A Muslim writer begins an article with, ‘who says the campaign for animal rights was started in the West ..’ She goes on to argue that Islam provided the original treatise on the humane treatment of animals. Her case was poorly constructed, inadequately executed, although the essence of her idea was to a degree, accurate. Islamic tradition has indeed laid a foundation, with clear boundaries regarding the humane treatment of animals.
But why did the author, like so many others, choose to turn what should have been a constructive argument, into a diatribe? Was it necessary to charge Western discourses, resorting to the ever predictable classification of “us and them”, instead of trying to find a common cause? Continue reading →
The recent Nobel Peace Prize awarded to President Barack Obama has drawn criticism from many commentators, including those who claim that the award is premature — that President Obama has yet to “make his mark” on US foreign policy.
Some have argued that Obama lacks the concrete political achievements of Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Jimmy Carter, all of whom have previously been awarded the prize. Others go much further, condemning President Obama for his foreign policy and his continuation and expansion of military operations and related war policies. Continue reading →
The intent of the committee is to neuter the United States of America. They’ve done it by rewarding a pacifist.”~ Rush Limbaugh
In addition to being a Nobel laureate, Barack Obama is many things. After his election, I wrote in Libertyof his radical associations, his life spent in the service of racial preference, his aberrant Christianity, and his plan to further redistribute the wealth of taxpayers to taxeaters. I haven’t changed my mind. The black conservative Alan Keyes simply calls him “a radical communist.” Obama may personify the extreme left wing of the Democratic Party, but a pacifist he is not. Continue reading →
When browsing the news this morning, I came across “the” big story of the day – Barack Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize. My first thought – is this some kind of joke?? Not until I found the announcement on the official Nobel website could I actually believe it.
It really doesn’t matter what your position is on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the regular bombing of Pakistan, and the talk of sanctions against Iran (I happen to be opposed to all of it) – to give a “peace” prize to someone overseeing multiple wars is more Orwellian than Orwell. Continue reading →
Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CODEPINK, discusses the mixed reactions of Kabul residents to U.S. occupation in Afghanistan, the bevy of competent and credible Afghans who could replace Hamid Karzai, the delicate balance between timely troop withdrawal and obligatory U.S. rebuilding of Afghan society and how most Afghans join the Taliban for economic and security reasons rather than ideological ones.
What if tomorrow morning you woke up to headlines that yet another Chinese drone bombing on US soil killed several dozen ranchers in a rural community while they were sleeping? That a drone aircraft had come across the Canadian border in the middle of the night and carried out the latest of many attacks?
What if it was claimed that many of the victims harbored anti-Chinese sentiments, but most of the dead were innocent women and children? And what if the Chinese administration, in an effort to improve its public image in the US, had approved an aid package to send funds to help with American roads and schools and promote Chinese values here? Continue reading →
Remember the controversy over the Pentagon policy of not allowing the press to take pictures of the flag-draped caskets of American war dead as they arrived in the United States? Critics accused President Bush of trying to hide the terrible human cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“These young men and women are heroes,” Vice President Biden said in 2004, when he was senator from Delaware. “The idea that they are essentially snuck back into the country under the cover of night so no one can see that their casket has arrived, I just think is wrong.” Continue reading →
The heroic Glenn Greenwald smashes warmongers Arianna Huffington and Jonathan Capehart, and speaks a profound truth virtually never heard in the American media, that the US and Israel are threats to Iran, and not vice versa. (And good for host Dylan Ratigan for inviting Glenn.) Oh, and don’t miss Glenn’s commentary on his appearance.
