AltWeeklies Wire
Foreign Intervention Can Create More Problems Than it Solvesnew

The current U.S. foreign policy is a disaster. For many Americans, this sounds harsh. Yet, it is something most of us can admit after examining our most recent foreign interventions individually.
Charleston City Paper |
Jack Hunter |
11-03-2011 |
Commentary
Tags: foreign policy, U.S.
Cartoon: More is Lessnew

Obama is sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. You know, to get out quicker.
Juan Cole: Afghanistan 'Needs a Light Touch'new

"You just have to accept that there's going to be a certain amount of disorder in the countryside as long as people are organized tribally. And if you put 100,000 or 150,000 Western troops in there, that's just more people to feud with."
Metro Times |
Curt Guyette and W. Kim Heron |
11-17-2009 |
War
Why is the Political Settlement in Honduras a Big Win for Americans?new
It's harder to justify your existence as a bulwark against U.S. bullying when the U.S. has quit acting like a bully.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Andisheh Nouraee |
11-10-2009 |
Commentary
Understanding North Koreanew
For years, the activists at the Korea Policy Institute have been trying to influence US policy toward North Korea. Finally, Washington may be listening.
East Bay Express |
Kathleen Wentz |
11-04-2009 |
International
How the Nuclear Double Standard Endangers Us Allnew
As long as the U.S. and other nuclear powers hypocritically uphold a double standard in which we claim nuclear weapons are essential for our national security, but other nations such as Iran are not allowed to make this claim, we are probably in a losing struggle for the cause of disarmament
Pasadena Weekly |
John Grula |
10-19-2009 |
Commentary
The Afghan War: Too Illegit to Quit
Eight years. We've been in Afghanistan longer than any other war in American history. The party of the president who invaded Afghanistan has been repudiated at the polls. Yet we still haven't altered the flawed strategy that allowed uneducated tribesmen with outdated weapons to defeat us year after year.
Why Are We Still in Afghanistan?new
In 2008, a clear majority of American voters hung their chads for Barack Obama, who explicitly promised to escalate the U.S. war in Afghanistan. So the question is, what the heck are we still doing there?
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Andisheh Nouraee |
09-22-2009 |
Commentary
Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan's Impotent Dictator
How many Americans will continue to see Hamid Karzai as viable -- and be willing to continue to pay the price of propping him up?
Cartoon: Afghanistan? No Matternew

Remember how Japan and Germany turned lemons into lemonade after World War II? By building new industrial infrastructure on the tabla rasa of total destruction. Now it's the Afghans' turn. Between US airstrikes and Taliban suicide bombing, there will soon be no matter left in Afghanistan.
Cartoon: While You Were Off Fighting in Afghanistannew
As Barack Obama appears to follow LBJ as a president hellbent on screwing up his own domestic agenda in order to get bogged down in another president's unwinnable war, one can only wonder what the hell he is thinking.
Cartoon: Honduran Hypocrisynew
Obama accuses his critics on Honduras. In the past, he says, critics complained that the US replaced democratically-elected leaders in Latin America with dictators. Now that a dictator has supplanted a democratically-elected president in Honduras, the US is refusing to lift a finger. Our new lack of involvement on behalf of a dictator, in other words, marks a departure from our previous involvement on behalf of dictators.
Obama: the new Bush of logic.
'That Infernal Little Cuban Republic' Dissects the Shared History of Cuba and Americanew
Lar Schoultz focuses on the Castro years, which he reconstructs in impressive detail, fleshing out such well-known events as the doomed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion with eye-opening depth. Better yet, often-glossed questions are aired with the fullness of Schoultz's four decades of wrestling with the Cuba question. Still, there's something missing.
The Texas Observer |
Mike Kanin |
08-12-2009 |
Nonfiction
Minnesota's Legislators Didn't Get Obama's Mideast Memonew
The state's push for divestment from Iran came on the heels of President Obama's call for diplomacy. Just last week, Obama reiterated that Iran has some right to nuclear energy, provided it can prove it's for peaceful purposes.
City Pages (Twin Cities) |
Matt Snyders |
06-10-2009 |
Politics
Obama Gets it Wrong on Afghanistan
The president's recent interview with Canada's CBC television network demonstrates that he doesn't know much about Afghanistan. But that isn't stopping him from talking about it -- even while he escalates America's war there.