claimed the lives of over 1500 US troops, according to Just Foreign Policy’s US Deaths in Afghanistan: Obama vs. Bush counter, which draws on data provided by iCasualties. By comparison, 575 US troops died during President Bush’s two terms. The rise in troop deaths during…
If more Americans could get unplugged from the myths which have been used historically to engineer public acquiescence in U.S. foreign policy, how much could that help us reform U.S. foreign policy in the future? Oliver Stone’s 10 part documentary series on the history of U.S. foreign policy is currently running on Mondays on Showtime….
Yesterday, an overwhelming majority (62-33) of US Senators—including every Senator who caucuses with the Democrats save two—voted in favor of a measure that calls upon President Obama to continue withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan at a steady pace, as he promised in his address to the nation in June 2011. The “sense of the Senate”,…
This is slightly adapted from a presentation given at a Congressional briefing on drone strike policy on November 16, sponsored by Rep. Dennis Kucinich. I want to talk about what Congress could do about drone strikes in the next 1-2 years. To begin with, some political context, as I see it. First, I don’t think…
Hamas and Israel have reportedly agreed to terms for a ceasefire, which should be taking effect right about now. This is a welcome development. But just because a ceasefire has been agreed upon doesn’t mean that we can or should forget the United States’s hypocritical response to the violence, which was on display as late…
For the last few days, Gaza has been under assault by the Israeli Defense Force (IDF). The US press is reporting the Israeli attack to be in response to rocket fire coming from the Gaza strip, although the sequence of events isn’t quite that simple. So far, 15 Palestinians have been killed, eight of which…
On Monday, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told reporters that the Obama administration would come to a decision within the next few weeks about the magnitude of the US “enduring presence” in Afghanistan. Panetta said that the White House was currently reviewing several recommendations for troop levels from General John Allen, commander of the International Security…
Yesterday, US media began reporting that Iranian fighter jets had shot at—but did not hit— an unarmed US drone off the coast of Iran last week. Pentagon Press Secretary George Little claimed that the unmanned military plane was over international waters 16 nautical miles off the coast of Iran, and that the drone had never…