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Archive for March 2011

On Obama’s Libya speech: moral blackmail doesn’t trump politics

President Obama’s address to the nation on Libya last night was lengthy, but it did not really put to rest the many questions that have been raised about the military intervention in that country. We are still not clear about the mission and the endgame, why Congress was not allowed to vote on it, and […]

This week’s articles of note

“Down  the rabbit hole,” The American Interest, by Adam Garfinkle “Taming Leviathan: a special report on the future of the state,” The Economist “‘Earth Hour’ won’t change the world,” USA Today, by Bjorn Lomborg “Superficial & sublime?” The New York Review of Books, by Garry Wills [Review of All Things Shining: Reading the Western Classics […]

Video of the Babe

The New York Times reports today on the discovery of rare film footage showing baseball great Babe Ruth in 1927. Found in a basement in Illinois, the film shows Ruth “in his prime and shot from close range, sitting atop a pony while wearing a child’s cowboy hat and muttering into a home movie camera.”  Ruth was the […]

No panic over nuclear power in the US

Thumbnail : No panic over nuclear power in the US

The Pew Research Center finds that 52 percent of Americans are now opposed to the increased use of nuclear power, up from the 44 percent opposed before the radiation leakages at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear power plant.  These numbers can be read as a sign that the Japanese crisis has changed many minds. But it is important […]

The “Arab context” argument

Marc Lynch, professor at George Washington University and blogger for Foreign Policy, is one of the more thoughtful commentators. He has expressed reservations about the West’s intervention in Libya, but ultimately supports it. In his post today, Lynch highlights the “Arab context”, which he says “is essential for understanding the logic and stakes of the intervention”: Libya […]

Benghazi billboard says it all

Thumbnail : Benghazi billboard says it all

Apparently, not every Libyan rebel was asking the West to send in its military.

The idea behind the war on Libya: R2P

The policy underpinning the UN declaration on Libya is “responsibility to protect”, otherwise known as R2P. UN secretary general Ban Ki Moon called the authorization an ” ‘historic’ affirmation of the global community’s responsibility to protect people from their own government’s violence.”  According to Josh Rogin’s account of “how Obama turned on a dime toward war”, officials pushing for military intervention included […]

So it begins: West appears to kill Libyan civilians, Arab League bails out

The mission said to “protect” civilians looks like it has done the opposite. Libyan state TV has reported that 48 civilians have been killed. The Arab League and Russia are among the first to denounce the bombings. Of course, it is always possible that the Libyan regime is inventing them, as part of a propaganda war. […]

This week’s articles of note

“Media meltdown,” Cosmos, by Wilson da Silva “Man vs. wild: what Japan’s disaster can teach us about American politics,” The New Republic, by John Judis “The UN’s high stakes gamble in Libya,” Foreign Policy, by Marc Lynch “Middle East unrest: could it lead to stagflation?”, Slate, by Nouriel Roubini “Red vs. blue: the great Midwestern […]

Libya: how the West just made things worse

Thumbnail : Libya: how the West just made things worse

Sean Collins reports from New York on how the UN’s green light for military action may wreck any hope of freedom for the people of Libya. You can read my spiked article in full here.

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