Obama Nears Key Decisions on Afghan Strategy
by Tom Hayden
on May 13, 2011
At stake politically is whether the president will choose to campaign through 2012 on a platform of ending two quagmires costing trillions of tax dollars and thousands of lives, or whether he will portray himself as staying the course in the βwar on terrorism,β building on the death of Osama bin Laden.
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Boehner's Unreality Check
by Ruth Marcus
on May 11, 2011
The news out of House Speaker John Boehner's speech to the New York Economic Club was his demand for "cuts of trillions, not just billions" before the debt ceiling can be raised. Not just broad deficit-reduction targets, the Ohio Republican insisted, but "actual cuts and program reforms."
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Video: Obama Outlines Afghan War Drawdown Plan
by PBS Newshour
on May 11, 2011
President Obama promised a significant drawdown of American troops. That was then. This is now.
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Military Draws Up Afghan Exit Plan
by Wall Street Journal | JULIAN E. BARNES AND ADAM ENTOUS
on May 11, 2011
U.S. military officers in Afghanistan have drawn up preliminary proposals to withdraw as many as 5,000 troops from the country in July and as many as 5,000 more by the year's end, the first phase of a U.S. pullout promised by President Barack Obama, officials say.
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The US Chamber of Commerce in Wonderland
by Robert Weissman
on May 10, 2011
It's a good rule of thumb: If the US Chamber of Commerce β the trade association for large corporations -- is whipped up about something, there's probably good reason for the public to strongly back whatever has sent the Chamber into fits.
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The Rocket's Red Glare
by Abby Zimet
on May 10, 2011
Here's a bizarre video of a U.S. soldier in full battle gear in Afghanistan dancing on his tank as rockets explode behind him. I'm not sure what to say about it except it somehow captures the surreal nature of this misbegotten, and possibly any other war, much as Michael Herr's psychedelic "Dispatches" captured the Vietnam War. It also brings to mind our national anthem. Which upon rereading is pretty intense in a blood-soaked sort of way.
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Calls Mount to Push U.S. Troop Presence in Iraq Past 2011
by David Elkins
on May 10, 2011
Amid high-level U.S. congressional delegations to evaluate developments in Iraq, a growing number of voices here, from both the Barack Obama administration and members of Congress, are concerned about a complete withdrawal of U.S. forces from the country by December 2011 β a deadline set forth in the supposedly inviolable Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between the U.S. and Iraqi governments back in 2008.
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Osama Bin Laden Is Dead, But Will the Patriot Act Live On?
by Aaron Swartz
on May 05, 2011
The Patriot Act is (again) up for renewal this month. Now remember, it was initially enacted as a supposedly temporary measure in the wake of 9-11, but more and more of it keeps getting made permanent and the rest has been continually extended for the past decade. With the death of bin Laden, it's finally time for Congress to bring back the pre-9-11 legal norm, before we decided it was okay to toss out our civil liberties if the "bad guys" were scary enough.
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Lessons Learned From Osama bin Laden?
by Dr. Wilmer J. Leon III
on May 04, 2011
It has taken the United States ten years, over $400 billion and more than 2,421 US and coalition lives to get to this point. Since those who fail to understand their history are doomed to repeat it, it is imperative that we ask what lessons can be learned from Afghanistan as those such as Senator's McCain (R-Arizona) and Graham (R-South Carolina) call for greater involvement in Libya, and the US struggles to find common ground in Israel.
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"5 Million Barrels of Oil Does Not Disappear": Author, Activist Antonia Juhasz on the BP Spill, One Year Later
by Amy Goodman
on April 18, 2011
This week marks the one-year anniversary of the worst maritime oil spill in history. Last year on April 20 an oil rig leased by oil giant BP exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 workers and releasing nearly 200 million gallons of oil, tens of millions of gallons of natural gas and 1.8 million gallons of chemicals. We speak to Antonia Juhasz, author of the new book, Black Tide: The Devastating Impact of the Gulf Oil Spill. Juhasz attended the BP shareholders meeting in London last week and spoke on behalf of Gulf Coast residents denied entry.
Click here to watch.
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